GCSE English Revision Help

I'd have said past papers/individual questions on past papers were the best things to do for English language revision. For the second paper in my IGCSE I decided to do the narrative question at the end and practised writing short stories under the time limit without going over the word count. That helped a bunch. Also, closer analysis - just practice analysing texts. You could revise the terminology too.

For English lit, well, go over the texts and make analytical notes. The better you know the texts and your own notes the better. For the poems I was studying, I wrote them out one by one in a notebook and covered the page in notes - like, the effect of alliteration, the mirroring of the structure of the first stanza in the last, the irregular break in an otherwise regular rhyme scheme, etc. Whatever question you get, structural/language-based points like those should contribute to it. Look up the analysis other people have done - for example, for my IGCSE, I found the Thomas Hardy Society website very useful.

Hope that helps!

How do you study for English literature and language GCSE exams?
I have got English lit mocks on the second week of February and no idea how to even begin revising.
We have not been told what revision guides to get.
I'm really struggling so if anyone can help I'd be so grateful.
Thanks

I don't think the revision guides are so good for English. English Lit is more about learning quotes and being analytical about them, so pick out a few of your favourite quotes from each character (they can be really small) and analyse them. Maybe use flashcards to help you remember them. This will give you a good base to put your essay on. You should also look at some examples, there should be some on the internet (there will definitely be an exemplar at least) and you can ask your teacher - I'm sure they'll have some lying around.

English Language, as far as I can remember it from GCSE (I'm currently studying it at A2) is about skills, so really all you can do with that is practice, practice, practice.

For literature it's really just knowing what you're talking about. Read the set texts multiple times and make notes on them, then just learn a bunch of quotes so you're ready for whatever question they throw at you.
Language is a bit different to revise, I'd say just read anything you can- 20 and 21st century stuff for fiction, because (at least on my exam board) you get a question on both. Print out articles from any site on the internet for non-fiction and just practice picking out phrases and commenting on them and their purpose, especially whilst using terminology. The more you do this, the easier it'll be for you to do it during your exam.
But everyone's in the same boat so don't worry too much, english is hard to revise for, I mostly just wing it... :// hope this helps!

Thank you for this. I think I will pick out quotes and analyse them. That's a weak point for me.
Thanks again.