Am I The Only One Who's Extremely Stressed For English Literature?

I do AQA, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls and poetry, and I have my first paper on Monday! AND IM SO STRESSED!!! I am good at English, I get mid to high 8s consistently, but I'm a scientist, I need right and wrong, I like to have a set answer that I know is right, so yeah, I don't like Lit! Has anyone got any tips for how they deal with lit anxiety, or please just feel free to rant like I have!

Original post by GraceMary17xx

I do AQA, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls and poetry, and I have my first paper on Monday! AND IM SO STRESSED!!! I am good at English, I get mid to high 8s consistently, but I'm a scientist, I need right and wrong, I like to have a set answer that I know is right, so yeah, I don't like Lit! Has anyone got any tips for how they deal with lit anxiety, or please just feel free to rant like I have!

Haha yeah I can relate entirely!! Also in the exact same situation: maths and science girl, get low/mid 8s (scores around 25 or 26/30 since schools are judging grade boundaries differently)

I pretty much follow the PEE method with some context at the end of each point, for a set plan of things. However I find, even if I do stray by mistake (which always freaks me out), I'll probably still do fine!

Are you learning quotes or just hoping you know them off the top of your head?

(Btw doing Macbeth, Jane Eyre, Lord of the Flies and Power and Conflict)

Reply 3

liam12345677

10

Lol of course you're not the only one. English literature is without a doubt the most ******** subject just on the basis of all the content you're expected to know in comparison to the amount of qualifications you get from it - yeah, triple science is a lot of content, but that's THREE GCSEs, not just one. Plus it's all subjective unlike sciences and I know that doesn't really affect the marking but it's annoying to not have a 'correct' answer so going into the exam, you're really unsure whether what you're writing will be acceptable to the examiner. Plus, this links in with the amount of content you must learn, but the questions really could be anything. We'll probably get the major characters but they could still ask about a less-major character, plus the question could be phrased in any possible way with a range of different possible themes being asked to explore.

But to answer your question, I'm really not that good at lit. I mean, I got mid 7s in the mocks but I'm really not confident with literature, especially paper 1, so I'm hoping my specific revision this weekend will help pull up my grade for Monday, and I can worry about paper 2 afterwards.

Reply 4

rbcwarburton

8

Seriously relating to being stressed out about Lit. The whole change in format to the 9-1 system completely threw the English department in my school and they felt as if they had to teach it all differently each time for the different texts. For example, way too much detail was placed into An Inspector Calls than we needed because they didn't set a proper schedule and had extra time all of a sudden, and there was a very large emphasis on context that, once again, we didn't need. Romeo and Juliet was a nightmare though - We have hardly any notes on it and didn't go over the last act. Above all, there was no set way to teaching Lit and everything was extremely rushed or painfully slow. It doesn't help either that it's hard to revise for.
Saying that though, Mr Bruff's youtube channel is great for analysing and going over the texts - Especially poetry. Although he doesn't say a lot about language, there's so much on structure and form that makes more abstract aspects of poems easier to compare. For the different themes in the texts, I've gone for making mindmaps with the Google drawing tool on Google Drive. So you'd have the theme, how the writer shows it, then a quote... Basically a broken down PEED paragraph. Then for characters I've focused on their original character description and then how develops or reiterates throughout the text on word documents - It helps when finding key quotes. Literally, trying to revise as much as I can before the exam is the only thing putting me slightly at ease.

Reply 5

C_Yap

17

Original post by GraceMary17xx

I do AQA, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls and poetry, and I have my first paper on Monday! AND IM SO STRESSED!!! I am good at English, I get mid to high 8s consistently, but I'm a scientist, I need right and wrong, I like to have a set answer that I know is right, so yeah, I don't like Lit! Has anyone got any tips for how they deal with lit anxiety, or please just feel free to rant like I have!

I got A* in Eng Lit (old spec) last year (full ums both papers) even though like you, I consider myself a scientist. I dropped English in a heartbeat since I kinda hated it too :biggrin:

. Knowing that you achieve high 8s, I'm sure you are fine. Here is some advice I'd give:

I did different books to you (Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men), so I cannot give book specific advice. To prepare for the paper, make sure you know how to structure your paragraph. I always use PEEL (Point Evidence, Evaluation, Link). It's important to have a topic sentence at the start of each paragraph and have a sentence linking back to the question at the end of each paragraph. This helps you stay focused on the question asked. You will have probably had sufficient practice on this kind of structure.

You need to know enough quotes for each theme/character present in the book. For example, in 'Lord of the Flies' I found a huge theme of innocence, and so I 3 best quotes in the novel that suited that theme. Make sure quotes you select are spread across the book (i.e. don't choose quotes from the same chapters). Under each quote, I bullet point listed stuff I could write about, making sure to comment on language techniques, connotations, effects etc. The same goes for poetry.

Also, make sure you know the amount of time you should be spending one each question so you won't fall into exam time pressure (which unfortunately happened in 1 AS exam for me the other day). Finally, don't be stressed. If you've truly done enough preparation, you should be able to walk out of the exam just fine.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 6

Pastelx

18

Original post by rbcwarburton

Seriously relating to being stressed out about Lit. The whole change in format to the 9-1 system completely threw the English department in my school and they felt as if they had to teach it all differently each time for the different texts. For example, way too much detail was placed into An Inspector Calls than we needed because they didn't set a proper schedule and had extra time all of a sudden, and there was a very large emphasis on context that, once again, we didn't need. Romeo and Juliet was a nightmare though - We have hardly any notes on it and didn't go over the last act. Above all, there was no set way to teaching Lit and everything was extremely rushed or painfully slow. It doesn't help either that it's hard to revise for.
Saying that though, Mr Bruff's youtube channel is great for analysing and going over the texts - Especially poetry. Although he doesn't say a lot about language, there's so much on structure and form that makes more abstract aspects of poems easier to compare. For the different themes in the texts, I've gone for making mindmaps with the Google drawing tool on Google Drive. So you'd have the theme, how the writer shows it, then a quote... Basically a broken down PEED paragraph. Then for characters I've focused on their original character description and then how develops or reiterates throughout the text on word documents - It helps when finding key quotes. Literally, trying to revise as much as I can before the exam is the only thing putting me slightly at ease.

Yes my English teacher had the same problem! She taught us Lord of the Flies too slowly so we rushed the last half of Jane Eyre, and we only finished with a week and a half before study leave! Also rushed about half the poems! It's rediculous, especially as they kept saying "oh we have so much more time because there's no coursework" pff yeah because you clearly showed that

I've heard Mr Bruff is really good (my English teacher recommended him after a girl in my class mentioned it) but I get bored so quickly! I can't tell if I just find him dull to listen to or the subject is boring as hell- probably both!

Reply 7

saharan_skies

17

It's okay, i'm suffering as well; doesnt help that its my first exam this year and im absolutely screaming and ******** my pants :-))))))))))

Reply 8

Quirky Object

20

Don't worry, it's a new syllabus so the grade boundaries are going to be nice and low.

I love the feeling of getting the right answer too but the subjectivity of English makes it incredibly ********table at a GCSE level, so there's that.

Reply 9

saharan_skies

17

Original post by Sonechka

Don't worry, it's a new syllabus so the grade boundaries are going to be nice and low.

I love the feeling of getting the right answer too but the subjectivity of English makes it incredibly ********table at a GCSE level, so there's that.

that really depends on how the rest of the country do :s hopefully this year its not too bad??? idk if they want us to fail or something.

Reply 10

username2703565

11

Original post by Pastelx

Haha yeah I can relate entirely!! Also in the exact same situation: maths and science girl, get low/mid 8s (scores around 25 or 26/30 since schools are judging grade boundaries differently)

I pretty much follow the PEE method with some context at the end of each point, for a set plan of things. However I find, even if I do stray by mistake (which always freaks me out), I'll probably still do fine!

Are you learning quotes or just hoping you know them off the top of your head?

(Btw doing Macbeth, Jane Eyre, Lord of the Flies and Power and Conflict)

im doing LOTF and Macbeth, what do you think the question will be :smile:

Reply 11

rbcwarburton

8

Original post by Pastelx

Yes my English teacher had the same problem! She taught us Lord of the Flies too slowly so we rushed the last half of Jane Eyre, and we only finished with a week and a half before study leave! Also rushed about half the poems! It's rediculous, especially as they kept saying "oh we have so much more time because there's no coursework" pff yeah because you clearly showed that

I've heard Mr Bruff is really good (my English teacher recommended him after a girl in my class mentioned it) but I get bored so quickly! I can't tell if I just find him dull to listen to or the subject is boring as hell- probably both!

Honestly, I think all English teachers across the country were worrying so much about grade boundaries and discussing that instead of how to teach it. Also is it just me that thinks this or do some teachers take a completely different method when marking the questions/papers than others? They probably should have carried on how they used to and then the time that would normally be allocated to coursework would be more of a 'ok what don't you know so we can go over it as a class' period of time. Half of the class don't know 3 or 4 of the poems because we were expected to know them from year 9 but very few of the English teachers actually went for that method of cramming them in a year early.

Mr Bruff kind of dull but trying. Usually its best to just have him on in the background or treat it like an actual lesson so that you're making notes in the meantime to try and engage yourself more.

Reply 12

Quirky Object

20

Original post by saharan_skies

that really depends on how the rest of the country do :s hopefully this year its not too bad??? idk if they want us to fail or something.

They don't; Michael Gove is just a nostalgic ****.

The whole country is going to be struggling as all the teachers work out how to teach the new syllabus and all the students work out how to carry out the, ahem, totally useful action of cramming 100000000000 quotations into their heads, and that'll be reflected in the boundaries. I do IGCSE and I am so, so, so glad.

Reply 13

Pastelx

18

Original post by mynameisno123

im doing LOTF and Macbeth, what do you think the question will be :smile:

Macbeth I'm really stuck after getting all the specimen material... fingers crossed for a Lady Macbeth question or a relationship question between Macbeth/Lady Macbeth
I've seen some specimen questions on horrible things like "confusion" though...what the-!?!

LotF, I'm hoping for Raph/Jack relationship/differences? Really don't want one on a symbol unless it's the island really? Again, seen some questions like "the significance of the littluns" which I couldn't write more than a page for

Reply 14

username2703565

11

Original post by Pastelx

Macbeth I'm really stuck after getting all the specimen material... fingers crossed for a Lady Macbeth question or a relationship question between Macbeth/Lady Macbeth
I've seen some specimen questions on horrible things like "confusion" though...what the-!?!

LotF, I'm hoping for Raph/Jack relationship/differences? Really don't want one on a symbol unless it's the island really? Again, seen some questions like "the significance of the littluns" which I couldn't write more than a page for

For Macbeth I want the theme of Power & LOTF either a character or the theme of civilisation. Every one sits this exam, regardless of abilities, so exam board have to keep it simple i reckon, so i doubt it would be write about littleuns! Good luck x

Reply 15

C_Yap

17

I did LOTF last year and our question was so chill :smile:

The entire essay was just talking about evil

Reply 16

Pastelx

18

Original post by mynameisno123

For Macbeth I want the theme of Power & LOTF either a character or the theme of civilisation. Every one sits this exam, regardless of abilities, so exam board have to keep it simple i reckon, so i doubt it would be write about littleuns! Good luck x

Oo power would be really good!! I'd love to be able to do something on that: manipulation, Macbeth/Lady Macbeth changing relationship, how Macbeth treats his power as king, witches...

Reply 17

username2703565

11

Original post by Pastelx

Oo power would be really good!! I'd love to be able to do something on that: manipulation, Macbeth/Lady Macbeth changing relationship, how Macbeth treats his power as king, witches...