A LEVEL ENGLISH ESSAY help-

Does anyone know how to get an A at AS english????? Really needs tips/essay structure help/ what to include- tips to get an A

Hi, I'm in A2 currently studying the 2015 Edexcel English Literature specification. I got an A at GCSE (got A*s in two units and then messed up my timing in my last exam), and an A at AS.

I'm going to assume you do English Literature, not English Language as you didn't specify.

1. Write essays in timed conditions and hand them to your teacher. I know it's a lot with all of your current homework and whatnot, but feedback from your teacher will be really helpful. Also ask them to give you a grade for it.

2. Buy York Notes for texts that have them. Honestly, they're a lifesaver - even if you already have an abundance of notes for your text, York Notes will often point stuff out you may not have realised. It also makes long texts easier to understand, and they're pretty cheap too, costing £6-£8 per text.

3. Try not to rush. English is a subject which requires time to develop your ability - it's often counterproductive to try and force an essay or revision session into a short period of time.

4. Look at exemplars. If your on Edexcel like me, they have tons of exemplar material which shows you what top band answers look like - this should be really helpful if you're aiming for top grades.

5. Read the examiner reports - there may not be many out yet for the new specifications, but examiner reports are literally written by the people who mark your exam. It's a no-brainer, telling you what they want to see and what they don't want to see.

Thank you so much!!! What texts are you studying

Year 1/AS:

Prose:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
(Theme is Women in Society)

Drama:
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Poetry:
Poems of the Decade - Post-2000 Specified Poetry

Year 2:

Drama:
Hamlet

Poetry:
Romanticism (hate this topic so much, no clue why my sixth form would choose this)

Coursework: (chosen by me)
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
(Theme is war)

Nice, im on AQA, good luck!!! How are you revising?

Currently working on my coursework, so not doing much revision. But normally it's by giving in essays to my teacher, reading York Notes and making my own notes on each text.

I have to admit I normally do more work for my other subjects as they're more time-consuming (I'm also far more naturally gifted at English than I am at Maths, for example).