9's at GCSE English - AMA + Advice

I'll be posting my notes tomorrow so you can see what I did, but I definitely think its important to at least do notes for the main characters, if you follow the advice in my original post for Inspector Calls and say do an extra section of main quotes you've already used and highlight them as key theme quotes that may help but near the end for my other texts (I remember ending up finishing my essay plans like 2 days before my exam -THE STRESS!!) I ended up typing them up and just doing pure summaries and whatnot, its better to write stuff out ifi you have issues remembering stuff/want it to be as easy as possible, but if you really need to then just type it out


In all honesty you have way more than enough time to do your notes now, I know it looks like a lot but what I did was create a checklist of all essay plans and possible questions (okay not ALL just the main ones) and once you start chipping away slowly at them you'll feel much better. When you physically write it down you'll realise your mind just has a way of dramaticising everything

You know how the questions can be so random, how do you prepare for a (basically) irrelevant question? And what technique did you use to remember quotes? Congrats on your grades though! I was predicted an 8 but at this point will be happy with 6s😂
What tips would you give some who struggles in English (eg for essay writing and ‘fancy’ words etc?)

ok thank you!
btw, do you think it’s also worth making mindmaps about structure & narrative in the novel/plays or is it mostly the themes and characters that are important

ayeee well done matey!
Okay so for your first question, I'd say get together with a friend or teacher or even by yourself and write a big long list of every single question availible, then choose the ones most likely, then choose maybe the odd one here and there that could possible come up. Tbh, if a question seems irrelevant it probably isnt, its just a normal question in disguise.

check my table technique that I used for Inspector Calls, the process of carefully picking out quotes and writing it down really helps

finally, to get better at writing I would say read read read! read classics, articles, things that your teachers have written, that way when you write things yourself you can hear how you should write it in your head

Thank you!

What method would you recommend for learning quotes? I don't feel like simply memorising short-term for my mock exams now will help me in the real exams so how would you get all of them in your head?

Thank you! (Year 11 student stressing out about mock exams)

check out my technique for An Inspector Calls, you'll find that the whole process of finding a quote, picking it out for a certain point and writing it down and doing PEEL really helps -learnt probably a total of 150ish quotes overall maybe? not that I needed it, but bc of how well I knew my texts (Except Silas Marner omg I'm so lucky w that)

Wow this is so useful thanks so much! I was just wondering how did you quote during your exam. Did you learn the entire poems or just sections to quote? Or did you not quote at all thanks so much

Honestly bless you! Thank you so much!! I’m glad I’m in Year 10 so I can practice and try out what you did.

I have my mocks in two days and I’m completely stuck and stressed out on what to do. We’re doing ‘A Christmas Carol’ and so far I don’t understand much and have no idea for quotes.

Do you think I have enough time to get prepared for my Eng Lit and Lang mock?
Also during my exams my mind goes blank and I only manage to write 2 good quality paragraphs in 1 hour (half 1 side of A4). That is appalling and I just don’t know what to do anymore.

I can’t think of any good quotes for ‘A Christmas Carol’ and I have no idea how to actually structure my answers or how to link back to the question.
Any advice/tips please?

If you're in year 10 then honestly dont stress out! I know its kind of annoying when a-level students tell you not to worry/invalidate ur exams, but you honestly dont need to stress as much, but well done on starting your revision early, you definitely have a good headstart than most.
Also, focus on quality not quantity, i had a friend who wrote 4 sides and I wrote 2, I felt stressed that I hadnt written enough but I got an 8 (class essay) and she got a 6, focus on the content that you write raather than how much. As you practise more, and get more confident with writing essays, it'll come easier to you
I didnt do Christmas Carol however, follow my tips and methods for Macbeth by focusing on themes and characters and producing summarys of all, to link to the question in your essays, try and echo the words the question uses, eg.
'How is Lady Macbeth presented in xyz?'
youd say, This presents Lady macbeth as or, the presentation of Lady Macbeth is....

Thank you so much for your response! Also sorry for asking but do you have any tips for English Language? Especially reading comprehensions, because I can never finish on time and find it sometimes difficult to answer the 10 mark questions and keep my sentences short. My exam board is WJEC.

Do you also have any advice/tips for doing English Language reading comprehensions?

Haiii, dont worry about it, Im here to help I also did WJEC, tbh I was too relaxed when it came to English Language, but that was mostly due to the fact I put all of my effort into the lessons so I owuldnt have to at home. Practise doing short questions, or instead of writing out ur answers, bullet point ur answers briefly, for Language it literally is just about practise because other than being comfortable with wrting different things such as letters or speeches, there isnt a way to revise. Focus on ur AO's, andensure that every sentence you write is concise and has a reason to be there, honestly just keep practcing, it seems hard at the moment but you'll find that the examiners are pretty nice when it comes to marking, they want you to do well!

Thank you for your help again (^~^ ) I’ll guess I’ll start practicing after mocks. It’s too late for me to practice now since my mocks are in 2 days.

@CoffeeAndPolitics not sure if I tagged the right person....would it be cheeky to ask if I could get this thread sticky noted?I keep seeing loads of threads asking for help and I think this would definitely reduce the number of repetitive questions

@CoffeeAndPolitics not sure if I tagged the right person....would it be cheeky to ask if I could get this thread sticky noted?I keep seeing loads of threads asking for help and I think this would definitely reduce the number of repetitive questions

I do have the powers to make this thread sticky but I would only make it sticky if it’s extremely useful, i.e. revision tips or websites.

CC: @Lemur14 Any thoughts?!?

I’ll let you know what I think asap.

I'll ask for you The English forum does have a ridiculous level of stickies so they could do with a sort through anyway!

See above