AQA English Literature - Inspector calls, A Christmas carol and Macbeth

Currently a month away from my GCSE and was wondering what are the best ways to learn important quotes for the books (this could include poetry as well)? I am struggling to figure out what I should learn and what I shouldn't. (Any revision resources would be good )

one way is to create a mind map of 5 quotes per character and theme and put it on your wall.
another way is to draw the quote out and you have to work out what it is

Flashcards are awesome have quotes specific for each person in the book/play and separate ones for each poem.

Use the quotes in everyday speech - this one is a little more difficult, but my English teacher from last year suggested it.

Add post-it notes with a quote each to places you visit often, e.g. your bathroom mirror, on the fridge, near the TV etc... Because you seem them frequently and keep reading them, it'll help you to learn them easier.

One thing that helped for Macbeth quotes was a postcard we have on the fridge of Glamis Castle. Every time I waked past it, it made me think of Macbeth quotes.

For actual specific quotes here are my recommendations:

An Inspector Calls:
A card for each character
A card for each of the themes
A card for context
A card for quotes that link to context
A card for any others you thing are useful

Macbeth:
A card for each character
A card for each theme
A card for contextual knowledge (e.g. who was the play written for, what was the time period, etc)
A card for any other story can analyse well

Poems:
A separate card for each prom
Included a few quotes for the themes, a few bit did context (if you have any), and any quotes that you can analyse well
Also include a general look of techniques for the whole poem, e.g. Structure, tone, punctuation

In short, use quotes that are relevant but also ones you can analyse well to get lots of information from.

Hope this helps and good luck with your GCSEs!!!

JAC

P.s I was part of the year that did the new spec last year (grade 1-9 system) so feel free to ask for any more advice on that front.

Definitely will try the post it note thing.
Also since you did the new spec, how was it? was it hard or easier than you think because this is the exam im most panicked about. And do you have any tips for when you are actually in the test for working out what poem to compare it too?

Look at which poems have similar themes. Those ones are often easier to compare because you can say poem A says this and so does poem B, but B uses this technique and A uses this different one. It also means you already have something that is similar between them, now all you need to do is look at the differences, e.g structure, techniques used, rhyme pattern (if any).

I did the Love and Relationships cluster for my exam. incredibly, the day before we had down a poem comparison in English. It was between the poem that would later be in the exam and another one. Of course, I used the poem we had compared it to because we had already gone through it. Luck there, but there is also an idea. Go through your poems and make bullet point lists to compare different ones. That way, you already know which poems are easier to compare which other. Being prepared like that is a great tactic.

I think the exam was better than I expected, if only for the fact that I was very lucky with the poem actually used in the exam. It's all about keeping a level head and remembering to add annotations to your extract in the exam. It can help get you into 'exam-mode' by making you think about what the extract actually says and how you're going to tackle the question.

Just stay calm, revise well, and remember to also take breaks in your revision. As long as you are prepared you'll be fine.

JAC

Hi, I also did AQA English Lit
Doing Macbeth, and Inspector Calls and Jekyll and Hyde, I got a 9, so I can help you a bit with the former 2.

With Macbeth. It's all about themes themes themes! Legit just spamming points about the supernatural themes/womens roles/etc, additionally context goes a long way, talking about the Jacobean society in which the play was written in, I highly suggest watching Mr Bruff for examples and tutorials about how you can set out your exam technique so you can set out your responses in a way that maximises marks. You don't even have to memorise a bunch of quotes, just the ones that give the best support for your quotes, moreso with Macbeth, try your best to truly understand the characters and their hidden motives, then tie that into everything else and boom.

An Inspector Calls is the same, the themes this time being things like class divide, 20th Century early Britain, womens roles, etc. As well, something that may play into advantage is being a short play with less characters you can truly analyse and understand both of them to try and visualise the play's events from their point of view and think as they are thinking, to understand their motives. Again Mr Bruff!

For poetry, some textbooks may have this, but I made one for myself, themes of everything (we did Power and Conflict), then, which poems fit this theme, by having a table like this, and seeing which poems fit what, it makes it immensely easy to quickly find poems you can pair up and compare to come exam day, you still have plenty of time now, considering most of my hard revision was a couple of days up to, and on, the day of the exams. I suggest slowly learning quotes, and devising themes and points, as well as the odd contextual gem, about your poems, don't forget to read into the narrator and author too!

Thanks (a little bit jealous.) You have given me a lot of ideas that I plan to work on. I will let you know how it goes

Flashcards are awesome have quotes specific for each person in the book/play and separate ones for each poem.

Use the quotes in everyday speech - this one is a little more difficult, but my English teacher from last year suggested it.

Add post-it notes with a quote each to places you visit often, e.g. your bathroom mirror, on the fridge, near the TV etc... Because you seem them frequently and keep reading them, it'll help you to learn them easier.

One thing that helped for Macbeth quotes was a postcard we have on the fridge of Glamis Castle. Every time I waked past it, it made me think of Macbeth quotes.

For actual specific quotes here are my recommendations:

An Inspector Calls:
A card for each character
A card for each of the themes
A card for context
A card for quotes that link to context
A card for any others you thing are useful

Macbeth:
A card for each character
A card for each theme
A card for contextual knowledge (e.g. who was the play written for, what was the time period, etc)
A card for any other story can analyse well

Poems:
A separate card for each prom
Included a few quotes for the themes, a few bit did context (if you have any), and any quotes that you can analyse well
Also include a general look of techniques for the whole poem, e.g. Structure, tone, punctuation

In short, use quotes that are relevant but also ones you can analyse well to get lots of information from.

Hope this helps and good luck with your GCSEs!!!

JAC

P.s I was part of the year that did the new spec last year (grade 1-9 system) so feel free to ask for any more advice on that front.

Do you remember what the questions were last year for IAC and Macbeth? Thanks

Oh ... good question.

I believe there was a Macbeth question about power, with the extract between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. It did happen nearly a year ago, so I'm not entirely sure.

Again, Inspector Calls questions were likely on characters, themes, etc but I can't really remember the specifics.

If you want practice questions, look at analysing how a certain theme is shown across an extract and/or the whole text, and pick an extract, character, and attribute and analyse how the extract shows that attribute in the character.

Sorry that I can't be more help remembering the actual questions, but they do usually tend to be about characters (how they are represented), and how themes are shown.


JAC