How do I improve on my English grade

I'm a year 10 student
My target grade is a 8
But right now I'm on a 6+ I try really hard on my analysis and evaluation but I'm not quite there

I'm a year 10 student
My target grade is a 8
But right now I'm on a 6+ I try really hard on my analysis and evaluation but I'm not quite there

wow! being at a grade 6 in year 10 is so good! I was working at a level 3 at the start of year 11, but ended up with an 8 overall in the real exam I would recommend you watching stacey raey on youtube, she has great level 9 ideas. Mr bruff is also good too! Practicing your exam technique, i.e. timing would be useful, I know many in the real exam who got timed out so was unable to finish the paper. Learn some fancy vocab and techniques, that seemed to help me score high. Think of ideas which are "out of the box" - ones that not everyone would be able to write about, that really impresses the examiner.

I used to embed lots of quotes within my main body paragraphs, this then allowed me to analyse lots of different things easily. I also selected quotes which could be analysed well, i.e. ones that have multiple techniques, think about the structure of them too?

Maybe read a few exemplars to see how they got high marks too!

Hope this helps. I definitely think you should aim higher than an 8, seeing as you are working at a 6 now!!!

What about English language, how did you revise for that? Especially creative writing please

english language, well what I did was memorise a descriptive/narrative piece of writing which could be easily adapted to any question. I made sure I memorised a piece of writing which scored a good level (I would say 35/40 is a great mark), BUT this has to be your own piece of writing you memorise, as you could be plagarised if you copy someone elses.

I also looked up some fancy vocab too and also techniques.

I mainly practiced past papers before, to ensure that I could answer the short q's well. For structure, you definitely need to make sure you can analyse quotes and techniques well (i.e. enjabment, does it zoom in or out, character focus?)

If you are working at a low grade, please do not stress. During the december mocks when I was in year 11, I got a 4 in english language (level 3 in the first paper and a 4 in paper 2), but in the real thing I got a 9 in paper 1 and an 8 in paper 2. So, there is always time for improvement!!!

Hope this helps!

In terms of your descriptive/narrative writing did you lean towards a dark or bright narrative/description? How long did it take you to write and memorise? Also I have my mocks in around 2 weeks time, would you say that is enough time to improve?

both! haha
I juxtaposed light with dark... quite literally! Used pathetic fallacy a lot with this piece of writing. In the real exam, I wrote about 2 pages and a few sentences which isn't a lot, which scored 35/40- so quality of over quantity in this case! Probably spent around 30-40 minutes writing it, I chose the descriptive piece as I always found that one easier. 2 weeks should be plenty of time to revise for english language, I didn't revise much for this exam to be honest with you. But there is always time to improve, as long as you are willing to put in the effort (by the sounds of it, I think you will ).

My biggest tip is... think outside of the box, in my exam there was this fruit stall, I started making up things that weren't even reflected in the image (i.e. I talked about how there was a widow on a bench crying).

Okay, thank you so much. I'll try to think of something and hopefully get my teacher to mark it. I guess I'm mostly worried because I've always kind of loved english but I'm not so good when it comes to descriptive writing - especially when it's timed and on the spot. I love reading but I find that I can't always emulate the emotions or level of detail that authors do when writing. I'll try my best anyways and hopefully it's a dark photo that comes up because I find that it's easier to describe sinister things than perhaps a festival.

that is great that you love reading, as you can "borrow" a few ideas from things that you read. That is a good idea that you are going to ask your teacher to mark a draft
well best of luck with english! English strangely was one of my weakest subject... but ended up being my strongest subject on results day. My english teacher even tried to persuade me to take it at alevel

aww, so what subjects are you doing for alevel?

economics, geography and media studies. Would say that they are all essay based subjects, so english gcse has helped a lot Are you planning on doing alevels?

yes, I plan on doing maths, chemistry and psychology - I feel like with psychology I'll also need my English skills cos it's an essay based subject. Good luck with your alevels though, do you know what you want to be when you're older?

I'm a year 10 student
My target grade is a 8
But right now I'm on a 6+ I try really hard on my analysis and evaluation but I'm not quite there

yesss! all of my friends are always talking about 12 mark psychology essays. Your alevels are like the complete opposite to mine haha

This year I applied to do business management / marketing and management at uni, so maybe something in that field. I had work experience in marketing and liked it a lot, but I guess I could always change my mind and go for a completely different career.

well good luck with your gcses and your alevels in the future do you know what you want to study at uni (maybe a bit too early to ask!!) or even a possible career?