How to revise English Literature?

I have no idea how to revise English Lit other than knowing context facts and where a certain quote is from. Please help I need to get a grade 7

Hi there, I run a YouTube channel where I post weekly English Lit study videos - recently did a collaboration with Mr Salles (one of the biggest GCSE lang and lit YouTubers) on 'How to revise for English Lit'. See if our tips help you?

How to revise for English Literature - Part I
How to revise for English Literature - Part II

recommend cgp books
they have really fun ways to learn quotes and have the themes organised neatly
good buy imo

I have no idea how to revise English Lit other than knowing context facts and where a certain quote is from. Please help I need to get a grade 7

Hi! I am currently doing an English Lit degree, I got A* across both GCSE and A Level and I am here to tell you that mind maps are your best friend.

For each text, make mind maps on themes (using lots of nice coloured pens makes the whole experience so much more fun!) Then, I would find a few quotes for each theme which you can begin practising (but memorise closer to the time). Remember, don't panic in exams if you forget an entire quote, in fact, it is better if you "blend" the quotes in a sentence, just dropping in key phrases from the quote in quotation marks so that it fits nicely into the sentence/argument you're making, rather than writing the whole thing.

When writing essays at GCSE (and A Level, with a few extra steps), you want to make your argument clear in the intro, then roughly do 2 paragraphs in favour of your argument and one against. But in the argument against paragraph, make sure that at the end of the paragraph you counter it, and state why it is a weak argument against your own, and why your argument ultimately prevails.

For me, essay writing came naturally, but the memorising was the most difficult. If you struggle with essay writing, a quicker way to revise is to make essay plans for various questions (looking at past papers might help). Write 1 sentence stating your argument then bullet point what you'd put in each paragraph, and finally, how you'd wrap it all up in the argument. This will help with quotes as well, as you'll start trying to integrate which quotes would go in which paragraph in the plan, and when it comes to the real thing, you will be able to knock a plan together in about 3 minutes and be much more confident writing the essay.

I will say at GCSE and A Level, I revised as I went along and when it came to exam season, pretty much just read my notes the night before. It was my easiest subject. Don't overthink how to revise it, as long as you know a basic essay structure for each type of question (evaluation, comparison etc.) and some general quotes and context for each text (they're not expecting you to know everything inside out, just key snappy bits of info) you will be completely fine

do you know where to find the context from? i find that the hardest bit, especially as I don't take History as a GCSE subject and all the books I have to learn - Macbeth, A Christmas carol and an inspector calls - require quite a bit of context?
I might start making mind maps, quite a few people have mentioned doing that now.
thankyou so much!