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How to study for English Language exam

I have got an english language exam this november for poems from different cultures and I am completely unaware of how to study for this, and I need tips from people who are doing this exam and how they managed to study for it.

Reply 1

Junaid16

I got an 'A' and all i did was annotate the poems and then write as many practise essays as possible.Oh and study the mark scheme in- depth, make sure you have good coursework aswell.

Reply 2

daisy_1

a level? for my english exams all I ever did was make a massive list of terms and learnt them, then applied them in the exam.

I didn't, got an A*.

Just annotate the poems, indicate themes, motivation of the author, point of the whole poem; is it trying to provoke a response from you?

Try some past papers.

Tip : make obscure points about the authors life and experience and how it relates to the text. Then say something like "oh, the author wants us to sympathise with him by using the extreme emotive language through the text; he wants change in the world (racism etc etc).

But if you would like to stress yourself, then describe the effect on the reader, was the author/poet trying to gather a response, e.g. make the reader shocked at the plight of the slaves (Limbo). Make sure to include why the author/poet's life experiences may have influenced their content in their texts, and of course how.

Structure, form, language are key when analyzing.

You need to think about the effect on the reader, why a specific technique is used e.g enjambment indicates broken person, think about why the poet has mentioned something e.g. their life experiences. Try and offer different interpretations to a quote, like one person may think this, but another may think differently...

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These have been all my posts relating to the Language and Literature exam so there will be overlap...

I got A*
Happy to help.

Reply 5

xoxAngel_Kxox

Do practice papers and be very very nice to your teachers and ask them to have a look at them for you & see where you could improve.

Edit: I got an A in Y10 for this paper. Might have been able to get the A* if I hadn't taken it a year early, who knows.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 6

tehforum

Gemma :)!

What was the point of taking a pretty much core exam one year early?

Reply 7

Junaid16

tehforum

What was the point of taking a pretty much core exam one year early?

She was capable of an 'A', which is a pretty good grade :confused:

Reply 8

tehforum

If you know are you capable a year early of getting an A, surely it's worthwhile to stick it out to the end for an A* by honing the skills.

Reply 9

swahmad

lilzoldier

I'm in the same boat as you. We pretty much just do all preparation in class.

Reply 10

xoxAngel_Kxox

tehforum

What was the point of taking a pretty much core exam one year early?

It was a test by the English department to do Lang in Y10 then Lit in Y11- so we weren't confusing the subjects. I wasn't really upset about an A grade- if you look at the rest of my GCSE grades it was pretty average of me.

Reply 11

Miss Attitude

learn the poems and the differnt specific language used in them, the theme and the attitude and feelings.
i just geneally learnt then and kept a couple of them in my head such as the affliction of magaret as i had seen it had come up a couple of times on previous exam papers and GUESS WHAT? it came up, oh well i got B/B fot english so all gud!
best of luck!