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First english lit controlled assessment, any tips?

Soon I have my first English Literature Controlled Assessment for GCSE, looking at at John Proctor's character development throughout the play 'The Crucible'. Any tips on how to access the higher bands? First time using the forums, so if I've done anything wrong, please don't hesitate to tell me :smile:
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Original post by fw431
Soon I have my first English Literature Controlled Assessment for GCSE, looking at at John Proctor's character development throughout the play 'The Crucible'. Any tips on how to access the higher bands? First time using the forums, so if I've done anything wrong, please don't hesitate to tell me :smile:


Forward plan like mad! I hated English and didn't consider myself to be good at it at all, but a couple of weeks before the CA I gathered all my notes that my teacher gave me, had the texts in front of me and spent a bit of time planning out the points I wanted to make and if I had time I'd draft an essay and learn bits of it (the better parts of it...!) to just regurgitate during the assessment. Make special use of the notes that they allow you and ensure you're well prepped.
As for the higher bands, have a look at the specifications and they mostly tell you to write with sophistication, have developed points that are varied.

I'm sure you'll do great.
Best tip anyone could give you is to practice, make sure your plan WORKS. Take you plan, your copy of the text (no notes in it) and practice writing paragraphs from your plan. Time yourself, keep doing it until you are confident that your plan works. I can't really help with the high band stuff seeing as I'm predicted a B in Lit.
I don't know what exam board you are, but I am AQA English Literature. I've literally just done the coursework and got 40/40 so maybe I can help, but I studied Shakespeare for it.

For me the best thing to do was to pick the four/five key aspects of the play. Since I haven't studied the Crucible I can't tell you them, but the really influential scene that are the most important towards the particular character. Go through each passage and analyse what you can. Try finding more than one meaning for something, as this gains you more marks and shows that you can think of more than one viewpoint. Close analysis is a key thing needed for the A/A* area. This basically means you have to analyse in detail around one idea of concept, or so I gather. Just think of more than one meaning for something. Analyse language, structure and form and include a range of literary devices.

Also, make sure you write in detail. It is much better to have 4 in detail points then to cover the whole play and only scratch the surface.
Original post by iWillWalker23
I don't know what exam board you are, but I am AQA English Literature. I've literally just done the coursework and got 40/40 so maybe I can help, but I studied Shakespeare for it.

For me the best thing to do was to pick the four/five key aspects of the play. Since I haven't studied the Crucible I can't tell you them, but the really influential scene that are the most important towards the particular character. Go through each passage and analyse what you can. Try finding more than one meaning for something, as this gains you more marks and shows that you can think of more than one viewpoint. Close analysis is a key thing needed for the A/A* area. This basically means you have to analyse in detail around one idea of concept, or so I gather. Just think of more than one meaning for something. Analyse language, structure and form and include a range of literary devices.

Also, make sure you write in detail. It is much better to have 4 in detail points then to cover the whole play and only scratch the surface.


Hey im about to do my english lit controlled assesment on an inspector calls. I have a week to plan, write and memorise the essay on tips for A*? ie layout for solid paragraphs for fullmarks and formula for fool-proof comparison?

thnks a lot

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