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self-study help

Hey everyone,


For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dora and I'm a total English geek.:biggrin: I was born and brought up in Hungary, but I pretty much grew up with three languages, English being one of them. I have a great passion for the English language and the literature it produced, I'd even go as far as to say I prefer English over my first language.
I have read extensively over the past few years. I enjoy literature from all eras, from Shakespeare through Defoe to Dickens, so I don't really have a 'favourite' period of literature, but I did have to pick one, I'd choose either the Romantic or the Victorian period.

I've been teaching myself literature by using websites like sparknotes.com, as well as GCSE textbooks. I'm also teaching myself middle English in order to fully understand Shakespeare and the archaisms in Romantic poetry.

As some of you might already know, I've applied to do A-levels at a college in Plymouth in order to get a place studying English (lit and lang) at a top university. I might have mentioned this a few times, but just in case you're unaware, I've been blind since I was born, but this doesn't stop me from trying to achieve my goals.
By the time I start college, I would like to be able to write at least a GCSE level essay. Apart from GCSE textbooks, what other resources/websites can I use? I'm asking this because I'm aiming for Oxbridge, for which I will need straight As, so I want to make sure I'm at GCSE level. This may sound crazy, but I'm a quick learner and am very passionate about both language and literature, so I should be fine.

Any help you could give me would be appreciated. I will thank you in person when I get to England! :smile:
I'd also be very thankful if you could post one of your GCSE level essays or give me a link where I could find some.
(edited 9 years ago)
Hi, I am a english literature student at A level so hopefully I can help you. A big thing in literature is interpreting the text (poems, novels etc). I personally like the york notes revision guides as they go through texts in a lot of detail. You can also find a lot of help on cliff notes and a website called shmoop. The student room also has resources in the GCSE or A level revision section of english. BBC bitesize is another useful website and they have videos too on some of the texts. When revising for my GCSE's i watched youtube videos from a channel called 'mrbruff'. He interprets texts, tells you how to answer questions and explains texts in a lot of detail too. He also has a e-book which is useful although his videos contain a lot of information anyways so you dont necessarily have to buy his book.

You seem really determined to go to an oxbridge university and study english so i recommend going to english lectures, starting a blog or doing anything english related as you will need to write this on your personal statement. Im not sure if they have public lecture where you are living but in London they have public lectures about a lot of different subjects at many universities. so you could perhaps go to some to extend your learning and get an insight into english literature and language at higher education.

hope that was helpful. if you need anything else do let me know :smile:
If you want a really good set of resources for English Literature, check out MASSOLIT (www.massolit.co.uk). It has quite a few courses on a whole range of English Literature topics and they tend to be presented by Oxbridge academics. If you're serious about applying to Oxbridge in a couple of years time, these videos are a little bit more credible than things like York Notes, Spark Notes, etc.
Thank you for your replies.
As I'm blind, I don't think I'd be able to see the videos you recommended me. I'm quite well-read, I've read most of the classics, I just want to be sure I'm at GCSE level at least.
Thank you so much everyone!

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