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GCSE English Language P1 help

I'm going into yr 10 and I really struggle with English language. I'm targeted a 7 but on my end of year mock I got a 3. Does anyone know how I can increase my grades?

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I wouldn’t worry about the 3, you can change ur grades soooo much if u work for it. English language is hard to revise for but practice papers is best and getting the formula right for each question then - how many paragraphs/what to include
Original post by Examhelpp
I'm going into yr 10 and I really struggle with English language. I'm targeted a 7 but on my end of year mock I got a 3. Does anyone know how I can increase my grades?


Don’t worry about the grade I was the same going into year 11, just work super hard and know loads of different words to use, try past papers and know all of the terms (the different lists, adverbs adjectives etc) if you need any help just message me and I can help you! Just left year 11 and going into college, predicted a 7/8 on my results :smile:
Reply 3
Watch Mr Bruff on You Tube and if you can afford it down load his book (Β£5 ish) from his website.

Do use the revision guide for the board you are doing, I also did this:

Mind map for each paper - what each question was about and what I had to do in each.
Mind map the technical devices.
Mind map sentence structure.
Make a chart up with the terms I needed to know, what they meant, and how they effected the reader
Use Index cards to self test and also revise in spare time (ie waiting at the bus stop or travel time).

Read across the centuries that the exam would cover, and also newspapers/magazines to analyse how they were designed and the flow of the piece.

Learnt the discourse markers and how to look for inferred meaning which gives you extra marks; also the pyramid type marking scheme (ie to get a base level you need to use paragraphs and thus can move up to the next level).

I also would pick a page from any book and use it l like an exam text.

I hope that helps.
As long as you know your language and structural devices/terminology you should be fine. I would go over the techniques and then practice spotting them in past papers.
Reply 5
Original post by ellie25643
I wouldn’t worry about the 3, you can change ur grades soooo much if u work for it. English language is hard to revise for but practice papers is best and getting the formula right for each question then - how many paragraphs/what to include

Thank you so much
Reply 6
Original post by lucieeliz
Don’t worry about the grade I was the same going into year 11, just work super hard and know loads of different words to use, try past papers and know all of the terms (the different lists, adverbs adjectives etc) if you need any help just message me and I can help you! Just left year 11 and going into college, predicted a 7/8 on my results :smile:

Thank youuu :smile: English language is my worst subject, I'd rlly do with some help! Hope u get ur predicted grades ✨
Reply 7
Original post by Purdy7
Watch Mr Bruff on You Tube and if you can afford it down load his book (Β£5 ish) from his website.

Do use the revision guide for the board you are doing, I also did this:

Mind map for each paper - what each question was about and what I had to do in each.
Mind map the technical devices.
Mind map sentence structure.
Make a chart up with the terms I needed to know, what they meant, and how they effected the reader
Use Index cards to self test and also revise in spare time (ie waiting at the bus stop or travel time).

Read across the centuries that the exam would cover, and also newspapers/magazines to analyse how they were designed and the flow of the piece.

Learnt the discourse markers and how to look for inferred meaning which gives you extra marks; also the pyramid type marking scheme (ie to get a base level you need to use paragraphs and thus can move up to the next level).

I also would pick a page from any book and use it l like an exam text.

I hope that helps.

Thank youu ✨ I already watch mr bruff but I'll definitely try the mind maps :smile:
Reply 8
Original post by Assembly
As long as you know your language and structural devices/terminology you should be fine. I would go over the techniques and then practice spotting them in past papers.

Thank youu ✨ I'll try that aswell :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by Examhelpp
I'm going into yr 10 and I really struggle with English language. I'm targeted a 7 but on my end of year mock I got a 3. Does anyone know how I can increase my grades?


Oh no! :frown: Do you know what went wrong and have you spoken to your teacher about what you can do next? I recommend Mr Bruff and Stacey Reay on YouTube for English revision.
Reply 10
Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics
Oh no! :frown: Do you know what went wrong and have you spoken to your teacher about what you can do next? I recommend Mr Bruff and Stacey Reay on YouTube for English revision.

Well, I was quite confused since it was my first mock and I didn't know how to answer the questions. I'm really bad at description and jumped from question to question without know what I was doing. My teacher said I need to concentrate on exam techniques, but I don't rlly know how.. Anyways, thank you for ur recommendations, I already watch Mr Bruff, but I'll try watching Stacy Reay :smile: ✨
Reply 11
Original post by Examhelpp
Well, I was quite confused since it was my first mock and I didn't know how to answer the questions. I'm really bad at description and jumped from question to question without know what I was doing. My teacher said I need to concentrate on exam techniques, but I don't rlly know how.. Anyways, thank you for ur recommendations, I already watch Mr Bruff, but I'll try watching Stacy Reay :smile: ✨


IIRC it may be helpful to do the questions in the following order Q1,Q3,Q2,Q4,Q5 which was the advice I got when I did my GCSEs last year. Obviously you can do whatever question you want first - Q5,Q1,Q3,Q4 is another logical order you can do it in. Try watching Stacey Reay - I know Mr Bruff has some videos on questions and exam techniques which you can watch. :smile:
Miss hannah loves grammar gives simple videos that could help a lot
I can actually help with this a little! Plan the second half before you get into the exam. Most stories can be adapted easily for a prompt. For example, I always wrote about the discovery of a body. If you like the image, I wrote about a body being dumped there or discovered there (waterfall? it’s in the lake at the bottom. car on an icy road? the body is in the boot on its way to be hidden.) If I liked the written prompt I’d just use that. (In my mock, I got the prompt β€˜the title is Discovery’ so that was easy. In my exam the prompt was β€˜an unexpected ending’, so I wrote about an unassuming family and made the murder a surprise until the end.)

If you practise whatever story you choose, and just adapt it a little for each prompt, I can absolutely promise you that your grade will improve because instead of having to think about a good plot you will be able to focus on structures and vocabulary.

There’s a few videos on youtube that summarise tips for English Language - especially the opinion piece in P2. A few of them are:

Use a one sentence paragraph - shows awareness of structure.
Use alliteration where possible.
Spend time brainstorming before you start writing so you can plan the paragraphs in order.


Good luck! And don’t worry too much - I started off at a Grade 5 and got a Grade 8 in my last mock for language. I doubt I’ve done that well in my actual exam but oh well :smile:
Do past papers (as many have mentioned) but the real secret is looking at the mark schemes and model answers provided by the exam board and seeing exactly what it is that examiners want to see e.g. techniques used. Then repeat with more practise questions etc. Helped me so much last year with English. Good luck
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 15
Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics
IIRC it may be helpful to do the questions in the following order Q1,Q3,Q2,Q4,Q5 which was the advice I got when I did my GCSEs last year. Obviously you can do whatever question you want first - Q5,Q1,Q3,Q4 is another logical order you can do it in. Try watching Stacey Reay - I know Mr Bruff has some videos on questions and exam techniques which you can watch. :smile:

I think I might try starting with q5 first, since I ran out of time to finish it last time. Thank you for ur recommendations :smile:
Reply 16
Original post by cherry1011
Miss hannah loves grammar gives simple videos that could help a lot

Never heard of her, but will definitely try her videos. Thank you πŸ’«
Reply 17
Original post by Conniestitution
I can actually help with this a little! Plan the second half before you get into the exam. Most stories can be adapted easily for a prompt. For example, I always wrote about the discovery of a body. If you like the image, I wrote about a body being dumped there or discovered there (waterfall? it’s in the lake at the bottom. car on an icy road? the body is in the boot on its way to be hidden.) If I liked the written prompt I’d just use that. (In my mock, I got the prompt β€˜the title is Discovery’ so that was easy. In my exam the prompt was β€˜an unexpected ending’, so I wrote about an unassuming family and made the murder a surprise until the end.)

If you practise whatever story you choose, and just adapt it a little for each prompt, I can absolutely promise you that your grade will improve because instead of having to think about a good plot you will be able to focus on structures and vocabulary.

There’s a few videos on youtube that summarise tips for English Language - especially the opinion piece in P2. A few of them are:

Use a one sentence paragraph - shows awareness of structure.
Use alliteration where possible.
Spend time brainstorming before you start writing so you can plan the paragraphs in order.


Good luck! And don’t worry too much - I started off at a Grade 5 and got a Grade 8 in my last mock for language. I doubt I’ve done that well in my actual exam but oh well :smile:

Thank you πŸ’« Does this work for description as well? I'm sure u have done well :smile:
Reply 18
Original post by Examhelpp
I think I might try starting with q5 first, since I ran out of time to finish it last time. Thank you for ur recommendations :smile:


I missed something out in the other post. If you start with Q5 which is Section B: Writing, I remember being told to then do the following questions: Q1,Q3,Q2,Q4.

Basically it should be Q5,Q1,Q3,Q2,Q4 or Q1,Q3,Q2,Q4,Q5.

Hope that helps. :smile:
Reply 19
Original post by bluemuffin
Do past papers (as many have mentioned) but the real secret is looking at the mark schemes and model answers provided by the exam board and seeing exactly what it is that examiners want to see e.g. techniques used. Then repeat with more practise questions etc. Helped me so much last year with English. Good luck

I will definitely do this, thank you 😊

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