how to get a 9 in english literature and language

its not abnormal to make a few mistakes to go down a few grades, its a major concern if you dont know why you got a grade 6 instead of an 8. if you know, correct the mistakes and you should be ok, good luck.




depends if you are on a laptop. if you have a laptop you can write 2x more. if on paper, about a page and a half for 15 marker? its not a huge deal though as if your writing is **** you need more, if its good you need less.

you can incorporate context by thinking of something at the time that could be linked to the subject. it can be pretty much anything as long as you can justify it. good luck

My exam is on Wednesday and I’ve always handwritten my tests and I have no learning disability nor will my parents fake a doctors note (to say ive broken my hand or something) so do you have and idea on how I can use a laptop in the exam because i can type over 70wpm because I’m constantly on my laptop.

bumping for anyone in year 11 needing help for english

Now that I've seen this thread again, I'm somewhat curious to know what your marks were.

Since you received your scripts, I'm almost certain you also got a mark breakdown. So, what were your raw marks for English literature and language?

69 on english language component 1. 66 english language component 2. grade 9 is 58 on component 1, and 54 on component 2.
70 on english lit component 1 and i cant find the second. grade 9 is 59 for component 1.
this is for wjec eduqas

Impressive. Well done on the scores. What do you study in sixth form?

thanks, this might sound a bit awkward but i actually took english lit and dropped it after a month or so lol . idk if i mentioned it in the first post but my english teacher was terrible and everyone in my class had to self study for english.
for the poems in a level, the teacher just completely brushed over them and i couldnt stand having to self study this stuff anymore for another 2 years. especially considering to get an a star in a level it probably takes a bit more than memorising stuff.
i was already taking maths and further maths but now i take physics so it all kind of works out because theres a huge crossover with mechanics. im not or never was actually "good" at english i just had a good memory which is what the new spec of english is entirely based on which our teachers never seemed to recognise.
how you finding english at a level?

this doesnt apply to everyone nor is it a guarantee, just some help for those that are struggling.

This is mainly a guide on technique for getting a 9 in english.

Your priority for revision should be what and how you revise not how long you revise.

thats not to say it doesnt matter how long you revise, it does, but make sure you understand that you are revising correctly first because no one wants to waste time revising useless stuff.


Section 1: what to revise

quotations are amongst the most important things in english literature, that being said, examiners dont care if you can memorise a quote. they care that you can analyse it.

You should be learning atleast 15 quotations for each book you are doing, and the crucial part of this is that you not only need to learn what the quotation is, but you need to know how to analyse it and adapt it to atleast 2-3 of the possible questions, to get a sense of what i mean here is an example in jekyll and hyde.

quotation - "i unleashed my alter ego Hyde"

Analysis - what does this tell you about Hyde? What does this tell you about Jekyll? What does this tell you about what other people think of Hyde? what does this tell you about duality?

those are 4 questions that you need to be able to answer with that specific quote, as the question in your exam could ask you to talk about duality, talk about hyde, and talk about jekyll etc... When learning to analyse these quotes, make sure you use fancy vocabulary. An easy way to do this is to think of a word you are going to say, and then type it into https://www.thesaurus.com/ and use another word instead.

Atleast 50% of what I wrote in both english literature and language was all from memory.

Another important thing for the books is to keep things relevant to the question, and to do this, only learn things that answer a question you think can be asked.
I did WJEC and its different for each exam board so be sure to research the type of questions that can be asked, just remember that everything you learn, you need to know what question they will ask when you describe, that way it can be much more accurate and straight to the point.


You also need to research obscure meanings that will surprise the examiner, for instance with jekyll and hyde, the author wanted us to believe that they were gay, and obviously homosexuality was frowned upon and stevenson wanted to convey that message in a more hidden way.
https://youtu.be/Bhq4x5CTA58

that youtuber makes alot of videos on obscure meanings like that. and you can incorporate this into every question, the question I had was to talk about how evil is presented. With this meaning you can say that society itself was evil etc.

All of this also applies to the poems, and make sure you know everything you can compare every poem with.

For english language you need to have a strong idea on what your story is going to be about and what happens, you need to make it simple and able to adapt to what the question asks.

below is a link to the first 2 pages of my english language essay.
https://imgur.com/a/5gxQrvI
I've highlighted everything that I just googled before hand and memorised. You can see that some of the comments can be applied into any story, so its well worth learning stuff like that and it can get you easy marks, even if you don't understand it all that well.

Section 1: how to revise


main rule to get a 9 in english and almost every subject, is repetition in short bursts of revision is much better than revising for 6 hours+ per day. its not necessary and most people who think it is are not revising correctly.

I only used revision cards when it came to actually revising for english, it started by reading over revision guides and writing down relevant and concise information onto revision cards and then from youtube videos.

I never read any of the books at all, I especially didn't understand jekyll and hyde at all, but with the use of the internet you can find out evertyhing about it without having to even read it. If you understand it and think that its helping you, then sure read it. But if you are having doubts that its just a waste of time, then put the book down and use other methods of revision instead.

Revision cards was virtually the only thing I used, my teacher was useless and I never did a practice question.

From january up until the exams I only did a maximum of 30 minutes revision for english a day, but that was everyday.
thats the most important thing with revision. I didnt take a day off for over half a year.
i never ever revised for some ridiculous amount of time like 6+ hours per day, if you're doing that and you're not getting 100% in every exam you are revising wrong.

In addition to 30 minutes of revision, I read over a batch of revision cards in any random order once every hour or so while I was at home. it doesnt require any effort and because I did it for so long I didnt have to try and remember it, it just eventually happened and I didn't forget the stuff I wrote down.
doing this I made an entire "revision card holder" filled with just english by about april and just kept on reading them over.

part of my paper for english language, writing an article about a trip, informal. dont use fancy vocab when your task is to write for a magazine! https://imgur.com/a/P2jM82a
Extras:

reply to a user that others might find useful:

its hard to give alot of advice because of different exam boards. the main thing i can advise for that is learning loads of fancy vocabulary.
I dont know if your exam does this, but for wjec we have a non-fiction writing task where we are asked to write either a report, an article, a letter, or a review, you need to use the language that you would in that situation, so for an informal letter i can make purposeful spelling mistakes and say "yo" and "wassup", in that instance you wouldnt use any fancy vocabulary. so its important to understand what makes them different, heres a link to my one last year, it was to make an article in a local newspaper about a visit with your family to a city.
https://imgur.com/a/P2jM82a (order is the wrong way round)

also for the analysis of the texts, write something about everything line by line, it doesnt matter if you think its a bad comment or not, you can make some abstract claim that no one would agree with but it still gets marks.

As a side note, if you are a fast typer, definitely try and use a laptop in the exam by nagging your school for one.

bump for new year 11s

What technique should u use for learning certain quotes from poems off by heart?
and also how many quotes did u learn per poem

have the quote on 1 side of a flashcard, and meanings on the other side.
read the quote and try to remember as many meanings as possible.

i learnt about 5-10 per poem depending on length.