Hey! The first thing I would do if I was in your situation is ask your teacher what exactly is holding you back. Once your teacher has told you, I'd recommend working specifically to overcome your weakness. English Lit is probably harder than Language because you have to remember much more things. I'd suggest to do as many past papers as possible to practice and also expose yourself to as many questions as you could, whether it's searching it up online or even making them up yourself. You can ask your teacher to mark them for you if you would like. I hope this helped. Good luck!
Original post by Zin0
I've been stuck on grade 7 in English lit for over a year now. Does anyone have any advice on improving my grade?
Hi, I'm currently in year 12, I got a 9 in English lit.
I got a 6 in my end of year 10 exams, a 7 in my first set of mocks, and a 9 in my second set of mocks, and then got a 9 in the actual thing too.
The thing that helped me the most was essay plan/mind map things.
Make a separate mind map for each key theme/character (that could be the essay question) in your texts and then from there, branch off into smaller subheadings (these would be the separate paragraphs), next add key quotes and context.
Do this for each of the themes and characters so that if a question comes up for any of them, you have a rough idea of what you want to write about.
I did Romeo and Juliet, so for example, id write love in the middle, and my branches from it would be familial love, the next branch could be sexual love, and paternal love, non-romantic love, then from there I'd just add quotes.
Stick these mind map poster things around your room so that you can just passively read them everynow and then.
Then a few weeks later, just do brain dumps/splurges on the stuff you remember (active recall) and make notes of the stuff you forgot.
i did Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein and Lord of the flies.
Also have loads and loads of context. If you do any of the same texts as you, I can type up a list of useful content you could add.
Luckily because of Covid we didn't have to do the poetry anthology!
Unfortunately we still had to do the unseen poetry.
The key thing is to just waffle, the more you write, the more marks you can pick up- so make sure you leave enough time to do it.
Have distinctive paragraph topics and it doesn't matter how random they are. Waffle about Romanticism, the uncanny, and comparisons between real life/ afterlife or nature/urban or human/animal, The examiners are looking for comparisons. Write about both similarities and differences for the comparison question.
Hopefully that helps,
good luck!
Original post by Zin0
Thanks for the advice!! I also study Romeo and Juliet so that would be extremely helpful 
Also, what would you say the key features in a grade 9 answer that you may not find in a grade 7 essay?
Also, what would you say the key features in a grade 9 answer that you may not find in a grade 7 essay?I think the main difference between a grade 7 essay and a grade 9 essay is the context, specific details e.g in chapter 7 or act 3 scene 2 this happens. Also use parts of the passage and the rest of the play in every paragraph showing both similarities and differences.
Romeo and Juliet context:
Lord Capulet being a controlling father links to the classical greek word 'Engue'- 'I give this woman to you for the ploughing of legitimate children', shows that women are possessions to be traded, this links to Lord Capulet saying 'you be mine, I'll give you to my friend'
Always write about fate!!! There's a constellation of star imagery (find all the quotes about stars throughout the play), link it back to the prologue, the fixed rhyme scheme of the choral sonnet (prologue) represents the fixed fate of romeo and juliet. Link it to Oedipus' fate in Sophocles' play, 'Oedipus the King' and how he is destined to marry his mother and kill his father.
Courtly love- elevating the woman- romeo physically elevates her (balcony scene) and loves her respectfully contrasting to Mercutio's idea of very sexual love.
Minicia Marcella- a roman girl about to get married but died so her wedding became her funeral- very similar to Juliet. MInicia marcella was a real person.
I hope this helps!
Original post by ketchupavalanche
I think the main difference between a grade 7 essay and a grade 9 essay is the context, specific details e.g in chapter 7 or act 3 scene 2 this happens. Also use parts of the passage and the rest of the play in every paragraph showing both similarities and differences.
Romeo and Juliet context:
Lord Capulet being a controlling father links to the classical greek word 'Engue'- 'I give this woman to you for the ploughing of legitimate children', shows that women are possessions to be traded, this links to Lord Capulet saying 'you be mine, I'll give you to my friend'
Always write about fate!!! There's a constellation of star imagery (find all the quotes about stars throughout the play), link it back to the prologue, the fixed rhyme scheme of the choral sonnet (prologue) represents the fixed fate of romeo and juliet. Link it to Oedipus' fate in Sophocles' play, 'Oedipus the King' and how he is destined to marry his mother and kill his father.
Courtly love- elevating the woman- romeo physically elevates her (balcony scene) and loves her respectfully contrasting to Mercutio's idea of very sexual love.
Minicia Marcella- a roman girl about to get married but died so her wedding became her funeral- very similar to Juliet. MInicia marcella was a real person.
I hope this helps!
Romeo and Juliet context:
Lord Capulet being a controlling father links to the classical greek word 'Engue'- 'I give this woman to you for the ploughing of legitimate children', shows that women are possessions to be traded, this links to Lord Capulet saying 'you be mine, I'll give you to my friend'
Always write about fate!!! There's a constellation of star imagery (find all the quotes about stars throughout the play), link it back to the prologue, the fixed rhyme scheme of the choral sonnet (prologue) represents the fixed fate of romeo and juliet. Link it to Oedipus' fate in Sophocles' play, 'Oedipus the King' and how he is destined to marry his mother and kill his father.
Courtly love- elevating the woman- romeo physically elevates her (balcony scene) and loves her respectfully contrasting to Mercutio's idea of very sexual love.
Minicia Marcella- a roman girl about to get married but died so her wedding became her funeral- very similar to Juliet. MInicia marcella was a real person.
I hope this helps!
Thank you!!
Original post by Zin0
I've been stuck on grade 7 in English lit for over a year now. Does anyone have any advice on improving my grade?
Heya!
Perhaps you can find this article (linked) useful to improve your English lit grade
Do you plan your essays before writing them? it might be helpful for you to create some sort of mind map which you can use when answering the questions!I hope this helps!
Milena
UCL PFE
Study Mind
does anyone have context for frankenstein, i've literally got nothing and i'm panicking a bit...
Original post by AlisaMaria
does anyone have context for frankenstein, i've literally got nothing and i'm panicking a bit...
do you still need frankenstein context?? I got a 9 in English lit and did Frankenstein
yes please, that would be great!
Long answer alert:
Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly in 1860something (THe era is important)
So: the book is written in three narrators: Robert Walton- a seaman from London, Victor Frankenstein- a "Genevese" scientist and The Monster (Usually misnomered as frankenstein)
The book was written when England was very religious, and the idea of playing God (Creating a "human being") was out of the question.
Victor Frankenstein ( Im gonna call him VF for short) is a scientist that decides to make a creature out of "the loins of the dead". he succedes in this but then abandones his "wretch" when it wakes up.
You can use this bit in your exam.
The next bit is just going to be the general themes of the book:
Nature vs Nurture. is a person/beast bad from birth (nature, it is important to remember that the bodies that the Creation is made of are thoes of criminals) or Nurture (Victor abandons his "son")
That is baisically the biggest theme there is.
Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly in 1860something (THe era is important)
So: the book is written in three narrators: Robert Walton- a seaman from London, Victor Frankenstein- a "Genevese" scientist and The Monster (Usually misnomered as frankenstein)
The book was written when England was very religious, and the idea of playing God (Creating a "human being") was out of the question.
Victor Frankenstein ( Im gonna call him VF for short) is a scientist that decides to make a creature out of "the loins of the dead". he succedes in this but then abandones his "wretch" when it wakes up.
You can use this bit in your exam.
The next bit is just going to be the general themes of the book:
Nature vs Nurture. is a person/beast bad from birth (nature, it is important to remember that the bodies that the Creation is made of are thoes of criminals) or Nurture (Victor abandons his "son")
That is baisically the biggest theme there is.
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