As someone who has always gotten 9s in Language and Literature, here's what I do (I also do AQA):
I do Romeo and Juliet instead of Macbeth but I got 29/30 for my mock for Shakespeare and honestly the best thing I did was to use the resources already out there. Channels like
Mr Bruff,
Mr Everything English and
DystopiaJunkie (my personal fav) are amazing, as well as
Physics and Maths Tutor for really detailed analysis. Make a quote bank but I mean maximum 4 or 5 quotes per theme/ character, don't overdo it because you can always find ways to link quotes together. Learn the structure (iambic pentameter, couplets, sonnet), those are easy structure marks. Really go in-depth with the analysis, honestly make some crazy statements if you have to. Make sure to talk about how the Elizabethan/ Edwardian (whatever period) audience would feel/ react but also modern audiences - you can make some really good paradoxes if you talk about both.
For all texts, it is so important to understand the whole story and make sure you know what happens at each stage - you can find copies of them online for free to read and even annotate sections if you want to. Admittedly Power and Conflict is not my favourite but the best thing you can do is to organise the poems into clear themes (many examples online) and learn key quotes. When I thoroughly annotate each poem, it's so easy to see comparisons that you can make to other poems and the similarities. Again, you do not have to make up the annotation yourself! PMT and YouTube have great resources for annotating. Then I put together poems that I will compare for example, if the question was about power of nature, instantly Ozymandias and The Prelude come to mind, if it was about Identity, I think of Checking Out Me History and the Emigree.
I found a resource that really helps me with Power and Conflict
https://thedeanacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/English-Y11-AQA-Poetry-Anthology-Knowledge-Organiser.pdfLastly, approach each question with knife-like precision. Really dive into the quote, think as if the author was right next to you, telling you why they did things, provide multiple interpretations to the same quote and
have bold ideas (Shakespeare is not going to rise from the dead and tell you that you're wrong!). English is the one subject for me where I can say whatever I want and as long as I can prove it, there is nothing stopping me!
Hope this was helpful! If you have anymore questions let me know and good luck to us in May omg!