Any tips on how to get an A*/A in English literature alevel?

I want to do English literature for a-levels but I’m unsure if it will be too difficult to get top grades in.
If anyone who did well in English lit has any tips on what helped them, it would be appreciated :smile:

Reply 1

Jess250922

It’s not that different from GCSE English but it is harder as you have to have more of your own ideas to impress the examiner. And there will be closed book exams aswell as books you’ve studied, if you did really well in GCSE it’s worth you taking.

I had a friend who got an A I’ll try and get them here to give you advice

Okay thank you

I got an A* and now I tutor English. My main tips are

- read the books. You'd be surprised how many people think you can do just as well without reading the books as you can if you actually read them as well as summaries.
- read academic articles about your texts. Not too many, but one or two will help you progress past GCSE level writing to a slightly more advanced technique.
- something that can be helpful is keeping a quote bank. Every time you highlight a quote, add it to this bank under the correct chapter heading. That way you'll make your own book summary that you can easily go through the morning of the exam. You can also practice analysing these quotes by identifying literary techniques and writing out your analysis under the quotes.
- practice writing paragraph and essays. Essay technique is a big part of the a level so practice makes perfect and all!

thank you sm!

This was a method I used, but get a couple classmates together and do a ''fake lecture'' after a class if you have a free. Make notes for about 20 mins beforehand then do a 10 minute presentation on a character/section to 2/3 other classmates, and then they do the same after you. Write down any ideas of theirs you didn't have as you listen to them. I found this VERY useful for identifying gaps in my knowledge as I had to articulate the ideas quickly and for an audience - not dissimilar to writing an essay in timed conditions for the examiner.

(It's also rather fun too)