English Literature AQA A Level study tips?

I get consistent Cs and Ds in Lit exams or essays I do, and I'm not sure how to improve as I never know how to go about revising, and I easily get demotivated. Any tips on ways to revise I could try?

Reply 1

escarlett05

hey! it’s a very challenging subject so firstly don’t beat yourself up about getting demotivated, just try and add small bits of revision into your routine, even if it’s 15-20 mins a day!

for essay writing, i find doing mindmaps/character profile for each character & theme and then another one for quotes & analysing the quotes, so like a quote bank. doing this means that when I write my essays, it’s very quick to think of ideas and key themes to link into my writing.

i also find chapter summaries quite helpful because your knowledge of the text is so important, once you know the text it’s easier to come up with ideas and make links. i study Othello, and so I did an act and scene summary for each one, highlighting important quotes, characters and themes.

once all this revision material has been made - essay plans are definitely the way to go!
I am in year 13 at the moment and am working on this too at the minute.
Essay structure gains a lot of marks in exams, this is how I like to do mine:

(for an extract question)
1. Overview paragraph - highlight the narrative of the extract, what instigates this moment, the consequences to this moment, and its significance to the novel/play as a whole.
(If it’s not an extract question)
1. A strong introduction introducing your ideas that you will talk about in the essay, perhaps a counter argument or evidence

(For both types of questions)

2. 2-3 body paragraphs with strong topic sentences and quote regularly. Analyse the writers methods and WHY they chose to do that

if you repeatedly practice essays, your technique will improve as you go on. once you are confident, you can try and do it under timed conditions so that when you’re in the exam you’re not panicking and trying to get it done.

looking at mark schemes from the aqa website about past questions really helps me to see what the examiner is looking for

example model essays i find really helpful too

i really hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions!