GCSE English Lit OCR

4

hey does anyone who does english lit gcse with the exam board ocr know how to get a 9? It's the only subject I'm genuinely struggling to get past an 8 in and I really want all 9s as I eventually want to apply to Oxford Med.
I study AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, Merchant of Venice and Conflict poetry.
Pls help xx

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

20

I got a 9 in ocr English lit last year (AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, conflict poetry and Romeo and Juliet) and also tutored for this subject during year 11 so hopefully my advice can help!

Using a clear paragraph structure is super important. I used PEAR paragraphs pretty consistently acrossmost questions because they allowed me to get lots of marks pretty consistently. PEAR stands for Point (literally answering thequestion, a topic sentence) Evidence (pick a quote) Analysis (any language structural and/or form features you can comment on) Reader (link your quote to how the reader will likely feel- its doesn’t have to be deep but using fancyish words like anticipation can make your writing sound less surface level).
Doing questions and getting feedback from a teacher is the most helpful thing to know how to improve. If your teacher wont mark your work for whatever reason then you could post in on TSR and ask for someone to mark it. You could also mark other peoples answers to help your understanding of what examiners are looking for. Or if you have a friend in your class who would be willing to swap answersand mark each others that’s also a strong option.
Learning how to annotate texts is extremely important. BBC Bitesize was how i learned how to do this i think but im sure there’s loads of videos and articles on how to do this. You need to find a way which works well for you!
Learning good quotations is immensely helpful. There’s loads of good study sets you can use which people have made or you can make your own. Either way, dont just memorise the quotations by themselves- learn the language analysis, how it links to key themes, context and characters and when it is said (this heavily influences how the reader will feel depending on if tension is rising or its a period of calm etc). There’s some knowledge organisers for these texts on sites like PMT, revision owl and twinkle if youre struggling.
Doing lots of essays and having them marked will help you find whereyoure losing marks and then you can work on those key areas. Also reading through model essays and seeing what makes them get the highest marks is a great idea- you could use examiner reports to find common areas where people lose marks.
I used mind mapping a lot for literature so try that if you want to work on your marks. You could mindmap a quotation, a chapter,character, theme, piece of context, poem etc. Make sure that whenever you make a mindmap you include quotations which linkin and lots of details.

Happy to answer any questions if you have them 🙂

Reply 2

islahope

OP

4

Thank you so much for your reply!! I've tried giving essays to my teacher to mark before but bless her she usually can't get them back to me faster than a month so i tend to just write them now self mark . I was wondering how many quotes you learned for each of your texts - for AIC did you learn them by character or theme? Same with Jekyll and Hyde. Also, did you learn stuff for each poem? A friend i have in year 12 told me to discard all the ones that have been used previously and to learn max 5 which cover a variety of themes.
Thank you so so much for your help!!!!!

Reply 3

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

20

Original post

by islahope

Thank you so much for your reply!! I've tried giving essays to my teacher to mark before but bless her she usually can't get them back to me faster than a month so i tend to just write them now self mark . I was wondering how many quotes you learned for each of your texts - for AIC did you learn them by character or theme? Same with Jekyll and Hyde. Also, did you learn stuff for each poem? A friend i have in year 12 told me to discard all the ones that have been used previously and to learn max 5 which cover a variety of themes.
Thank you so so much for your help!!!!!

For AIC you need to learn quotations by moment. Find 2 or 3 moments in the play and memorise 3 or 4 quotations for each. Make sure you have chosen moments that cover all characters and central themes.
For jekyll and hyde I learnt them by theme but made sure I had at least 2 or 3 per character too. I think I probably learnt maybe 20 quotations but could recall a few more just from having used them in essays from extracts. For poetry, choose 2 or 3 poems and memorise 3 or 4 quotations from each- make sure you can bring them into structural points too though. Hope that helps and happy to try answer any more questions :smile:

Reply 4

zzzkkk

6

Original post

by DerDracologe

For AIC you need to learn quotations by moment. Find 2 or 3 moments in the play and memorise 3 or 4 quotations for each. Make sure you have chosen moments that cover all characters and central themes.
For jekyll and hyde I learnt them by theme but made sure I had at least 2 or 3 per character too. I think I probably learnt maybe 20 quotations but could recall a few more just from having used them in essays from extracts. For poetry, choose 2 or 3 poems and memorise 3 or 4 quotations from each- make sure you can bring them into structural points too though. Hope that helps and happy to try answer any more questions :smile:

heyy, i know this is kinda late but do you have any revision resources you could share, especially for j+h. also in jekyll and hyde if you were to do moments, which ones would you choose?

Reply 5

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

20

Original post

by zzzkkk

heyy, i know this is kinda late but do you have any revision resources you could share, especially for j+h. also in jekyll and hyde if you were to do moments, which ones would you choose?

I recommend you use sites like PMT and revisionowl for resources for j+h.
‘Moments’ I used a lot were the attack on Sir Danvers Carew and the final chapter but i didnt use moments (i did memorise several quotation from each of those though). I suggest memorising quotes by theme and/or character.

Reply 6

islahope

OP

4

Original post

by zzzkkk

heyy, i know this is kinda late but do you have any revision resources you could share, especially for j+h. also in jekyll and hyde if you were to do moments, which ones would you choose?

wait sorry ik this is late but remind me to send mine to u i have mindmaps for moments in j+h which ik is not how they told us to revise it and i also made a bunch of essay plans for possible whole text questions x

GCSE English Lit OCR

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Articles for you

How The Student Room is moderated