GCSE English revision

Hi guys!
I'm aiming for a 9 in English which I know is hard, does anyone have tips?
Also, how best to revise poetry? I'm doing worlds and lives anthology and idk how to start making revision materials for it. Flashcards? mindmaps? notes? any help I'd love <3

Reply 1

horrorboy231

Hey! I did Power and Conflict poetry, but I am sure I can still help you.

I achieved a grade 6 overall (Grade 8 on paper 1, one mark from 9, and Grade 5 on paper 2, just didn't revise for that paper honestly ahah)

Honestly, the way I revised was through constantly reading the poems and revising what we went over in lesson. I would then do my own research over quotes that I find interesting. After that, I wrote mock paragraph/exams with those quotes and my extended research. To be honest, I did to flashcards, and they didn't work for me. I was better off with just constantly writing things down, even if I didn't look at the notes later.

You should try aiming to write around 1-2 paragraphs when practicing just to focus on specific quotes and context points to try achieve the best grade you can get with those points. For example, look at a quote that you know. Do research for specific words, the connotation and context of a specific line.

Let's try something together: ''The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;'' in the poem ' Lines Written in Early Spring by Wordsworth.
What is a periwinkle? What does it mean if it was to trail? Why does it have wreaths? What does it mean by it having wreaths? What does the wreath symbolise? Why did Wordsworth personify the periwinkle? Why does Wordsworth highlight a euphonic setting of foliage?

Then you should write a paragraph or two with that quote and another.

Independent research is honestly very important to secure a high grade for Literature!

Sorry if this was a little vague, but I hope it gives you a little push in the direction you need to go! :smile:

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

BCU Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post

by professional-ant

Hi @professional-ant

There are lots of different ways to revise poetry, but the method I used to do for each poem was:

Read the poem and annotate it as much as possible.

Research the context of the poem and if there is any extra details I missed in my annotations.

Make a mindmap including key points, ideas, methods and quotes.

Make flashcards of the quotes that I wanted to learn and the meaning behind them.

Practice writing paragraphs about the poem.

Think about how it linked / compared to the other poems in the anthology. I would group poems together by themes to make it easier to decide which one to use.

Some of these steps I would do during the lessons and others I would do at a later stage during my revision.

Hope that helps!

Sophie.
BCU Student Rep.

Reply 3

Kingston Eve

Official Rep

Original post

by professional-ant

Hey @professional-ant!

For poetry, I always liked to print a fresh copy of every poem in my anthology and see if I could annotate it from scratch - no notes, just whatever context I could remember and whatever techniques I could find. This helped me both learn the poems themselves and see which poems needed more revision.

After I had a good grasp of most poems, I'd usually pick two at random and see if I could find any common themes/ideas throughout each - essentially doing a compare and contrast. Once I felt confident in my ability to do that, I moved onto past papers and timed past papers. Past papers can be found on your exam board's website and are a great revision tool for any subject, but I always think timed past papers (e.g. set an alarm for the exact amount of time you have to complete the paper) are most effective for essay-based subjects like English and History where timing really is key.

Hope this helps and best of luck! 🙂
Eve (Kingston Rep).