ENGLISH LITERATURE

THE MARK SCHEME IS YOUR HOLY GRAIL: it tells you EVERYTHING the examiners are looking for. If you talk about other parts of the text/play/poem, use lots of quotes and analyse them well, talk about form & structure for poetry, show ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS, use the words "maybe", "perhaps", etc., A LOT, and have a well-structured essay where your ideas 'flow' throughout the essay and build up towards the end, YOU ARE GUARANTEED THE HIGHEST MARKS POSSIBLE.  

Memorise all your quotes: this is vital. Quotes allow you to write your essay. Without them, no essay. Keep rewriting them, sing them in a song (which can help your brain remember them like lyrics), use them in essays, have your family/friend test you on them, etc.

Practice quote explosions: quote explosions are when you write your quote in the middle of the page and you write around it like a mind map everything you know about the quote. For example, include context, technique, word journeys, who said this quote, where in the play/text/poem is it, impact on audience/reader, etc. You can use the quote explosion to write your paragraphs.

Write practice essays under timed conditions: this helps you prepare for the real thing and you can see how well you do under pressure and what you need to do to improve. 

Write plans for your essays & what questions could come up: if you plan what you would write for each possible question, you'll start to notice that there are recurring themes/ideas/characters in the questions and similar things you can write about. They can only ask so many questions, and quite often, they can repeat them in different ways. Use that to your advantage. Plan the essay questions that came before and that may come up, and you can thank me later.

Know your poems well enough, but focus on 3 - 5 versatile ones that could be used for any question: this way you won't need to memorise 15 poems, but focus your analysis on the ones you know more about (the 3 - 5 you will prepare before). It is NOT required for you to write about both poems equally, so you can write more about the one you feel more confident on. However, make sure that you write enough about the other poem, so it would still count as a comparison. Also, know enough about all the poems - the context, anything to point out about the form and structure.

Read examiner reports: these tell you what other students did well and didn't do. This way you know what to work on and add to your essay that other students don't tend to.

MAKE YOUR ESSAY STAND OUT: the examiners would have read hundreds, if not thousands of essays, and if your one is unique and very well-written, they will take more care in marking it, and therefore give you a mark that you deserve. 

Memorise your timings for each paragraph & essay: you aren't allowed a watch in the exam. You need to know how long to spend on each question so that you finish everything on time. I had to write 5 paragraphs in total, one introduction, 3 main body paragraphs and one conclusion. I also left 5 minutes for myself to plan my essay. I usually had about 12 - 13 minutes to write every paragraph and 5 minutes for each the introduction & conclusion. By the end I would have 2 minutes to check. While you are practicing writing essays, practice writing a paragraph in a certain amount of time YOU know you are capable of writing. Trust me, this really helps.