How do you revise for English Language?

[castleontheground]

Aqa GCSE English Language exams are after half term. I can't remember doing anything for mine other than revising a few terms such as metaphors etc. Are there any good website links? I need to get add enthused to revise again.

Dd not add!

Do practice papers? AQA have some on their site but these have probably already been seen. Practise reading extracts from classic prose and identifying language techniques and writing about them. Use pictures as a stimulus for writing creatively using all the senses - in a timed condition.

For paper 2 read newspaper articles and try to identify the writers perspecitve. Practise summarising key points. Make sure you know about the different ways of writing a newspaper article, letter, speech etc.

And then there's always Mr Bruff...

I have some extracts for practice if needed.

Thank you. I am sure she's done all this at school it's just that I haven't seen it. Dd created a huge folder of notes for English Lit. She thinks she has done really well in Eng Lit so I just want her to be prepared for Eng Lang. I bought her a few guides and she's flicked through those but I will re-emphasise practise papers. Thanks.

Checking she knows formats for writing sections , letters, articles etc.

Identifying structure for the reading paper.

It's pretty much past papers and making sure she knows the key things to put in each section

I bought the Mr Bruff document online, cost 99p. My DS and I worked through this together and it helped massively. He got an A which was fairly miraculous.

English teacher here, and this is what I would advise.

Language Paper 1 - if she has example past papers and revision guides, get her to choose some fiction extracts (four to five paragraphs) and make up her own questions and practice answering them keeping strictly to the time allowed in the exam. Lang Paper 2 - will be two nonfiction extracts - one 19th c and one 20th21st C. You could try doing the same for those.
For Section A of both papers the key is timing and reading the questions carefully to ensure that she focuses her answers on the key words of the question and the specified line numbers of the extracts. This catches lots of bright kids out - great answer/wrong part of the extract focused on.
In both papers, Section B, the writing section is worth half the marks - she must spend the full time allowed on it (half the exam). For the fiction, keep interesting structural strategies in mind - use non-chronological structure or dual narrative, write slowly focusing on SPAG and sentence structure (40% of the marks for Section B), use sensory description, craft an ending.
For Paper 2, she needs to ensure she checks the form and audience required and plans her answer, linking her paragraphs together using discourse markers.
Good Facebook page here with tips and ideas www.facebook.com/GCSEEnglishLanguage/. Mr Bruff has some good videos too.
Wishing her the best of luck.

Thank you MissMillament. She's really low at the moment. Currently sobbing over maths so I will see how she is later and perhaps show her your post.

Just out of interest, does anyone know if this is any good?
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01N35VH5N/ref=pd_aw_sim_351_of_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SCHPYXWK0047M6MBR701&tag=mumsnetforum-21

I haven't got that guide, but he is a respected teacher and his Youtube videos are good so I should imagine so.

Don't suppose there are any WJEC english teachers (in wales but english meium paper) with revision pointers, tips or signposts to resources! I believe it is a new spec so v few past papers, is it still worth looking at legacy papers?

Everything that MissMillament said plus, in all seriousness, she should learn how to spell sincerely. I mark a lot of exam scripts, and the number of kids that misspell 'sincerely' at the end of a formal letter is astonishing . The writing task for Paper 2 may well be a formal letter.

Like MissM said, whether it's WJEC, AQA or any other board, you can look at the specimen paper on the website and then adapt the questions to fit new text. For paper 1 you could look at the opening paragraphs for any fiction text.

Another vote here for the Mr Bruff videos for AQA.
CGP also do some great workbooks and revision guides for all the exam boards.

It really wouldn't be useful looking at last papers imo as the format is totally different for the new GCSE.

Good luck to your DD!