How to improve in English language and literature GCSEs

[miriamandfi]

Dd has had her mocks and although she’s predicted 6 and 7 in English language and literature respectively she got 4s. I’ve emailed her teacher and not heard back and she’s now gone on maternity leave. Dd says feedback was it was because she didn’t structure her answers properly. What would you recommend she can do to improve her grades? Are there any resources I could get for her which would help?

There is a certain way of answering the questions which gets you the marks. This will be what is meant by "structure". They should go through this (ad nauseam) at school. She needs to make sure she understands this and also the time she has to spend on each question.

For resources look at Mr Bruff on YouTube.

English teacher here. I agree with the previous poster, and add CGP guides / BBC bitesize to the Mr Bruff suggestion. You could also email the maternity leave replacement teacher for guidance when term restarts in January. Any experienced English teacher will be able to review the mock papers & come up with a plan.

Ds also underachieved in his mocks in literature and language. We got him an online tutor who was helpful and I made him re-read the texts. Also bought the CGP/Mr Bruff guides but these were not specific to his exam board so less useful.

One helpful thing was looking at past papers and the examiners report that accompany them. They give example answers for lower, middle and higher graded answers for that particular exam board.

You could also approach the head of English at the school to see if there will be additional catch up/revision sessions. Ds went up two grades from mocks to real thing (so December mocks, real exam May).

@miriamandfi if you can get hold of a copy of the mocks she sat and the mark scheme you can see what she should have answered. Mr Salles Teaches English is a great YouTube channel as he also breaks down the mark scheme and what it actually means. I have deleted all my DC's notes now but I have linked a video of Mr Salles below. Ds went from a grade 5 in the November mocks to a grade 8 and 7 in Lit and Lang. We had Mr Salles books from Amazon for Shakespeare and the 19th Century novel. Incredibly helpful.

I will cover lit and lang together, there is knowledge ie the play/book and being able to quote from it, know the themes etc and then there is structuring your answer. I can highly recommend finding out which exam board your child is sitting, find the past papers online and the mark schemes. Very easy to find from google. Go through the question one by one and then look at the answer. What is she missing? What are they looking for? Also look at the examiners' reports too.

Narrative wise, have some outline stories prepared. Have descriptions of weather or settings, Ds's school did a sunny day, a wintery day, a rainy day, then a house, a forest, a playground and a beach. It is about use of language rather than a great story. They are 16 not accomplished authors. Ds had an incredible teacher who spelled out where he was going wrong, that gave me an idea of what to work with. There is plenty of time to pull the grade up.

My son would say Mr Bruff and cgp books. He didn’t enjoy English at all but got a 7 and 8 in the end after using those. There should be another teacher that can help, is there a parents evening soon?

Also, my sons school ran compulsory intervention sessions between mocks and the real exams, are the school doing those?