GCSE English teachers - Lit and Lang crash revision guides

[ratticus4]

Looking through DD's books and very little has been marked and nothing for ages. It's a mess and difficult to revise. She doesn't seem to know essential quotes or even how to structure an essay.

Can any English teachers recommend good guides or flashcards for both lit and lang please? She's taking AQA so Macbeth, An Inspector Calls, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, power and conflict poetry.

The CGP guides are good, as are Mr Bruff and Mr Salles on YouTube. There are also some official AQA 10 min videos on YouTube, fronted by an experienced examiner, which are excellent. Each focuses on a different question. Type in 'Spotlight on English AQA' and you should find them. All the best - not long to go now.

That’s really helpful, thank you!

Dr Aiden is good on YouTube. I second Mr Bruff and the CGP revision guides. There's loads on YouTube. Trick is to always type AQA.

Google AQA past papers and the subject and you will get questions that she can practise too.

Good luck!

I am in Scotland so can't comment on revision guides, but ds had similar problems for English with his terrible notes and not knowing how to revise etc,

I asked him to ask the teacher and they pointed him in the direction of copies of the PowerPoint slides they had used in class and he should have known were available on the school website/teams channel. They were very detailed and having the slides combined with his notes really helped.

This video from the incredible Mr Salles explains what they are looking for when they mark the work (AO1, AO2 etc) and what that actually means. Mr Salles has incredible essays etc on his channel and shows how to structure them. If you can spare the time too go through it with her.

For all of them, past papers with the mark scheme open, that includes English Language. Go through the questions one at a time, then look at the mark scheme. What are they looking for?

It isn't about knowing full quotes, she needs a more sophisticated style of writing where they embed quotes into the essay, again this is on Mr Salles' channel. I am assuming they are sitting their GCSEs this year. For anyone else reading this The Mr Salles Guide to (insert book) are incredible but it would be difficult to get through them in time if she also has other subjects to look at.

Meant to @ratticus4 you so you see the responses quickly.

The OUP workbooks for AQA were written by examiners. They're really good.

Thank you @MargiesSandwich Mr Salles looks great! I shall watch and pass on (while trying not to panic).

I’ll check out the other teachers’ videos on YouTube too. There’s so much out there it’s really useful to have names.