Panicking about GCSE English Literature revision

[annaistrying]

DDs been really good and working hard revising but has been really focusing on sciences, maths, geography and business. She’s started English literature last week and is feeling really overwhelmed. How on earth do you remember quotes and all the details required about all the characters and scenes etc for all the books? She’s doing Edexcel and doing an Inspector Calls, Macbeth and A Christmas Carol. Any help would be so appreciated.

All three are films. My daughter watched everything as well as revising. I think she used snap guides.

I feel your pain! My daughter is in the same boat, although is doing AQA so also has all the poems (so many poems...). She has found Mr Bruff's videos on YouTube really helpful for the analysis. She has also found it really helpful to discuss the themes with me and talk through her ideas, as this helped to cement them. We watched Romeo and Juliet together and I read Jekyll and Hyde and we're enjoying trying to use the quotations in everyday conversation, e.g. referring to her brother demonstrating an "ape like fury" when someone ate his last creme egg. This sounds mad now I've written it down, but whatever it takes to embed those bloody quotes!

She is putting together mini essay plans which sounds overwhelming at first but the same points can be used for different characters and themes so once you get started it gets easier I think. It is hard though, especially if you're not blessed with an amazing memory.

Quotations are often overrated. Learning one or two words is more effective than whole phrases (so for example, 'serpent' and 'flower' in Macbeth, 'one body' for An Inspector Calls). They can be contextualised in an essay. Also the examiners reward textual references other than quotations - so referring to specific moments in the texts will help. Slight misquotes also generally aren't an issue.

For AO2 (analysis of methods) she can also talk about things like symbolism, how characters change and contrast with each other, how the text is structured etc - none of these require quotations. Language analysis is only one tool in a big toolkit!

Watching revision summaries on YouTube is helpful, as is rereading the texts if possible (An Inspector Calls and A Christmas Carol are short). The best revision is doing past papers and lots of essay plans, which will help her pinpoint key moments in the texts to talk about.

She should definitely focus on understanding it thoroughly rather than learning it. One of the key messages in the examiner's report this year was how important it is to answer the question. This may sound obvious but when students get into the business of rote learning what they would say about certain characters etc, they can move away from this and its v detrimental to AO1. I agree with the PP suggesting working out lots of different essay plans based on past questions. Then practise writing different paragraphs - maybe one from each plan. Using the quotations and practising developing comments on them is a great way of internalising them.

Lots of good ideas here op. @Bobsbees I love that with the ape-like fury!

Agree it's best to learn a few short quotes or even relevant words - maybe 2-3 for each theme if this is an issue.

Try to structure as many practice essay plans as possible; this can really help. There are only so many themes that will come up. Loads of example qus online.

She will be doing poetry as well (it's not just AQA that does it) so maybe focus on 2-3 poems as she will have to choose one to compare with a given poem. One alone won't do tho as that may be the one given. Which anthology is she doing?

Thank you so much for the advice. She’s trying to break it down now into chunks that she can do without getting overwhelmed. Aiming to learn 2 characters well per day and then move onto themes.
Thanks for the suggestion of essay plans. @claryplease could you expand a bit on how there are only so many themes that can come up.

Ds is doing the same texts, there are a couple of 'In Our Time' podcasts on BBC Sounds, one on Macbeth and one on A Christmas Carol that are a discussion by some academics. They're very good for understanding themes that are likely to come up in the exams. Ds has been lucky enough to see all three plays live but there are some good versions available online too and GCSE bite size has some questions with model answers as well as the ones in the revision books

What @Smoothbananagram and @doglover90 said, absolutely. Demonstrate you understand the text in the terms via which the question is asking you to discuss it, not rote-learning, which is a complete waste of time. Don’t retell the plot, which you’re assumed to know.

She needs to read the books really carefully with a highlighter of different colours, looking for themes. Could you help with that.

Then spider diagrams for characters and themes, using different colour pens. It's overwhelming to think about all the different words and quotes but it makes more sense if you have an idea of the themes and character traits, then grab one or two examples as supporting evidence.

It's helpful to also think about what the writer is trying to achieve - if it's satire (making a serious point in a funny way), suspense, anticlimax, a point about life's brevity or just showing you what a character is like. It starts with a good knowledge of the text and if you've helped her highlight some important points, she will find that she doesn't need to remember everything, just the moments that show something important. There is no shortcut to knowing the texts well but once that is under her belt and she has some thinking maps drawn, she might find herself going back to the highlighted parts because she remembers something significant. That is what they're looking for - an awareness of how the text is put together and why.

There will be contradictions in the characters and you can discuss these with her - how someone seems to have one motivation but then turns out to be quite different.

These are brilliant

I would be wary of watching films if she's not secure in her knowledge of the text.

You asked for clarification on the limited number of themes can can really come up. It is because a text has major themes and they are likely to be asked about.

You will find from looking at past papers that there are sometimes questions that have for and against arguments. These need thinking about and pros and cons lists written. Try to prepare your DD for having to think carefully about the question before she starts to write. If she has thought carefully about the books beforehand and discussed the issues raised in the book notes with you, she will have an idea of what she wants to say. There isn't a great deal of time to make lots and lots of different points so she should get into the habit of forming a basic idea for how the question could be answered quickly. She should say this briefly in her opening paragraph and then get down very quickly to giving the different examples as each one will be worth marks and it's easy to run out of time. The better she knows the books, the faster the ideas will occur to her and she will be more confident making them. It's important to leave five minutes at the end to refer back to the opening of her essay when she laid out what she was going to say. 'In this essay I have shown...' The essay question will probably be giving her an opportunity to show that she understands a key theme or a common topic that is discussed about the book. With practice she will recognise what they are looking for.

If she is able to go the extra mile and note how the author's choice of language underlines a common theme, she will be doing very well indeed. For example, perhaps the author uses hyperbole (over the top language) to create humour and show absurdity. They may be doing that to make a more serious point about how meaningless something really is (that would be satire). Or they may use understated language and short sentences to build suspense or create a poignant tone. If a character keeps doing something or saying something, the use of repetition draws the reader's attention to a character trait. If an image or metaphor is repeated, this is being used to emphasise a theme. By starting with the themes and using the text as supporting evidence, your DD will find it easier to remember the parts of the text that are important. If she gets into the exam and finds a question she wasn't expecting, that isn't a problem if she has a good knowledge of the text and has highlighted them. The question won't really be out of left field - there will be a way for her to think about what she already knows and think of points that could be made in response. The trick is having the confidence to really think on the hoof and get those points down quickly. Although it's not good to get bogged down in quotations, the better her knowledge of the text, the quicker the ideas will come to her and the points that are made with evidence to back it up will be much better than those that aren't. Remembering what happens in the plot and making points about that are important as well as remembering quotations.

English literature is a lot of work but the likelihood is that the questions will not be designed to make life difficult for students who have really engaged with the text beforehand.

I agree with most of this but not with the assertion that some questions have for and against arguments. English literature essays aren't like this. 'To what extent' doesn't mean writing out 'pros and cons'! Multiple interpretations, yes. For and against, no.

Also, 'It's important to leave five minutes at the end to refer back to the opening of her essay when she laid out what she was going to say. 'In this essay I have shown...'' - this is 100% unnecessary and will more likely than not be a waste of time. I have never marked a GCSE essay that has been improved by someone going back and restating all their points.

Yes, the 'how far' questions require an argument, set up in the intro/thesis statement. These questions seem increasingly more common, for AQA at least. I agree that it's not for or against. RE seems to train them in the 'on the one hand X but on the other hand, Y' format and that's not the way to go go with English. Generally the statement offered has some clear validity as a reading... 'Lady Macbeth is a character that changes in the course of the play' but offers scope for some debate or counter argument. A good conclusion will provide a final response to the question, offering a final response but I agree that repeating the points is a waste of time! Rather than 'In this essay I have shown...', try 'Ultimately,... '

I take the point but the 'how far' questions are very similar and prepared for by thinking of how much the text does and how much it doesn't. The theme itself is often a balance between two polarised concepts and the discerning student grapples with the paradox and the balance. The preparation process for a sixteen year old is easier to handle in these terms, in my humble opinion. I think GCSE students are poorly served by avoiding the question as all higher study of literature tends to be considering text in these terms eventually.

The last sentence does not need to be a repeat of the points within the essay at all but a reference to the initial point, highlighting the coherence of the student's line of thought. A good essay at this level is easiest shown by a quick reference to the beginning like this and most 16 year old are unlikely to come to with a less clumsy way to show it under pressure. It's quick and it shows you knew what you were doing.

Apart from knowing texts -

Practice keeping calm, focused and adrenalin at good rate. Do this immediately before exam and during exam but keep adrenalin going. Don't focus on friends or any distractions.

Practice past papers. To include: -
Get timings right for each question paper in exam according to marks.
Do a quick essay plan. Write keywords to write a paragraph on.

Use literary terms https://englishatwmat.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/english-literature-glossary-of-terms.pdf

To ensure points are not missed create mnemonics.
SEE Statement Example Explanation
Make a point/give an example and or quote/explain

I did a BA and MA in literature. Although it's been a while since school.

Learn a few of the most poignant quotes - they'll have been discussed a lot in class - and a few more short ones of a few key moments/ symbols.

Then learn to be flexible with them. Put the word/quote in the centre of a mind map. Then put various common themes around this and figure out how the quote could work for each.

That way whatever the Q is you can kind of spark off into an argument from a good number of the same learnt quotes.

Also learn a bit about the historical and political situation around each text. This can add context and much more interesting answers.

Yeps @annaistrying I meant if you take Macbeth for example, there are the characters (Lady M and M mainly) then the main themes of violence, supernatural, power/ambition and appearance vs reality. It's not hard to come up with some short (and I mean a few words max) quotes which illustrate these, some will work for more than one theme.

What is her target or likely grade btw,? That might help target people's advice tbh.

You really have been helpful and she’s feeling much better about how to approach this. She’s also found mr salles on YouTube and is making notes on each character while watching these. He does themes too so will do these after she’s confident with the characters.
@clary her target is 7 but I just feel they have so much to learn for all the subjects I don’t know how she’s going to have time to do everything in enough detail to get that. I suppose she just needs to crack on.

Mr Salles is a good start - I also really rate Mr Dowling's padlet (google) as a resource. Doesn't matter hugely whether it's AQA or Edexcel, the texts are the same!

My advice to students is always - what is your answer to the QUESTION? What is the writer trying to DO with that character/theme? Don't get bogged down trying to learn the names of literary devices; we don't care that you know the names of 7 types of repetition. We DO want to know how well you know the text and how you can use the text to answer the question set. Practise planning as many essays as possible at this point.

I'd echo the advice around linking quotations to character and theme- you will quickly find there are some that are really helpful and come up over and over again.

Spend time in the exam planning 3 "big ideas", outline a thesis statement in your 1st 2 sentences (writer explores the theme of in order to make the point that OR writer uses character in order to demonstrate ) but don't get bogged down in massive bits of contextual info. Don't bother with a conclusion. Don't stress if quotations aren't learnt exactly correctly.

Reading examiner reports is really helpful - easily found online.

Source: senior English examiner, HOD English, teacher for 12 years, BA + MA in English lit.

That's good. Why don't you get a copy of the books as well and highlight the themes and telling character moments yourself so you can discuss them with her.

She must also trust what she already knows and understands - she has been studying the texts for two years and could probably have a good go at the exams questions today if she had to! She is not starting anew with these characters and themes. Use Mr Salles etc to help clarify and consolidate understanding but do not see it as a whole tranche of new information that must now be learnt. Learn some key quotations and practise, practise, practise using essay plans and paragraphs.

I'm also worried about DS1 in his English and all the written answer exams - on Maths and Science he's already getting good greades - but in English, RS and Sociology they all think he's very clever and has the potential to do well but needs to get the exam technique right. My understanding is that for the good grades, assuming a student has the basics, it's actually more important that they get down an answer for each question - that divvying up time across the paper according to the marks involved and doing your best at each question then moving on is most important. If there's time to spare at the end, sure, go back, but don't spend 5 minutes more on a question if by doing so you'll end up with no time for a final question.

I'd also think it's probably more important to actually make sure about understanding the questions and practising good answers, and getting quotes and textual references into answers in context, than worrying about rote learning. DS1 is doing the same texts.

My DS is very much organising his own studies - I would think watching versions of plays might well be useful in terms of seeing how it all fits together, so long as this isn't instead of reading and being familiar with the texts. I borrowed vinyl records of my Shakespeare play texts at A level and made tapes which I listened to on repeat. Someone in my French class very clearly hadn't read our A level French literature set texts even in English translation, but I don't think anyone was trying that in Eng Lit. Though of course it's a bit different when for most students Eng Lit is something nearly everyone does rather than an option choice at GCSE - I didn't do it at O level because I had to make difficult choices.

Also take some time on the poetry - but it's not just learning the poems off - go through all the terms that they've used and the kinds of questions on past papers for both the anthology studied and for the unseen poetry question. The point is not to show memory of the text, presumably, but ability to answer questions asked on previously read and unread poetry, and to be able to use poetry words and terms - what poetic form and devices are being used and to what effect, that kind of thing.

My son's school recommended these flash cards - he has actually been using them over the Easter holidays which is a miracle!! They are really cheap and contain lots of bitesize information on the characters and themes from the books and poetry he is studying. They also arrived the day after I placed an order. Highly recommend and wish they did them for other subjects.