I have my resit for English Lit in a month and I feel like I’ve forgotten everything, I’ve even lost my books with my annotations, I feel like I have so much to revise that I don’t know where to start. I got a 6 last time and this time I need an 8-9?

Hi- my top three tips for those grade 8-9 responses ✅ know shorter quotes that most students won’t use. Avoid the obvious ones e.g in Macbeth “A dagger I see before me.” ✅ provide a compelling introduction that sets out your argument “Most interpretations of Romeo and Juliet have seen it is a classic love, however, at its core, it is a deeply violent play in the context of political turmoil.” ✅ for AO3, move beyond historical and biographical context and into literary context. For example, to why can we consider The Prelude as a classic of the Romantic movement?

For all the different sections of your paper, the one thing that will help you the most is to make sure you have a clear argument i.e. do not go against what the statement/ question is suggesting, unless there's evidence and quotes throughout the novel/extract that support your argument. Before an exam, make sure you have a rough plan of what you would like to talk about, so that when you start writing, you don't need to constantly think about your points. in order to secure a 8-9 you must add in-depth explanations and understandings of the texts i.e. what is the author/poet trying to say between the lines? what is the message that they are trying to convey? make sure not to chunk and write in a AABB sequence. instead you should write through a cross referencing technique of ABAB. This enables your essay to become more free flowing and engages the examiner a lot more. embed your quotes!!! do not just drop a quote in the middle of your essay or say 'a quote that shows this is'. rather than this, use the phrases and words of the quote, in your actual sentence. use revision resources such as critic essays. read over different responses of different themes to get a general idea of what the writer is trying to portray. annotate all over them and use it as a template to for your own ideas hope this helps!!!! if you need any resources, or somebody to mark an essay for you i'd be glad to do it!!!

My advice would be to create loose essay plans around different themes and characters in the texts you have studied e.g. for 'An Inspector Calls', create a plan for the points you will make should the question be based on Sheila. Then, learn the quotes based around these points. For a higher grade, make sure that you create a sense of debate. If you have any questions or would like further help, please drop me a message!

You can start by creating mind maps of the books or plays you studied from online Spark Notes. You can even purchase the relevant Sparknotes guide (for your texts) in hard copy from Amazon or a book store. That will have all the basic things you need to get a 6. If you want an 8 or 9 in Literature then you will have to have original points so think of original arguments and try to do as much past paper practice and show someone who can Mark it harshly and give you feedback.