Aiming for the Top Grades

Getting a Grade 7 or above

Students who get the high grades in English Language and English Literature have a few things in common.

For Literature, the best way to get the high grades is to know your texts really well.

• Read your texts with the Study Guide, making notes on each page, underlining key quotes and writing down key ideas

• Get a hardback book for each text and break down your text into key moments - analysing extracts and making notes about language and literary devices used.

• Make detailed notes on key characters - think about their function in the text. Remove them - what do you lose?

• Plan for a variety of questions

• Read exemplar Grade 7/8/9 responses

For Language, the best way to get the high grades is to practice reading and writing skills

• Read articles in newspapers - writers like Caitlin Moran are excellent for this - and try to track and follow their ideas and arguments

• Work through the Section B Scheme of Work. Make sure you understand the conventions of different forms of writing and practice past exam questions

• Plan for a variety of questions

• Read exemplar Grade 7/8/9 responses

• Use this website https://oxplore.org/ - You answer an initial philosophical question: e.g. is love bad for you is the one on there today, and then there are loads of links to interesting articles, opinion pieces, videos and TED talks etc. I think it's great.

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06pzmr4/episodes/player?page=2 - A podcast covering current affairs