Top five tips to improve your GCSE English Literature Grade

Spoiler: None of them involve memorising 100s of quotations!

Tip 1: Know your AOs

Be clear about which assessment objectives are being assessed on for each question.

Many candidates limit their marks by forgetting to include a key element of the marking criteria such as context or analysis of writer’s methods.

The examiner cannot give you marks for something if it’s not there!

Tip 2: Manage your timings

Don’t be tempted to over run on a question!

Candidates who manage their time to write consistent responses across the paper achieve more highly than those who don’t.

Tip 3: Know the plot

First and foremost the examiner wants to see that you understand how the plot, character and themes develop in the text (not that you can memorise lots of fragmented quotations)! The analysis and context should underpin this knowledge – not be the focus of the response.

Tip 4: Cover the text

The exam question will focus on either an extract or the text as a whole. You need to explore how the character or theme is presented at the beginning, middle and end of the text that you have been given, in order to look at how it develops.

Tip 5: Marginal Gains

Can you look to make tweaks to your responses to pick up 2-3 marks on each question? Did you know that (with the exception of Grade 3 to 4) there are around 10 marks in a Grade Boundary? Not for individual questions... for the ENTIRE PAPER! The Literature exam has 5 sections.

2 more marks on each section = approx 1 Grade Boundary!

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