Kids Corner: GCSE Exam strategy for English Literature

Everybody knows the best thing you can do to improve your GCSE grades is to read a lot, and know your texts well. As long as you go into the exam with a good general knowledge you should be good! Right…? Well, the truth is it will get you a good result, but not those higher numbers. To be getting a 7, 8 or 9 you need to use a little strategy, and the most important part of it is to know what the examiners are looking for in the marking scheme.

This week we will focus on what you should be including in your answers to get the best grade possible for English Literature at GCSE.

English literature exam objectives (simplified explanations):

• AO1 (approx. 40%) – Understand the plot, characters, and themes. Be able to explain them to others using evidence from the text (using relevant quotes or explanations of plot).

• AO2 (approx. 40%) – identify and analyse literary techniques used and interpret the effects they have on the reader (using relevant quotations).

• AO3 (15%)– Historical context of the text.

• AO4 (5%) – Vary your sentence structure and use accurate vocabulary to explain your opinions clearly. Use correct spelling and punctuation.

Looking at the grading scheme here you can see that AO4 is only worth 5%. That means if you are focussing on improving your spelling, punctuation, and improving your sentence structure, you are limiting your opportunities to improve your grade by 5%. By FAR the most important things you need to be able to do for literature are: understand and explain the plot, characters and themes, back up your opinions and interpretations with evidence from the text, correctly identify any literary techniques you see in texts, and explain what their effect of those techniques is on the reader.

You should also always go into an English Literature exam armed with some historical context to your texts to make sure you can scoop up some of that 15% as well. However, do not be tempted to write about the historical context of every quote, point or observation that you make! There is a limit of 15% for this content, and once you reach that limit you are taking up valuable AO1 and AO2 space! Write only what is relevant to the topics you talk about already for AO1 and AO2, this way you only have to add an extra sentence or 2 into a point you are already making about the plot, or a literary device, to collect some AO3 points!

Work smart not hard 😊 Bonus tip: Never bother including historical context in an English Language exam, there are no marks for this!