How hard is it to get a 9 in GCSE English Literature?
It is hard to get a 9 in English Literature and even talented students need to be on top of their game to gain the very highest level in this subject. But it is possible. Part of being successful is cultural and part of it is practical.
The successful student of English Literature immerses themselves not just in the texts of the course but in books and reading more generally. There is a historical and ‘cultural studies’ element to doing well here, and being what they used to call ‘well read’ – even at fifteen. Paying attention to the written world around you, thinking about it, making connections between newspapers and fiction, arguing, reading 1984 and Ian McEwan’s early short stories; this will stand you in good stead, not just in English but in your other subjects too.
But not only English boffins get 9s – those that work hard get 9s too. This work starts at the very beginning of the course and means doing your homework, asking questions in class, reading works by the course authors that are not on the course, experimenting with vocabulary, being pernickety about spelling, and about doing your revision. By the time you get to the exam you have to be able to persuade examiners that you have enjoyed your reading - and enjoy writing. It is worth saying that often the best English students do not go on to study English at A Level, so success in the subject is not the preserve of ‘literary’ people. Rather this suggests that reading is a part of all successful academic study.
Where can I find GCSE English past papers?
You should find out the specific details of which exam board you are working with as soon as you start your course. Your teacher will be happy to enlighten you. Each exam board makes past papers available, so go directly to the relevant exam board website and look in ‘assessment resources’. The only thing to be aware of is that the format and rules changed slightly during the pandemic, so it’s worth looking at papers pre-2020 and post-2022 to get a sense of how your own exam should look. Exam boards do have a habit of changing the emphasis of papers slightly so it’s worth asking your teacher or tutor for the most up to date information.
The best techniques to revise for GCSE English Literature
As these are ‘closed book’ exams - i.e. you won’t be able to take copies of your texts into the exam hall – there is no substitute to knowing your texts inside out. For a Grade 9, this means reading the text multiple times and being able to call to mind precise references to particular incidents and being able to chart the development or otherwise of characters. (The nature of ‘best reference’ is discussed in the ‘examiner’s report’ section below).
However, transforming textual knowledge into useful exam material is a different game and requires you to think about what you know in terms of theme, character, language and structure. Harvest every relevant exam question you can get your hands on and methodically plan each exam; make topic-based paragraph plans that revolve around quotations or references. In this way you will build a solid base of textual knowledge and move towards discursive writing that juggles ideas, characters, structures and contexts.
You need to know what examiners call contexts. There is some debate as to what exactly this means, but it does not mean knowing when Dickens was born, or that Shakespeare left his second best bed to his wife in his will. Unattached trivia will get you nowhere, but being able to compare ideas (as you are required to do in at least one of your exams), being able to comment on how different poets approach the subject of post-traumatic stress, for example, and how this relates to the respective contexts, will get you top marks. Being able to do this in sophisticated English that is both fluid and flexible, and does not get blinded by jargon or terminology, will get you more.
How to plan revision for GCSE English Literature
- For novels and plays, take five substantial quotes each for all major themes and characters; anonymise them; copy them onto individual filing cards; shuffle them; get a friend or family member to read them out and test you on who said what and why, and at what point in the book, and why those quotes are so important. Spread the cards in front of you and choose the five most relevant that you would use in answering each question from a long list of past exam questions that you have prepared.
- For poems, reduce each poem in your anthology to five key lines, then one. Justify your choice. Which of those key individual lines connect to others from the anthology and why? Make a quad box and note down what you like about each poem, what you don’t like – and why. Also note any puzzles and patterns.
Key findings from past examiners reports for GCSE English Literature
Advice from examiners varies from board to board and paper to paper so it is worth searching up any specific queries you may have. Examiners seem to know that students are now going to these reports for help and have often made an effort to humanise at least some aspects of their reporting, moving away from technical speak and even in some cases including an ‘Advice for students section’.
Tips from examiners for those aiming for a Grade 9:
- Be flexible in your planning and writing, moving away from PEE or PETAL-type plans that can be overly programmatic and restrict you from layered expression, or break your flow – or just from writing well. Conversely, plan well but plan flexibly – perhaps minimally - and give yourself room to think as you write. This does not preclude firmly grounding your essays in a solid thesis statement. Decide on a broad approach at the outset, firmly engaging with the question, and be prepared to riff on your theme. Foreground quotes or references in any plan.
- You are not expected to rote-learn vast and precise swathes of quotation. What is assessed here, rather, for AO1, is your knowledge of and response to a text. This means you get marks not just for broadly accurate quotations but also precise allusions to specific moments, passages, plots or character developments.
- Look to the question to inform your application of contextual material (AO3) and do not ‘bolt-on’ irrelevant historical or biographical information. Ground your discussion of the clash between socialist and capitalist values in An Inspector Calls, for example, in analysis of character and idea. Otherwise, it risks being meaningless.
- Many mark schemes have moved away from prescribing that students comment on language, structure and form, instead now require them to comment on ‘methods’ – which is the same thing. The point is that one should not be led by ‘technique spotting’ of the kind that does not inform but rather restricts the discussion of authorial choices. Stephen Kelman may use slang in Pidgeon English, but why, and why does this ramp up during the course of the novel, and what prestige does the narrator attach to it, and why?