Revision Tips for English Students

People often ask me how they can revise for English so here are some tips that have got me through my GCSEs, A Levels and degree.

I publish these tips on Instagram and Facebook weekly so will update this resource as I post new tips.

1.Keep Track

Break your revision into manageable chunks (e.g. key themes and characters from your texts)

Make a table on which you list what you need to revise with about 5 empty columns. Tick every time you revise a topic so that you keep track of your revision for this unit. (You can find tables like this on my website; look for the Revision Checklists)

 

2. Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

Read and reread your set texts. If this is a chore for you, you could try listening to the audiobook or listening to it on YouTube (you can speed up the pace if it feels a bit slow). If it is an open book exam, try to follow along with the text as you listen as you need to know your way around the actual book in the exam.

Watch performances of your texts, if they are available.

3. Identify the Big Events

Identify what the main events are and know where to find them in the text if your exam is open book. These ‘big events’ are likely to be useful evidence for a range of questions. Try to learn by heart where these significant events happen (e.g. In The Handmaid’s Tale, know the chapters where the Ceremony and the Particicution takes place and in which chapter they go to Jezebels or in Macbeth, know in which scene the murder of Duncan takes place and when the Ghost of Banquo appears).

4. Check your notes

Check that you have good notes and annotations on every poem in your anthology. Your teacher may have asked other students to prepare presentations on certain poems so some of your notes may not be as detailed or helpful as others. You don’t want to realise this the night before the exam!

5. The ‘Friends’ Method

As you read, try to reduce each chapter or scene to a very brief summary or caption (think about the way Friends episodes are named: The One where…). Put these summaries on revision cards with the chapter/scene number on the back and keep testing yourself. Spread them out on the floor and try to put them in order.

6. Key Parts

Learn where key scenes are (important speeches, confrontations, deaths etc.)

These are likely to be useful for a range of exam questions and will also help you navigate your way around the play/novel.

If your question asks you to link to the rest of text, it’s helpful to know the sequence of events so that you can say whether the event happens earlier or later in the text.

7. Character Mind Maps

For each of the main characters in each text, make a mind map. You should include:

• Key characteristics with a quotation for each one
• Important relationships
• Significant moments in the text, including important speeches

Look at this regularly; cover bits of it up and try to remember them; recreate the mind map from memory.

8. Terminology

If you can, try to use the correct terminology in your English exams.

Try writing key words on notes and sticking them in places where you will see them often (the places that worked for me were my dressing table mirror, the biscuit tin and the back of the bathroom door!)

9. Use colour

When making revision materials, use different coloured paper or pens for different themes or characters. Associating a particular topic with a specific colour can act as a memory jogger – as well as just making it more engaging to look at!

10. Revisit

Hopefully, you have produced a range of revision resources by now. Don’t just file them away, try these things to keep them fresh in your mind:

• read them regularly
• try to reproduce them from memory
• add quotations to them
• reduce them to fewer words.

 

11. Plan exam answers (particularly important for A Level Literature)

Plan essays for all of the main characters and themes in your texts.

For each one:

• think of what your thesis would be
• find evidence from the text that would help you argue this
• plan the analytical points you would make about this evidence
• think about any relevant links to context (and which critics you could refer to, if this is required).

Going through the planning process thoroughly as part of your revision should save you from having to think an idea through from scratch in the exam.

12. Get out of your bedroom

Do some active revision – you don’t need to be shut in your room for months leading up to the exams! Go for a walk or a coffee with a friend in your class and talk through how you would answer questions on certain characters or themes from your Literature texts.

Not only will you benefit from another person’s perspective on this, but being able to argue your ideas will really help to boost how confident you feel about your knowledge of the text.

13. Timed Essays

Make sure you know how long your exams last and how long you will have for each answer; you need to be able to write for this amount of time. Think of this like training for a marathon – you wouldn’t do that without training, so make sure your hand can keep going for the whole exam and that you can get your essays written in that time.

If you will be handwriting in the exam, you need to do your essay practice by hand too.

14. Get feedback

Following on from Tip 13, get your practice timed essays marked and pay close attention to the feedback; be willing to do them again until you are happy with your mark. Your teacher should be willing to mark extra timed essays but, if not, try my proofreading service.

15. Theme Posters

Make sure you know the main themes in each text. For each one, make a poster on which you

• note all the places where it appears in the text
• pick out quotations relating to the theme to explode/analyse
• consider how it links to the context or the writer’s purpose (i.e. what are they trying to show/say?)

There are lists of themes for many popular GCSE texts on my website. Search for Revision Checklists in my Resource area.

16. Learn quotations

Learn key quotations which reflect the main themes or typify a character. Even if your exam is an open book exam, it can save you time trying to find them when you’re under pressure.

Try the ‘look, cover, write, check’ method you used for learning spellings at primary school. Keep testing yourself so that you don’t forget them.

Don’t put off doing this – the earlier your start, the more you can learn.

17. Sequencing scenes

Write the opening and closing lines of each scene on cards with the act and scene number on the back. You can test yourself on both sides on these cards.

Try spreading them out on the floor with the quotation side up and trying to sequence them.

This will help you secure the plot and focus on the dramatic significance of the way scenes are started and finished.

18. The big events

Work out what the key events in your text are (these are likely to be useful to refer to in an exam response)

For each one, note down:

• what happens
• where it appears in your text (chapter, act, scene) so that you know the sequence of events
• why it is important to the plot
• a great quotation from that part of the text

Test your self on this information. Knowing this will give you a sound knowledge of the important parts of the text, even if you haven’t had time to read the book again.

19. Context

Many, but not all, English Literature exams will require you to understand and comment on any relevant social, historical, biographical or cultural context that might have influenced your text.

For each text:

• Make a list or mind map of this information.
• For each item, make sure you can explain how it might have influenced the writer or what they may have wanted to show in their writing. This part is as important as the first – there’s no point in knowing the context if you can’t comment on its effect.

20. Learn the generic conventions

If your exam requires you to write about context, don’t just think about historical or biographical information. Generic conventions are the typical features of the genre of your book (i.e. The Sign of Four is a detective novel, so the generic conventions are a detective, crime, a victim, clues, red herrings etc)

Make a list of the generic conventions for your set texts with an example of each from the text.

Make sure you can comment on any ways your book deviates from this list.

21. Numbered lists

If you have things you need to learn by heart, (e.g. lists of structural features to look for in your Language paper ), try writing them in a numbered list in alphabetical order.

This makes it much easier to learn the whole list and know if you have missed anything.

22. Ask for help

If there are parts that you don’t understand as you’re revising, make a list of questions for your teacher or tutor. They are there to help you so use them!

Do this as soon as possible; teachers are not going to be available to help you in the early hours of the morning of your exam!

23. Practise with past papers

Get a list of past questions. All but the most recent exam papers are on the board’s website for you to access, or your teacher will be able to give you a list. It’s unlikely these particular questions will come up again, but themes and characters are often repeated so it’s worthwhile practising with some of these questions.

Hand these in and ask your teacher to mark them.

24. Look at mark schemes

In the last tip, I advised you to look at past papers so that you could practise exam answers.

A way of making this even more effective is to look at the mark schemes; these are published by the exam board with the past papers. These usually include exemplar answers. Reading these will help you recognise the type of thing the examiners are looking for and see how you could introduce this into your own answers.

Try marking your own practice answers or swap your work with a friend who you trust to be honest with you.

25. Revision Timetable

A revision timetable is an important way of ensuring you have covered all that you need for your examinations. With less than two months until the first English exam, you should have one in place by now.

Look at the article in the Resources area for some tips and suggestions about revision timetabling.

26. Annotating poems from memory

Print out blank copies of your set poems and annotate them from memory.

Compare what you have written to your class notes and fill in any gaps in another colour.

27. Different summaries

You should know the main themes in each of your poems (i.e. pride, family relationships, memory). The themes will be the steers of the exam questions(i.e. Compare how pride is presented…)

Try writing summaries of each poem using these theme words. Your summary will change according to which theme you’re focusing on. Try to comment on what the poet is trying to say about this theme. These will form the thesis statement for your answers.

28. Revise by theme

For each theme in the poem, write three points the poet is making about that theme. For each, find a suitable quotation and explode this.

Consider how the structure and form of the poem may relate to the theme too.

29. Unseen Poetry Practice

Practise responding to unseen poems; your teacher should be able to give you some and you can access past papers on the exam board websites.

Annotate them using the ALSO approach (What is the poem ABOUT? Pick out interesting LANGUAGE features. Pick out relevant STRUCTURAL features. Any OTHER things you notice)

30. Look, cover, write, check

There is a reason you used this system to learn spellings when you were at primary school – it works!

Hopefully by now, you have made your revision notes, mind maps, cards etc so now, you should be actively using them and testing yourself.

Do this as frequently as you can. If you get any wrong, put the resource in a pile you will return to soon; if you get them all right, make a ‘success pile’ you can look at to feel great about the amount you have learnt.

31. Quick plans

Try this quick essay planning revision technique:

• Find a past/sample question.
• Think of 3-5 arguments you could make to answer the question.
• For each one, find evidence to support your view and a link to the context/author’s intention.
• Come up with a thesis statement that links your arguments to the question.

32. Prioritise

When you are trying to juggle ‘last minute’ revision for every exam you have in a week, you need to prioritise.

Your priority for English Literature exams is to know the plots of your texts and what the main characters do. Examiners would rather you made relevant references to appropriate parts of the text rather than you including as less relevant quotation just because you have learnt it so knowing the story is really important.

33. Models and Exemplars

If you are worried about freezing in the exam and not being able to start, make sure you learn key structures for each question. Knowing how to answer the question is as important as knowing your subject content.

Try reading model essays given by your teachers or the exam boards (or your own best essays) so that you go into the exam with a clear idea of what a good response looks like. Don’t use AI for this – it doesn’t know as much as your teachers!

34. Testing

During the exam period, you should be familiar with the content of your subjects and the structure of the answers. Consolidate this getting someone to test you with quick fire questions.

Most parents find the exam period nearly as stressful as you so will probably be happy to help with this.