Surviving Alevel English

As every english student knows, the biggest bane of Alevel english is its questions, analysis and that list of never ending reading and ofcourse the existence of shakespeare and what your teacher joyfully calls the `classics`. So, how can we make it easier on you? Hopefully this small tips will help to get you through!

Start of term: as soon as you find what books you`ll be studying, begin researching it. Don`t wait for your teacher to tell you, take the initiative and you`ll be soo thankful for it. By research I mean,read the book and then study it; look up on its background, historical context, and more importantly character analysis and scene/chapter summaries. This will give you a good background before your classmates have even opened their fresh or not so fresh copies.

Mid term: by now, you`ll have finished reading the book as a class and will have attempted some exam style questions. This is where it gets serious. All the new words and concepts you come across, make notes, draw examples and learn it. Vocabularly in my humble opinion is a quarter of your paper. Start drawing up solid essay structures and responses to examination questions for practise. PEE will become your best friend. However as you`ll soon discover, the gcse days of writing a somewhat coherent essay are long gone and the level of sophistication needed at alevel is good practise for degree level writings, so its good to practise early!

Last term: revise the book, key concepts, vocabularly and character profiles not to mention themes and chapter analysis. Answer as many exam questions as possible. And really really know your texts.

Questions? Let me know! And if you`d like to request a survival guide for any other subjects, do also let me know and I`ll be more than happy to oblige.