How to Ace AQA English Literature GCSE: Tips and Tricks for Success
A teenage boy studying at his desk

How to Ace AQA English Literature GCSE: Tips and Tricks for Success

20th Dec 2024

Introduction

Love it or loathe it, GCSE English Literature is coming at you like an unstoppable Dickensian steam train.

Poems, with their rhythms beating like the thrum of a locomotive, are coming to get you. JB Priestley is likely coming to get you. Shakespeare’s 100% coming to get you…

Quite frankly, it’s terrifying! What on earth can you do to get off these tracks before you’re flattened by AQA English Literature GCSE?

You have no idea? Nothing? Well, it’s a good thing we’re here for you. Get ready for some must-know info and some seriously top tips for getting out of this hell hole alive.

AQA? Eh?

That’s the exam board. Double-check who will be setting you the final exams.

But be careful – with other exam boards, the books are sometimes different and the marks allocated for assessment objectives vary. You don’t want to prep yourself for the wrong exam.

What Should I Have Learned?

Is it all a bit hazy? There’s been a teacher at the front of the classroom talking about some bloke who wants to be king. Macduff? Macdonwald? Macdonaldwonaldwald?

Macbeth… ah yes. There are so many Macs. (Macdonwald was the leader of the rebel forces if you’re wondering).

Or maybe you have been listening, and it’s all just got a bit out of hand. Because there’s a lot to cover in AQA GCSE English Literature.

For the two LONG exams, you’ll study:

  1. A Shakespeare play
  2. A pre-1900 text - A Christmas Carol, Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde perhaps
  3. A post-1900 text - An Inspector Calls and Lord of the Flies are the most popular
  4. 15 poems which will either be from the Power and Conflict cluster or the Love and Relationships cluster
  5. Unseen poems. Yes, that’s right. You need to tackle poems you’ve never seen before… What is this torture?

Oh, Dear God. What’s the Point?

  1. It depends. If you plan to follow a path that is in any way artistic, this subject will allow you to analyse and appreciate the work of geniuses. You can’t become a genius without understanding what makes one.
  2. You’ll learn to be more critical. English literature forces you to think for yourself. If you want to avoid becoming a sheep (baa!), then the skills you learn for AQA GCSE English Literature will set you up for life.
  3. Culture, darling. It’s important. It’s what separates humans from animals. Do you want to be part of it? Just a little bit?
  4. Communication. The AQA English Literature GCSE forces you to think through difficult concepts and to communicate your ideas clearly and concisely. This skill will help you with your future career and ensure you don’t annoy your mates with a badly written Snapchat message.
  5. All GCSEs will help to nudge you towards the next step in your career journey, but English Literature is a well-respected course that shows that you are capable of so much: reading, writing, attention to detail, analysis, and empathy.

Oh, All Right Then. I’m In. Is It Hard, Though?

You want me to tell you it’s easy?

It is tough. You need to know your texts inside out including tons of quotations, and you need to build the skills to write the essays too. In some ways, English literature is a particularly tough GCSE because there’s a lot to revise and you need to learn to craft your essays as well.

However, English Literature does have one massive benefit over English Language. You’ve read the books with your teachers. That means you can soak up their knowledge and interpretations. Aren’t you lucky?

Use that benefit. Make sure you write down/listen to/inhale every word your teachers and tutors say because this is golden knowledge you can use.

And You Said You Have Some More Top Tips?

Oh yeah. Let’s go!

  1. Know the assessment objectives:
    • Assessment objective 1 - Argue your point strongly using your best English and best essay writing abilities.
    • Assessment objective 2 - Discuss the author’s craft. What language do they use and why? What about the way the writer organises the piece?
    • Assessment objective 3 - Weave context into your answers. This means you need to discuss the real world. What was going on at the time that the author wrote the piece? What was their life like? What were their attitudes?
    You need to cover all three assessment objectives to be successful.
  2. QUOTATIONS! You cannot reach your potential in the AQA English Literature GCSE exam if you don’t have a variety of quotations that you can draw on from your texts.
  3. When writing essays, cover as many parts of the text as possible to show you know about the whole play, poem or novel rather than just a few key scenes.
  4. Watch films to revise… However, be cautious. Too many students have lost marks writing about the film adaptations rather than the books. There is no frog or pig in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Shakespeare did not include guns or a fish tank in Romeo and Juliet. Be careful.
  5. If you want to stand out with examiners, read the books and annotate them multiple times. This will help you deeply understand the plots, characters and themes.
  6. Use some resources to revise:
    • Mr Bruff has a plethora of literature resources for all of the AQA exams.
    • Take advantage of past papers on the GCSE English Literature AQA website. You can complete extra essays and have your teacher or a tutor read them.
    • There are revision resources on BBC Bitesize.

Conclusion

So don’t forget: that Dickensian steam train is coming for you. Before you know it, you’ll be sitting in an exam hall being asked about poems that you only vaguely remember reading right now. You will be expected to know some quotes.

I think you have this though. You read this blog, didn’t you? That was the first step on your revision journey.

Now act.

Go and ace literature.