How to revise for GCSE English
Not sure where to begin with your GCSE English revision? Here are our top tips to help you out!
Read in your free time. Try your best to read regularly (maybe just 15 minutes a day) and read something that interests you. This could be fiction or non-fiction but pay attention to any new words or techniques you see. For example, if you see a word you haven't read before try and look up what it means. You could ask yourself questions as you read such as "what is the reader doing here to capture my interest" or "can I find any metaphors in this page".
Know your exam board. Unlike maths, the GCSE English papers can vary quite a lot between exam boards. Different exam boards will vary in structure and content. Make sure you know your exam board and focus your revision to their papers.
Learn your literary devices. Why not make flash cards for all the literary devices (such as metaphors, similes, and personification) or set a timer and see how many you can list before the timer goes off. Practice identifying them in a text and explaining the effects they may have.
Practice exam-style questions. Download the past papers for your exam board and give them a go. Once you've completed them, try to get feedback from a parent, teacher, tutor or friend. You can then reattempt the questions by replacing the image or text with another. Why not search online for a text or image that interests you and try to reapply the question to that.
Get your SPaG in check. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are particularly important in the writing sections. Make sure you know where to put full stops and capital letters. If you can, practice using more complex punctuation such as semi-colons.