Choosing and Learning Flexible Quotations (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

What is a flexible quotation?

A flexible quotation is a short quotation that you can use to answer several different exam questions. A good flexible quotation:

• Is short: a word or a phrase of a few words, so it is easy to remember and to fit into your own sentence

• Links to more than one theme or character: so you can use it for a wide range of questions

• Contains a method you can analyse: such as an image, a command or a repeated word, so you have something to say about how the writer creates meaning

For example, Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me here” is only three words long, but it can help you write about her character, about ambition, about gender and about the supernatural.

Flexible quotations also stop you forcing a learned quotation into an answer where it doesn’t fit. Examiners often see answers that use a learned quotation, and the analysis that goes with it, whether or not it fits the question.

How to choose flexible quotations

Follow these steps for each of your texts:

• List the main characters and themes: these are what exam questions ask about

• Pick short quotations for each one: choose a word or phrase, not a whole speech

• Test each quotation against other characters and themes: keep the ones that work for two or more, and replace the ones that only work for one

• Spread them across the text: include quotations from the beginning, middle and end, so you can show how characters and ideas change

• Learn the moment each one comes from: know who says it, when and why, so you use it accurately

The last step matters because a short quotation can mislead you if you forget where it comes from. Examiners have seen students use Macbeth’s “bloody instructions” as evidence that he is naturally violent, when the speech is about his fears of killing Duncan.

The table below shows how one flexible quotation from Macbeth can help you answer three different AQA exam questions.

Quotation: “unsex me here” (Lady Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5)

The quotation stays the same each time. What you say about it changes to fit the question.

How many quotes should you learn?

There is no set number, and examiners don’t count your quotations: they reward quotations that are well chosen and fit your argument. As a guide, learn three or four short quotations for each main character and theme. Because flexible quotations work for more than one character or theme, you’ll need fewer in total than this suggests.

You also don’t need to remember every quotation word for word. The section on what to do if you forget a quotation, below, explains why.

How to memorise quotes for English Literature

Learning the words of a quotation is only half the job. To use it in the exam, you also need to know what it shows. Try making a revision card like this for each quotation:

Then use these methods to make the quotations stick:

• Test yourself from memory: look at the front of the card, say what’s on the back aloud, then check. Testing yourself works better than rereading, because it makes your brain find the answer

• Revisit them little and often: go back to each quotation over several weeks rather than cramming the night before, so it stays in your long-term memory

Learning quotations for your AQA English Literature exam

You can’t take your set texts into any of your AQA English Literature exams, but most questions print an extract or a poem for you. The Shakespeare and 19th-century novel questions print an extract, the poetry anthology question prints one named poem, and the unseen poetry section prints both poems. Only the modern text question prints nothing. This table shows where you need quotations from memory: