How to Revise for Your English Literature GCSE Exam

If you are looking for new ideas for how to revise for your English literature GCSE or you are stuck in a bit of a revision rut, read on to find lots of inspiration and fresh approaches to help you with your revision today.

I will also share some secrets of exam success with you by revealing the revision tips that my top-performing students have used to get a grade 9.

With so many different texts to revise, including Shakespeare, 19th-century novels and unseen poems, it can feel a bit challenging to know how to begin your GCSE English literature revision. But with a few proven revision tips and handy hints, you can prepare confidently for your exams and feel focused and motivated to start your exams. 

Understand the Exam Structure

Start by familiarising yourself with the different formats and requirements of your GCSE English literature exams. Whether you are studying AQA, Edexcel, WJEC or OCR GCSE English literature, all the exam boards’ specifications are broadly similar, although the texts and exam questions will differ. 

You will sit two exam papers and your exams will be closed book (so you can’t bring your texts into the exam with you). Each paper is worth 40–60 per cent of your grade, so find out how many marks each question is worth, the length of each exam, and look at how your exam board frames each question so you are familiar with the format. 

• In Paper 1 or Component 1, you will answer two questions

• In Paper 2 or Component 2, you will answer three questions

Here’s a quick outline of the types of questions you will be asked: 

When you’ve understood the exam structure and different question types, take a look at the marking criteria and the four different assessment objectives for English literature (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4). Rewrite the assessment objectives in your own words to make sure you understand them and check which assessment objective is marked in each question and its percentage value. 

Now you are ready for the next step. 

Create a Revision Schedule

It’s tempting to start revising the texts or areas you are most confident with or enjoy the most, but these are usually the topics you hardly need to revise at all. 

Instead, start by identifying your weakest areas of subject knowledge or the skills you need to work on. This will help you to break the syllabus into manageable sections. Look again at recent assessments or mock exams you’ve completed — were there any questions you found particularly challenging? Make a list and use traffic light colour-coding (red, amber and green) to prioritise your revision topics in order of importance. These are your revision targets.

Now you can create a detailed revision plan or schedule using a revision timetable, setting specific goals for each study session. Plan to study in short bursts of no more than 20–40 minutes and only revise your target texts, skills or question types to begin with, until you start to feel more confident about them. 

Here are some examples of specific goals or revision tasks you could try when revising English literature GCSE: 

• Reread my class notes on the theme of the supernatural in Macbeth, underlining key points and quotations. Put my notes away and create a set of revision flashcards by recalling everything I can remember, and then ask a friend to test me. Use a different coloured pen to add any information I didn’t remember to my flashcard — this is what I need to revise in future.

• Summarise my class notes on a key character in no more than 150 words in a mindmap. Write three of my own exam-style questions on this character.

• Make a list of all the themes and poems featured in past paper poetry anthology questions. Choose one (difficult) question and complete a five-minute essay plan, summarising the three paragraphs I would write and any quotations I can remember. After creating my plan, look at my notes and add anything essential that I didn’t remember.

• Using last year’s exam paper on my 19th-century novel, write a ten-minute timed paragraph, with a topic sentence outlining my main idea or argument (including any key words from the question). Review the marking criteria to assess how I did.

Effective Revision Techniques

There are so many brilliant revision strategies and methods you can use to revise for English literature GCSE. One of my top tips – gathered from over 12 years of helping students to succeed at GCSE – is to make sure you don’t waste time passively rereading through your class notes or simply copying your notes into a different format. 

Instead, put your notes to one side and try to use more active learning methods such as mind mapping and summarising, which can help you to recall what you know from your memory. This technique is also known as retrieval practice. According to revision experts and cognitive scientists, this approach works because when you practise bringing information to mind, your memory for that information is strengthened and you remember it for longer. 

You might also find it helpful to engage in group discussions or run study sessions with others. By working with friends or peers — and teaching others what you know — you can practise another revision technique called elaboration. This is when you explain and describe ideas with details and examples. You might also find it more motivating to learn with others. 

Be creative and experiment with a range of different revision strategies to see what works best for you. For example, if you are finding it difficult to remember a tricky key word or quotation, try dual coding, which means combining the words with drawings (emojis work well) to make it more memorable. Try watching a quick revision video and then explain everything you can remember in 40 seconds to a friend, or make your own revision video on your phone, summarising what you’ve just learnt. The act of recalling and explaining something makes it more memorable. 

Sometimes just trying something different or fun can help to make information stick in your memory. My students have enjoyed decorating chairs with sticky notes to represent a key theme or using wipeable window pens to create a graffiti-style revision word cloud for a key character (with quotations). 

Text Analysis and Annotation

Another quick and effective way to revise GCSE English literature is by using a technique you’ve probably practised lots of times in lessons. This is when you read a poem, prose text or play and annotate it, identifying any interesting aspects of language, structure and form. 

In your English literature GCSE exam, you will need to be confident with annotating unseen poems or key extracts from your set texts under timed conditions. Simply turn to any page in a relevant set text and annotate it in detail, spending around five minutes looking at the key features of the writer’s craft. Some of my students have found it helpful to use the left-hand margin to note literary techniques and the right-hand margin for their questions and analysis of the effect of the writer’s craft. 

Here are some simple but effective ways to improve your annotation and text analysis skills: 

• Read the text aloud (or in your head, a technique known as silent speech or subvocalising) as this can help you to spot interesting techniques like rhyming couplets or alliteration that you might otherwise overlook.

• Skim and scan the text, highlighting or circling key words and techniques. Look at sentence type and length, and whether there is any repetition of words or phrases, or interesting linking of ideas.

• Try using simple abbreviations such as rep. for repetition or meta. for metaphor to save time.

• Ask yourself quick prompt questions such as “Why?” and “Effect?” to help you consider the writer’s choices and intentions and your own responses to the text.

If you can develop effective annotation strategies for poems, prose texts and plays by practising this sort of close reading technique, you will also enhance your reading comprehension skills (which will help in your GCSE English Language Exam too). 

Practise Using Past English Literature GCSE Papers

All of my students who achieved the highest grades in English regularly practised writing timed responses using past paper questions. It’s one of the best ways to revise for GCSE English literature because it is quick and effective, and helps you to identify any gaps in your knowledge or skills, revealing what you need to revise next. 

By familiarising yourself with the style of the exam questions, including the command words your exam board uses (the words that tell you how you should answer the question), you’ll feel more confident when you are in the exam hall under exam conditions. More importantly, using GCSE past papers can also help you to identify the questions that students have already been asked about your text. 

My top-attaining students found that the best way to use past exam questions is to practise writing timed essay plans (in roughly five minutes) – a bullet point summary of ideas organised in three or four paragraphs. They were also able to build their exam technique and confidence by regularly writing timed paragraphs (in about ten minutes), using these quick essay plans. 

My students found that the more timed paragraphs they wrote, the more they enjoyed it. Their confidence grew rapidly too, as they could see how much they were improving. They felt as if they had found a secret key to exam success — and they had: practice makes perfect! 

By writing a practice paragraph every day in the run-up to your exams, you’ll also build stamina and train your hand to write faster in the real exam. 

Ask your teacher for feedback or see if your classmates or peers will give you any suggestions for ways to improve on your practice essays or timed paragraphs. Their insights will help you to improve. 

Another great revision tip is to write your own exam-style questions and produce model answers for them. This approach works because it helps you to think and write like an examiner while also anticipating questions you might encounter on the day of the exam. 

Look at exam board past papers for GCSE English Literature. 

Stress Management and Self-care

You probably already know that a really important part of revising for GCSE English literature – or any exam – is to actively manage your stress levels and stay calm in the weeks and months running up to your exams. Feeling stressed is a natural response to pressure. It can help us to feel motivated to get things done, but it can also become overwhelming at times.

You can combat exam stress by being aware of its impact on you: 

• Prioritise the fundamentals of self-care by eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep

• Try relaxation techniques like deep breathing and visualisation

• Be kind to yourself: make time to do things you enjoy, take regular revision breaks, and talk about the pressures you feel with others

Summary 

What’s the best advice for revising for GCSE English literature? 

• Revise actively in short bursts

• Target your weakest areas of knowledge 

• Vary the revision approaches you use 

• Write timed paragraphs to recall what you know using past paper questions

• Combat stress through self-care, exercise and good nutrition 

Boost your Grade with more English Literature GCSE Revision Tips

Get the grade you want with our essential guide to How to Get a Grade 9 in GCSE English Literature or read our expert exam advice on How to Write a GCSE English Literature Essay. 

If you are looking for more support with your revision, check out our detailed GCSE English Literature revision resources including examiners’ tips, model answers and key quotations to help you succeed.