Time to get serious

Ready for action

The summer term has started, and hopefully all the long AS /A2 Lit. assignments are safely handed in and out of the way. The weather has cheered up and everyone should be refreshed by the Easter break and ready for the intensity of the coming weeks.

For A Level English Lit. students now is the season of going back over texts studied earlier in the year. It is the time when you start to look at your notes and get a sight of how all the pieces fit together into a bigger picture…

Let down by your notes?

Unless, of course, you find yourself faced with pages of skimpy headings, half caught sentences or missing conclusions (but amazing doodles!) and you can’t actually make head nor tail of what they are referring to. We all have days when brain function isn’t sharp (obviously nothing to do with an active social life..) but now is not the time to panic.

Solutions

Ask nicely

Generally teachers really go the extra mile at this time of the year to help students. If you ask very nicely they are often willing to run additional revision sessions based on tricky texts or areas of concern. They know what the syllabus is asking for and are your first port of call.

Check out the web

Revision resources on the web are another useful tool, but do check that they actually cover the kind of areas that will be expected in your exam answers. Many sites (e.g. Sparknotes) are written for the American market, which covers a broader range of literature but in much less depth. Chapter synopses and one paragraph per character can only get you so far..

In greater depth are e-notes and York notes Advanced online – but you have to pay to access most of the material. The S-cool revision site asks some really helpful questions, and is free, but doesn’t provide detail on the texts.

Free, detailed, with helpful questions

Examiners know what students need to address as they get ready for external assessment, so there is logic in looking at a free access site they have had a hand in developing. Many of you already know that Crossref-it.info material is peppered with ‘Investigate’ boxes. If you are now needing to go back and plug the gaps in you’re A Level notes, why not use the questions posed as ‘prompts’ about what you need to cover?

What does it mean to revise: An author’s methods of presentation?

How on earth do you prepare for an A Level Eng. Lit exam?
Welcome to the third in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on how an author presents his/her intentions within or across texts. How can you prepare for that?

The key aim of questions like these is to get you to focus not on ‘what happens’ but how the author has crafted the text in order to elicit a particular response in the reader.

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate.

Plot

1) With whom is a reader to identify – a 1st or 3rd person narrator, a particular character?

• How has the author achieved that sense of identification?
• How does it shape the reader’s perspective on the plot?
  

2) If there is a sub-plot

• What is its relevance to the main one?
• How are the main and sub-plots interwoven?
  

3) What is the impact of presenting events chronologically / non-chronologically?

• What is the impact of any time frame on the presentation of the plot?

Narrative perspective

1) Who is telling the story and how close is the reader to him/her?
2) At what pace do events unfold – how has the author created that effect?
3) Is there direct authorial comment and/or does tone / irony / mood guide a reader’s response?

Patterning

1) What themes brought to the fore? (See previous blog in series)
2) How are imagery and / or symbolism used?
3) Are there repetitions / echoes of:

• Events
• Locations
• Family structures?
  

Description

1) How would you characterise the author’s descriptive techniques?
2) What kind of language is employed when – to what effect?
3) How do these techniques create:

• Character (see previous blog in series)
• Location and atmosphere
• Drama, tension / suspense?
  

As you cover these ideas you always need to keep in mind the intentions of the author.

Critical approaches to literature

One of the key things that makes for a successful A Level English Lit answer is the sense that you have personally engaged with the text, that it has affected your own perspective.

At the same time however, you need to show awareness that others have come to the work from a different angle – the interpretations of other readers mentioned in Assessment Objective 3.

At this level, you don’t want to get too bogged down with analysing critical approaches, but you do need to grasp the main ideas involved.

Crossref-it.info has an easy to understand introduction to the main ways in which critics have interpreted texts, particularly how these interpretations have developed over the last 30 years. Individual text guides contain sections dealing with critical approaches that arise out of the specific work, but it you want a useful overview, try exploring the various pages in the Critical approaches to literature section.

Your job is then to note down how each approach might affect the way you engage with the text you are studying and ask:

• Does it help you understand the text in a new way?
• Do you agree with this sort of interpretation?
• Does it change your personal perspective?
  

Remember, the examiner wants to know that you have thought for yourself, but can support each of your views with evidence.

Get going on A-Level revision...

Easter is coming up and with it that make or break A Level revision period. The hours you put in now will make the difference between scraping an E and hitting B or above. So be radical:

• Learn to cope with poverty as you ditch the Saturday job or at least cut your hours (going without for a few weeks now should mean better grades and therefore a better job / wage long term)
• Make an easy onscreen revision table that you can modify when you don’t meet every target (because, believe me, you will slip up) - but don’t spend ages making it pretty…
• Aim to do an hour’s revision each school/college day – yes, on top of the usual H/W
• On non-school days, divide the time into morning / afternoon / evening sessions and aim to allocate two out of three to revising
• If you have got gaps in your class notes, ask a friend or your teacher for backup info before the Easter break
• Vary the styles in which you learn: writing notes, creating mind maps, testing yourself or using on-line revision helps like Crossref-it.info are all useful ways of embedding vital information into your memory
• Pace yourself – make your breaks from work enjoyable so that your mind doesn’t get dulled
• Sort out your diet now – regular intake of Omega 3 fatty acids found in oily fish will improve your memory (whereas just eating fish fingers on exam day will have a limited effect…)
• Keep in mind why you chose your subjects in the first place - as a balance to what lies ahead, focus on how much progress you have already made since you started
• Believe you can climb the mountain of revision – as entrepreneur Henry Ford put it:
  

‘Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re probably right.’