So if you're in the same place as me and have an English Literature exam coming up then hopefully this will help you. I'm sitting this exam on the 9th January, and it is 35% of the GCSE and most of the exam is based on Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck ( if this is the book you studied of course!).
Hopefully in this post I will help you how to revise for this exam or any exam based on a book you have studied.
1. My first step in preparing for this exam would be to re-read the book.
This will help to remind you on the key events and the overall plot of the book. This leads me onto my next point;
2. Which is to write summaries for each chapter.
This is great to write on flashcards or on quizlet so that when you need to go over the plot and events then you can get the information quickly instead of reading the whole book again. You may even be able to find these summaries already there for you if you got a specific GCSE copy of the book you are studying (they're usually at the front of each chapter!)
3. Draw spider diagrams.
Spider diagrams are perfect for condensing information onto one page instead of having to search through pages of notes to find the important details.
You can make the spider diagrams on different characters, themes, context etc. Remember to use different colours and highlight details, this is great for organising your spider diagram into different sections.
4.Write Flashcards.
This is to help you remember things off by heart such as quotes and key information. Also, like I said before, these are helpful for writing summaries. These can even just be in bullet points.
5. Use given links
You may have been given links by your teacher to help you revise. USE THEM! The teacher is here to help you and these may be really useful. If you have not received links to videos or useful websites etc, you can use these:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosemicemen/
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/
https://www.yorknotes.com/gcse/of-mice-and-men/revision-cards/00_characters
http://northleamingtonschool.warwickshire.sch.uk/index.php/gcse-english-literature-revision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GJIDR9J5eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1tnUReh5x4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJuAPd7V4RY
6. Finally, once you have completed all of the above you should attempt practise questions.
You can find these on your exam boards website such as AQA, Edexcel. WJEC. Questions can also be found on other websites too. This should be found under past papers.
Once these questions have been completed, make sure to get them checked and marked by your teacher. After this you should traffic light your work by giving each question/topic a colour of red, amber or green depending on how well you feel like you understand. You can then prioritise the topics you didn't do so well on and make sure you then focus on these.
Make sure you take a break every 30-45 minutes.
Good luck!
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