English Language exam information

Recap how to answer the questions: for each paper, look through the advice from your teacher on how to approach each question. Write yourself some advice for each question, including: how long to spend on the question, how to structure your answer, what to include, sentence starters you could use and how much to write.

Read, read and read some more: as the extracts in the exam are unseen, you won’t have seen them before. It is a good idea to read lots to practice understanding new pieces of text.

For Language Paper 1, reading fiction books or extracts/ short stories such as those in the links is a good starting point. Ask yourself as you read: what are the themes/ big ideas? What interesting language has the writer used, and why? How is the text structured (what order do the events happen in), and why? What do I think/ feel in response to this text?

For Language Paper 2, it is a good idea to read newspaper articles and other non-fiction texts. You can find some in the links section, such as The Guardian ‘opinion’ articles. As you read, ask yourself: what is the writer writing about? What is their perspective on this issue? What language and other methods do they use to get this across?

Practice papers: practise completing past papers and example questions in timed conditions. When you have finished, use the mark scheme to see what mark you think you would get and use your green pen to improve your answer. If you find this difficult, ask your teacher to look at your answer.