A-Level English Literature Week 2 Exam Preparation Tips

Only three more weeks to go until exam season starts and it’s time to start memorising! Hopefully at this point you will have finished your notes, but if not, you can go back and look at my previous blog post on A-Level English Literature - it’s a captivating read :) (If I do say so myself)

There are loads of strategies for memorisation, some better than others. This post will go through some helpful techniques that are specifically useful for English Literature.

Luckily, English Literature is one of the few subjects where the amount of information needed to be memorised is tolerable. The largest chunk will consist of quotes. You should probably aim to include one quote per paragraph in your exam essays, and in order to pull this off you need to have a decent bank of quotes stored in your brain. To make life easier for yourself, try to include quotes that have multiple uses. For example, the quote ‘I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any’ from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice could be used when discussing themes of gender, but also when analysing the character of Elizabeth Bennet and her high standards of integrity. You should aim to memorise quotes in conjunction with what they can be used for; there is no use in knowing a bunch of quotes if you don’t know what they signify.

Beyond quotes, you also want to memorise important themes, symbols, motifs, metaphors and characters. However, if you have read and thoroughly understood the material (as you should have!!), these will quite naturally be stuck in your head. You should also search your specification for a list of command words that will be used in the assessment. You need to know what these imply and how to structure your answer based on the command words used in the question (for example the difference between ‘Assess’ and ‘Discuss’). It is also a good idea to memorise a few useful terms and literary devices - you will need these for your unseen text exam. English Literature examiners will never be opposed to Latin phrases such as ‘In Medias Res’ or fancy words like ‘Soliloquy’.

Now that we know what we need to memorise, we should talk about how to remember it all.

The first stage in memory is attention. Only when you pay attention to the information will it pass on to the encoding stage in your memory. Thus, it is important that you stay focused when you are trying to memorise. You want to mimic the environment you will be in when you are writing your exam. This involves sitting at a clean desk in a quiet space, with your phone on silent (or even better, in another room). This is important because the brain attaches information with our external and internal states, and so, the state you are in when memorising the information needs to be easily replicated during the exam. Since you won’t be writing your exam whilst listening to music, you shouldn’t be memorising the information whilst listening to music either.

Some people like having a designated spot for studying. Again, this helps us focus because our brain is associating that specific spot with productivity and hard work. However, our brain will eventually start associating the location with boredom and tiredness (unless you feel 100% excited every time you study). Thus, it might be useful to rotate your study spaces - this helps keep things interesting and you will be less likely to feel bored.

The second memorisation stage is encoding. This is an important one, because the way we encode the information will influence how long it lasts in our memory. You want to memorise the information in a way that is fun, personal, sensory and a bit weird. Integrate your visual sense as much as possible; humans tend to remember images and diagrams the best - which is why we never forget a face but seem to struggle remembering names. Instead of simply reading the quotes over and over again, you might want to draw sketches and cartoons, act them out, associate them with visual cues and symbols, or focus on connecting them to the broader story. It is so much harder to remember information which has been encoded in a shallow manner (for example, memorising a word by the way it sounds or looks) compared to if it has been deeply encoded (for example, memorising the meaning of the word). A great way to deeply encode information is to make associations and link the information to a context. You can also make flashcards and stick quotes on the wall using post-it notes.

The third stage is storage. This is quite straightforward: in order to store the information you need rehearsal and repetition. Simply repeat the encoding process several times. It might be helpful to record yourself reading your notes and listen to the recording when you are walking, sitting on the bus, or cleaning your room. Another great strategy is to make a song about the information. It is important to make the song catchy enough to get stuck in your head. That way, you won’t even have to actively think about repetition - the information will be playing on repeat in your head whether you like it or not. You can also practise repetition using Quizlet and home-made flashcards.

The fourth and final (yay!) stage of memorisation is retrieval. This involves actively bringing information to mind. This is the skill you need to have mastered in order to remember all the information on the actual day of the exam. The main thing to remember is that you want to practise retrieval without prompts (because there won’t be any prompts in the exam unless your cheating which this blog DOES NOT RECOMMEND). Self-testing as a knowledge check is a good idea, but don't stop at just one successful retrieval; you want to retrieve the information several times to really make sure it's been transferred into long-term memory storage.

Lastly, memorisation does not have to be miserable! Try to have fun with it - if you feel bored to tears you’ll be way more likely to procrastinate. Instead of simply reading over your notes again and again, try to incorporate some of the memorisation techniques mentioned above. Not only will it make the memorisation process significantly easier and more effective, it will also allow you to enjoy it (or at least not hate it).

Have any questions about how to prepare for your A-Level exams? Having problems with any hard to understand content or tricky past exam questions? Then ask Klara. Klara will be hosting a series of Q&A webinars in the 2 weeks before final exams. Post your questions here, and Klara will answer them in these sessions.