ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING you need for GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE | Unheard tips

Summary

This video offers comprehensive tips for acing GCSE English Language exams, focusing on practical strategies to improve from a grade 6 to a grade 9. It advises against doing full past papers, suggesting instead to practice individual questions and seek feedback. For Paper 1, it emphasizes understanding fiction through character analysis and for Paper 2, it highlights the importance of word-level analysis in non-fiction texts. The presenter shares personal experiences, creative writing techniques, and the significance of expressing original thoughts. They also recommend using resources like First Rate Tutors for additional support.

Takeaways

• 📚 Practice English by focusing on individual questions rather than full papers.
• ✍️ Seek feedback on your work to identify areas for improvement.
• 🎨 For creative writing, use random stimuli like images to inspire your stories.
• 🕒 Allocate specific time for reading comprehension to ensure you understand the text.
• 🔍 In Paper 1, analyze the author's use of language and characters to convey messages.
• 📈 For Paper 2, quickly understand two texts within a limited time, focusing on their differences.
• 📝 When answering questions, use quotes from the text to support your points.
• 🔑 Understand the importance of 'word-level analysis' to excel in English exams.
• 💡 Use advanced vocabulary in your answers to make them more sophisticated.
• 📈 Reflect on how the text influences you personally and express your own ideas.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video?

The main focus of the video is to provide tips and strategies for improving GCSE English Language grades, specifically from a grade 6 to a grade 9.

What is the speaker's disclaimer about their qualifications?

The speaker clarifies that they are not a qualified teacher and that the tips provided are based on their personal experience and what helped them improve their grade.

What is the speaker's advice on how to revise English?

The speaker advises against doing full past papers and suggests practicing singular questions to be more effective.

How does the speaker recommend getting feedback on practice questions?

The speaker recommends asking teachers to mark the practice questions to identify areas for improvement.

What specific question type does the speaker suggest practicing, especially?

The speaker suggests practicing question 5, particularly for creative writing.

What technique did the speaker use to improve their creative writing skills?

The speaker used a random image generator to create stories, practicing for 45 minutes a day during half term.

What does the speaker suggest for Paper 1 of GCSE English Language?

For Paper 1, the speaker suggests reading the extract for at least 15 minutes to understand the text and then answering the questions, focusing on word-level analysis and understanding the author's message.

What are the three words the speaker recommends including in the answer for Paper 1 Question 3?

The three words recommended are 'establishes', 'develops', and 'resolves', which correspond to the structure of the answer.

How much time should be spent on Paper 1 Question 4 according to the speaker?

The speaker suggests spending 25 minutes on Paper 1 Question 4.

What is the speaker's strategy for Paper 2 of GCSE English Language?

For Paper 2, the speaker emphasizes understanding the writer's purpose in non-fiction texts, comparing two texts within a limited time, and being cautious of implicit information in Question 1.

What is the speaker's tip for Paper 2 Question 2?

The speaker's tip for Question 2 is to use quotes from one extract to describe the other, facilitating comparison.

How did the speaker improve their grade from a 6 to a 9?

The speaker improved their grade by incorporating word-level analysis, thoroughly understanding the text, using advanced vocabulary, and expressing their own ideas rather than guessing what the examiner wants.

Outlines

00:00

📚 GCSE English Language Revision Tips

The speaker shares personal strategies that helped improve their GCSE English Language grade from 6 to 9. They emphasize that English is a subject of practice rather than rote memorization. The speaker advises against completing full past papers and instead suggests focusing on individual questions to improve specific skills. They also highlight the importance of seeking feedback from teachers to identify areas for improvement. The speaker discusses their personal struggle with creative writing and how they practiced using random images as stimuli for storytelling. They also provide insights into approaching Paper 1, which focuses on fiction, and suggest spending 15 minutes reading to understand the text before attempting questions.

05:00

📈 Strategies for Paper One and Creative Writing

The speaker delves into strategies for Paper 1, which is centered around fiction analysis. They recommend a multi-pass reading approach to grasp the text's nuances and suggest focusing on question types, especially question 5, which often involves creative writing. The speaker shares their personal experience with creative writing, expressing initial difficulty but eventual improvement through daily practice using random image generators. They discuss the choice between picture and word stimuli for question 5, leaning towards the latter for its versatility in sparking ideas. The speaker also covers techniques for analyzing text structure in Paper 1, such as identifying established, developed, and resolved elements within the narrative.

10:00

🎨 Enhancing Creative Writing Skills

The speaker discusses methods to enhance creative writing skills for GCSE exams. They advise against memorizing entire passages and instead suggest memorizing adaptable story plots. They share a personal anecdote of using a character named 'Koa' to practice storytelling with a theme of self-realization. The speaker encourages experimenting with different narrative perspectives (first, second, third person) during mock exams to find the most comfortable style. They also provide practical tips such as keeping character names short and creating a detailed description profile for characters to streamline the writing process during exams.

15:04

📝 Advanced Writing Techniques and Planning

The speaker offers advanced tips for crafting compelling stories or descriptions in exams. They emphasize the importance of planning with the five W's (who, what, when, where, why) and establishing a clear introduction, body, and resolution for the narrative. The speaker also advises leaving the plan visible to the examiner for clarity. They discuss the significance of assigning a title to the story for a professional touch and provide insights into Paper 2, which focuses on non-fiction texts. The speaker warns of the challenges in Paper 2, particularly with implicit information in question one, and suggests strategies for analyzing non-fiction texts.

20:06

🔍 Deep Dive into Text Analysis and Personal Reflections

The speaker reflects on their journey from a grade 6 to a grade 9 student in English, identifying key areas of improvement. They highlight the importance of word-level analysis, understanding the text through multiple readings, using advanced vocabulary, and expressing unique interpretations rather than guessing examiner expectations. The speaker shares that they learned from observing their English-savvy friends and adjusted their approach accordingly. They conclude with encouragement to embrace one's own ideas and insights when analyzing texts, as these personal interpretations can be valuable in exams.

Keywords

💡Revision

Revision, in the context of the video, refers to the process of studying and practicing to prepare for an exam. The video emphasizes that English language skills are not merely revised, but practiced through singular questions rather than full past papers. This approach is highlighted as more effective for improving performance in English exams.

💡Word Level Analysis

Word level analysis is a critical reading technique discussed in the video where students must focus on individual words and phrases to understand the author's intent and style. It's crucial for answering questions on English exams, as it shows a deep understanding of the text. Examples from the script include looking for alliteration, anaphora, and pathetic fallacy.

💡Creative Writing

Creative writing is a form of writing that uses the author's imagination to create stories, characters, and ideas. The video suggests using random images as stimuli for creative writing practice, which helped the speaker improve their grade. It's a key component of GCSE English Language Paper 2.

💡Paper 1

In the video, Paper 1 refers to the first part of the GCSE English Language exam, which focuses on fiction. The speaker advises specific strategies for Paper 1, such as spending 15 minutes reading the text to understand the author's message and using quotes in answers to ensure accuracy.

💡Question 5

Question 5 is highlighted as a significant part of the GCSE English exam, where students must write creatively. The video shares personal experiences with this question, suggesting that students should pre-plan story plots but remain flexible to adapt to the exam's stimuli.

💡Non-fiction

Non-fiction, as discussed in the video, refers to the second paper of the GCSE English exam, which involves analyzing real-life writing such as articles or essays. The video provides strategies for understanding the writer's purpose and emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction in analysis.

💡Story Plot

A story plot is the sequence of events that make up a story. The video advises pre-planning different story plots that can be adapted based on the exam question. It's part of the strategy to tackle the creative writing section effectively.

💡Characterisation

Characterisation is the process of revealing the personality and characteristics of a character in a story. The video suggests creating a character description profile and using short, meaningful character names to facilitate writing during exams.

💡Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary device used to hint at future events in a story. The video mentions that examiners often look for this in answers, suggesting that students should be aware of and include foreshadowing in their analyses.

💡Anti-climax

An anti-climax in literature refers to a disappointing or unexpected turn of events that fails to reach a climax. The video uses the term to describe a narrative technique and advises students to be aware of it when analyzing texts.

💡Perceptive Ideas

Perceptive ideas are personal interpretations or insights derived from a text. The video encourages students to express their own ideas rather than what they think the examiner wants to hear, which can add depth and originality to their answers.

Highlights

The presenter shares their personal journey from a grade 6 to a grade 9 in GCSE English Language.

Practising singular questions is more effective than doing full past papers.

Feedback from teachers is crucial for identifying areas of improvement.

Question 5 often requires creative writing, which the presenter improved by using random image generators.

For Paper 1, reading for at least 15 minutes is recommended to understand the extract.

Question 1 benefits from quoting directly from the text to ensure accuracy.

Word level analysis is key for Question 2, focusing on the author's word choices.

Literary techniques such as alliteration, anaphora, and pathetic fallacy should be identified.

Question 3 requires discussing the structure of the text using 'establishes', 'develops', and 'resolves'.

Question 4 involves evaluating a statement and providing a counterpoint.

For creative writing, pre-planning story plots can be beneficial but avoid memorizing exact writing.

When writing, choose a short character name and develop a clear description profile.

Experiment with different narrative perspectives (first, second, third person) in mock exams.

For Paper 2, understanding the writer's purpose in non-fiction texts is essential.

Question 1 in Paper 2 often involves identifying implicit information.

Using quotes to compare extracts is a strategy for Question 2 in Paper 2.

Question 3 in Paper 2 now has more time allocated due to an increase in marks.

Question 4 requires comparing attitudes and their presentation in non-fiction texts.

Question 5 in Paper 2 involves structuring an essay with three main argument points.

The presenter's improvement from a grade 6 to a grade 9 involved better understanding and analyzing texts.

Advanced vocabulary can enhance the professional appearance of answers.

Expressing personal interpretations of the text is encouraged over guessing the examiner's expectations.

The presenter emphasizes the importance of breathing and staying calm during the exam.

Transcripts

Hello there and welcome to the only video

you will need for GCSE English Language

Disclaimer:

this is what helped me.

It should help you, but I'm not a qualified teacher.

So these are just some tips that helped me get from a grade 6 to a grade 9.

In this video, I'll be covering how to revise English language.

Then what you specifically can do

for paper 1, then what you can specifically do for paper 2.

And then what got me from a grade six to a grade nine?

What did I change? So how do you revise English?

You can't revise English,

you can only practise it.

So how do you practise English?

Do you do a whole full paper?

No, don't do full past papers.

It'll be much more effective if you practise doing singular questions.

For example, only spending ten minutes on question two.

After you've done these, these questions,

you can ask for feedback, you can get your teachers to mark it,

and then you can see what you can improve with that answer.

You should try and do this with all

the different types of questions, but especially question 5.

Personally, for me, I was not so good at creative writing.

I had not done it in years.

The last time I wrote creatively was like

in year 6 and then I was in year 10 or 11.

So what I did was, in half term,

I would set aside 45 minutes a day and use a random image generator on my computer,

get a random image and then use that as my stimulus.

And then I would write a story from that image.

My school personally encouraged us to do the picture.

So in question five, you get a choice of you do the picture or the words.

Although sometimes I found that the words were a better stimulus for me.

They said that the picture would be better because it's a visual stimulus and you can

pick stuff from it immediately and start describing what you see.

I'll talk about that later in the video.

And now we're going on to paper one.

So what is paper one?

Paper one is all about fiction.

The characters are not alive.

What is the author trying to tell you through the characters?

What message are they giving you?

So to do paper one, you should first read for at least 15 minutes.

As you know, you don't have time to do any more than that.

You should read for 15 minutes.

That's because AQA expect you

to understand the extract that they've given you.

The questions on paper one are there to test your understanding of the text

and how you interpret what the author has been trying to tell you.

So I would suggest that the first ten minutes you read through the extract,

the first time you're going to read it, you're going to be panic reading it.

You're not actually going to be reading it properly.

The second time you're reading it.

You're getting the gist of it.

Then read it again and then actually understand what you're reading.

Try and do that read at your own pace as well.

Once you finish reading, you should go do question 1.

Question 1 - what I did was I just quoted

from the extract, therefore I could never be wrong since the extract said it.

So after you've done question one, you should then look at all

of the questions and then read the extract again, but then highlight some

of the quotes that you may be using for your answers.

Then you're getting a head start.

Question 2

you need word level analysis.

What is word level analysis?

You need to zoom in in certain phrases

and explain why the author chooses to write certain words in that phrase.

I'll be giving you a list of methods that you should be identifying in the extract.

I always found alliteration, anaphora

anaphora is basically, you know,

Martin Luther King I dreamed a dream, I dreamed the dream, I dreamed a dream.

An anaphora is the repetition

at the beginning of a phrase or a sentence so that can be used for emphasis.

Maybe the author is trying to say something didactic there.

You should be looking out for asyndetic listing and polysyndetic listing.

What are those?

Asyndetic listing is basically a list without any "ands".

And polysyndetic listing is too many "ands".

Asyndetic would be I went to the shops and I bought apples, bananas, carrots.

Whereas polysyndetic listing would be I

went to the shops and bought apples and bananas and carrots.

So polysyndetic is more like an emphasis of how many things there are.

I always found a way to include

polysyndetic or asyndetic listing in my analysis.

It was always there for me.

Hopefully it'll be there for you.

Pathetic fallacy is good.

It's when the weather mirrors the character's feelings.

Semantic fields. I love semantic fields.

It's when there's a group of adjectives that all have like a similar feel.

For example, an aggressive semantic field.

Punching, striking, stabbing.

That's like an aggressive semantic field.

Sibilance.

I love sibilance.

It was always there for me as well.

Sibilance normally has two effects.

It's either I either thought it would have

sinister atmosphere, or it would have a tranquil, peaceful atmosphere.

Like a soothing atmosphere, soothing tone.

You can also analyse the basic verb metaphor personification.

But to put that up another level, you should add an adjective in front of that.

For example, the violent verb, the unusual personification of the rat.

My examples are really weird.

It just comes from the top of my head.

So there are more techniques than what I

just listed, but those are the main ones that I used and found in the extract.

Now we're going on to question three.

We should also be spending ten minutes on this.

Question three is all about structure.

Now you need three words to include in your answer.

You need establishes, develops and resolves.

Those are your three main paragraphs done?

What do I mean by that?

Well, you should start by saying what is established?

Has the scene been set?

Have the characters been established?

Has there been a character description?

Have you established what the characters look like?

Or maybe their feelings, or maybe their social background,

like whether they're rich or whether they're poor in society.

And then what has been developed? What has been revealed?

What information has been revealed to you?

The audience?

Has any tension been built up? Maybe conflict?

There's always going to be tension, so always mention tension.

And you can use phrases such as the writer

tantalises the reader with this description or with that description.

Then finally, what has been resolved?

Are we left on a cliff-hanger?

Was the ending foreshadowed?

By the way,

there's always going to be foreshadowing,

so you can always just say the ending is foreshadowed in this sentence or maybe

this paragraph, or maybe in this description.

Maybe there was an anti-climax.

Anti-climax is like when you build up all

this tension and then the reveal is just really not a big reveal.

It's really disappointing, actually.

And question three, you can also talk about tone.

You can talk about what person is used,

like first person, second person, third person,

First person

you know what's in the character's mind, you know what they're thinking.

But if it was in third person, perhaps they're withholding their

character's thoughts because maybe it reveals information later.

You can also talk about whether the speaker is omniscient or limited.

What do I mean by that?

Omniscient means the speaker or narrator is all knowing.

They know what's going to happen.

Yeah, they're telling you the story, but they already know what's happening.

Or is the speaker like, you limited, they don't know what's going to happen,

they're experiencing the adventure along with you and so on.

That's just a few things you can do.

That's enough for a really good answer.

Now, question four, you should be spending 25 minutes on this.

You can mention anything that you said in questions two and three,

but you're not really going to be mentioning anything you said in question

two, because question two is probably from the beginning of the extract.

And question four, they say from lines thingy downwards,

those lines are normally towards the end of the extract.

So you probably shouldn't mention what you said in question two.

In question four, you'll get a statement from either like a student or a teacher.

And so you need to decide if you strongly agree.

Strongly disagree, partly agree, somewhat agree, any like that.

But don't just say agree or disagree.

And whatever side you choose, you need to counter that somehow.

I'll give you an example.

My friend who's really good at English, told me that at the beginning of your

answer, you should always counter your point by saying, for example,

if you agreed, the student would be like, I strongly agree.

With the student.

However, they fail to mention that the death of Jimmy was being

foreshadowed at the beginning of the extract.

For example.

Yeah, you can always say something

to counter it, but try not to make anything up.

Only do if you can see it.

It needs to be convincing.

You need to convince the examiner.

Make sure you have word level analysis here, too.

You should make your point and then choose a quote.

Quote it, and then go into further detail and actually pick out certain words

that you can use to analyse and support your argument.

Also, in your answer, remember, the characters are fiction.

They're made up, they're not real.

So you can't say, oh, Alice said this.

You should say, the writer presents Alice to say this.

This is because Alice is always the name that AQA use for some reason.

So basic.

Now we're moving on to question five, the meaty question.

Our school always tried to get us to do the picture question, as I said before.

But let me give you an example when that was not useful for me.

There was a picture of a marketplace, and I could not think of anything to write.

But I had to force my ideas out because I was like, oh, no.

My teacher is going to be like, oh, no. Why'd you do the writing?

And we literally said to do the picture question.

But the word stimulus was so much better, in my opinion.

It said, Write a story with the title abandoned.

That sounds way more interesting to me than writing about a marketplace.

But anyway, I got like a grade seven

in that writing because I was not fully committed to that marketplace.

I did not like it in the real thing.

I actually chose the writing.

I kind of went against my school's advice.

But it's up to you.

If you're going to go against what your

school has said, then you should do that question in the mock.

In one of my mocks, I did do the writing,

and I actually got 35 out of 40, which is quite good.

So that's when I knew.

I was like, the writing is definitely for me.

Okay, here's a sneaky tip I'm going to give you.

You should pre plan your story plot before you sit the exam.

Wait, isn't that cheating?

It's not cheating, but what I did was I had three story plots.

They were all contrasting in case whatever

the question could be, I could adapt my story plot to it.

I did two story plans and then one description plan, because you don't know

whether you're going to get a story question or a description question.

So make up something really original, something that reflects your personality.

Don't copy someone else's story plot because the examiners want to see

something original in your story or your description.

The description should have a storyline to it still, which is confusing.

But AQA like that your character needs to have some sort of realisation.

There needs to be some change in your story.

So you need to have some contrast in there, some contrasting descriptions.

Yeah. I would practise writing your story plot,

but don't memorise your actual writing of your story plot because you're not

going to be able to write exactly that in the real thing.

You should be able to adapt your story

plan to the stimulus that they've given you.

In one of my mocks, I memorised a piece of description and I put it into my mock.

And then after that, I was like, what do I do now?

I'd memorise that really good description, and now what do I do?

It kind of fit.

It wasn't the best fitting, but I put it in and then I was stuck.

I didn't know what else to do.

Don't memorise actual paragraphs of writing.

Memorise a story plot that you can adapt

and you can write in real time during the exam.

Okay, now I'm going to give you some smart tips that you should use.

If you're writing in third person,

have a character name that's short so you're not wasting your time writing out,

like, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

no.

And you should make a description profile

for your character so you know exactly what they look like in your head and you

know what description, roughly you're going to be writing in the real exam.

I actually had a character name called Koa, K-O-A and it meant Brave.

I think it's a Hawaiian name.

I had, like, this cringy storyline where she would, like, be kidnapped or something

and she'd have really low self esteem and stuff.

And then she'd be like, I need to live up to my name.

Koa. It means a warrior.

I am a warrior.

I didn't actually write about that in the real mock,

but that was just my idea because the character had a change in heart

and then they got out and it's a happy ending.

But yeah. So your character name should be short

and they should have a realisation in your story.

You can choose whether you want to write

in first person, second person or third person.

I began to write in third person when I

first started doing story writing because it's easier.

However, I actually found first person to be easier for me.

Yeah, experiment in your mocks what person you want to write in.

I actually wrote in second person in one of my mocks.

It was like a creepy story, but it was kind of cool.

I wouldn't write in second person unless you're really confident.

If you're writing anyway, have fun with your story.

This is the time to show your creativeness to the examiner and to your teachers.

Whatever you want to do in the real GCSE, make sure you've done it in your mocks so

you've practised it and that your teacher has given you feedback on it.

So you know that it actually works for you.

Okay, now I'm going to be telling you how you can actually plan your question five.

This is not a pre plan.

This is about the plan that you're going to write in the row exam.

Because you spend 45 minutes of the creative writing.

You spend around 15 minutes planning. This is what I did.

I would suggest you do it.

You write down the five w's,

who, what, when, where, why,

and you need to make sure that you've established who, what, when, where, why.

In the first paragraph, three main things need to happen in your story.

Thing one and then thing two, then thing three.

And then above that I would put what I

would do for the introduction and how I was going to introduce and set the scene.

And then at the bottom,

I would write how it would resolve, like, what's going to happen.

Your examiner might read your plan and it will help them understand your story more.

So make sure you leave your plan on the paper.

Finally, make sure your story has a title.

This makes your story look way more

professional and like an actual short story.

It just gives a neater presentation and it

gives, like, an overview of what your story is about, which is good.

Now, I've always found English to be the hardest subject personally,

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This includes grade nine model answers, videos to help my understanding,

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Normally, if you need extra help

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Now we're going to move on to paper two - non-fiction.

I didn't like non-fiction, but this is the paper where you need

to understand whether the writer is informing you about something.

Are they writing for entertainment?

Why are they writing this piece?

Why have they made you read this?

Are they trying to emphasise a point?

Like, what are they trying to do?

This paper is harder than paper one, because you're given two texts

for the same amount of time that you had that one text in paper one,

that means you're going to have to read two texts in ten minutes.

Question one was actually the hardest question in my GCSE paper.

Why was question one so hard?

Question one, they are trying to trick you out.

You have to choose four things that are correct or something,

but this time it's not explicit information, it's implicit information.

That means you really need to understand the text.

You really need to properly read the text when you're given the time.

So, yeah, beware of question one.

They're trying to trick you out and you need those four marks.

The grey boundaries in English language are really tight.

Since you guys are going back to the old marking where the grey boundaries are

a bit higher, the grey boundary is going to be much tighter, too.

So for question two, you spend ten minutes on this.

Again, just like paper one, but this time you're comparing the two extracts.

Question two will either be like a summary

or a comparison, or they'll get you to describe like

a boat, maybe in both extracts and how they're different contrasting.

My main tip for this question would be

to use quotes from one of the extracts to describe the other extracts.

If we're talking about a boat,

for example, an extract one was like, it was a big boat.

An extract two was like, it's a large boat.

I would say extract one shows the same large boat as extract two*.

Question three is all about word level analysis.

You're going to hear me saying that all

throughout this video, word level analysis.

I'm going to put on the screen an example of a paragraph I wrote in my seven out

of twelve answer and my eleven out of twelve answer.

And we're going to.. Don't judge, guys.

I was really bad in my seven out of twelve

answer because I totally misunderstood the text.

I forgot the paper was nonfiction, so I thought I could analyse black eyes.

Black eyes in a nonfiction text literally mean nothing.

But I was saying how that person was evil.

Oh, yeah, guys, don't say evil. Say malign.

How that person was malign.

That was really bad. Don't do that.

Remember, paper two is nonfiction.

The people are real.

Some people just have black eyes.

So don't judge.

So this is from my seven out of twelve answer.

However, Phinn also presents Sister Brendan

as deceiving by describing her eyes as black and glittering.

These adjectives are chucks the pose next

to each other to emphasise that whilst her score is perfect, her intentions are not

black symbolises malignity, and portrays no light.

Insinuating that Sister Brendan is faking

this enthusiastic act, all she wants is an exceptional report.

Phinn only has this, and then it just goes on.

Waffling.

Okay, now I'm going to read my eleven out of twelve answer.

The writer immediately describes the fan tail suites to be in blue packet shaped

like an Isosceles triangle with one corner missing.

Okay, I used a really bad part of the quote, but I needed it to prove my point.

This geometrically specific description

suggests that the writer admires the suites and loves them so much

that appear a lot of detail to just the wrapping of it.

They are intrigued.

As each individual is wrapped in a piece of paper.

It conveys the writer's further care for detail and perhaps his enjoyment

of unwrapping the suites themselves as they are individually wrapped.

It highlights how the factories have put a lot of effort into the presentation

of the suite, and the writer admires it as part of the experience of eating them.

Okay, my wording is not very good, but the analysis is there.

Yeah. As you can see, I have some perceptive

ideas about how there's a lot of detail put into it.

There's a lot of care and presentation put

into it that may not necessarily be right, but it was in my interpretation,

and I brought that idea forward, so that's fine.

Also, question three is now 15 minutes.

Because it's twelve marks instead of eight marks.

You should now spend 20 minutes

on question four, and you should be comparing their

attitudes and how they present their attitudes.

When I say how they present their attitudes, I mean their method.

This is where you can add your perceptive ideas.

If you're not sure if they're correct,

you should add them here because you lose nothing.

For example, ideas that you think could be correct, but you're not sure.

You could just say it could be interpreted.

That thing and what we think and what will we think will be.

Now, moving on to question five, where you spend another 45 minutes of your life.

It doesn't really matter if it's

an article, essay or a letter, because you'll have the same essay structure.

It's only the introduction that changes.

Again, in your answer, you're going to have three main points that you argue.

You need to choose what side you're on, whether you agree or disagree.

You do need to take into account the other

perspective of the quote, but you don't need it as much.

When I say the intro is different for a letter, it could be Dear so and so,

I'm writing to inform you that blah blah blah blah.

Or if it's a news article, you would need a headline and then a strap line.

I'll give you an example that could be here.

If it's a magazine article, I think you write in third person.

If it's a newspaper article, you write in first person.

That's the only difference between those.

Like I said, you need to choose what side of the argument you're on.

Are you for the statement or against the statement?

If you can't decide,

write all the points you have for it and all the points you have against it,

see which side you have more points for and then argue that side.

When you're planning. I would put your ideas in a mind map,

then pick your best three ideas and then write it as your answer.

I'll show an example here.

As you can see, I've done, like,

a mind map with the question and I put my points around.

Then I've added more points for those main points that I could argue,

and then I've organised them into what order I would argue them in.

And basically, the planning for my essay, I'm now going to be telling you what I did

as a grade six student and what I changed to become a grade nine student.

I'm more of a maths person.

So personally, English did not come that easy for me.

Luckily, I had a good friend who's very good at English.

Actually, all my friends are good at English.

I'm just the only maths person in my friend group.

It is what it is.

I would look at their answers and what

goes through their mind as an English person, like, why they're getting better

grades than me, why are they scoring higher than me?

I was seeing what they were doing in their

answers and I'm going to tell you what I found out.

As a grade six student, I was missing four things.

Number one, I was not doing word level analysis.

I've said this so many times in the video.

Hopefully it's gone into your head.

You need word level analysis.

What I mean by that is I was giving

a general overview of the text rather than zooming into particular words.

However, in order to do word level analysis, you need number two.

You need to understand the text.

You really do need to read the text

at least three times to actually understand it.

You're going to be panic reading.

You're going to be skimming through the text.

You just need to calm down. Breathe.

Breathing is really important.

That's how you survive.

Breathe and then read the text in your own time.

It doesn't matter what everyone else is doing.

Block them out in your head.

Do what you need to do for your exam.

Number three, you're not using advanced vocabulary.

This is not as important,

but it does make your answer a bit more professional looking.

You can say suggests.

One of my friends just wrote suggests

and she got grade nine, but that's because she's really good at English.

For us newbies, I would replace the word suggest

with portrays, emphasises, highlights, conveys, insinuates.

When I say replace, suggest,

I mean when you say this suggests that instead of saying that, say,

this highlights how the character is developed.

This portrays her feelings, something like that.

Number four, do not say what you think the examiner wants you to say because you

don't know what the examiner wants you to say.

And the examiner is like, Why did they write this?

Express your own ideas of how the text influences you.

You are going to probably find stuff that other people haven't found because

you're reading it to yourself for the first time.

You're interpreting it in a different way that other people are.

In school, when we discussed the text, like, for English language,

after we read it, I always thought everyone else had much

better ideas than me, and so I always kept quiet.

I didn't really say much.

Don't be embarrassed about it.

Learn what other people are seeing in the text.

What are they analysing?

Why have they noticed that?

There isn't going to be a discussion

in the real exam, so you're going to have to express your own ideas.

You might as well come to terms

that they're your ideas and they're actually good ideas if you think about it.

So keep it up :)

Sorry, this was kind of a lengthy video.

I wanted to fit everything in.

So you have the best video you can for English language.

This is like, absolutely everything I could say about English language.

I don't think I could put anything else in this video.

If you found this useful,

which I hope you have, because I've almost lost my voice for you,

like, and subscribe it's free and I'll see you in the next video.

Bye.