Hi Reader

If you're a parent of a Year 11 student, you'll no doubt be familiar with the well-worn revision excuse: 'I can't revise for English language'. 'Why is that?', you ask wearily. Because all of the texts are unseen, so your child doesn't know what to expect. Unlike literature, there are no burdensome quotations to learn either.

The way English teaching is structured in school adds more grist to the mill of your teenager's argument. Literature is prioritised in terms of time allocated to it, simply because there is so much content to cover. Language gets a look in now and then, with more focus in the lead-up to the exams. So your teen could be forgiven for not prioritising it either. However, neglecting English language study results in the language exam being a bit of a shock for students once the mocks come around, particularly in terms of the timings of the paper. Inevitably, this leads to some not performing as well as they are capable of doing.

Skills rather than content

The GCSE English language exam is about skills rather than content. A student should be able to apply the skills of inference, summary, comparison, evaluation as well as writing precisely and creatively to a wide range of texts and topics. Throw in some fairly demanding timings and this is quite a challenge.

Mastering these skills takes a lot of practice, and there is not time in school for the skills to be sufficiently practised. So, the solution to your child's English Language revision conundrum is clear: they need to complete as many GCSE English language past papers as possible. Just in case you need something else to convince them of the wisdom of completing past papers, you could point them towards this well-researched study.​

Timed practice makes perfect

The demands of timing in GCSE English language Papers 1 and 2 are recognised by every student who has ever sat a mock. The questions become increasingly challenging as students work through each GCSE or iGCSE paper (whichever exam board they are with), and so if they spend too much time at the beginning, or if they don't read the text efficiently, annotating it as they go along, they will not have the necessary time later on to dedicate to the more challenging - and higher mark scoring - questions.

Encourage your child to set a timer when they are working through past papers. It's not vital that they complete a whole paper in one 'go' each time. But they do need lots of timed practice of each question.

Exposure to a range of texts

Success in the English Language exam also depends on your teen's ability to understand, in detail, a wide range of texts. This boils down to the breadth of their vocabulary. If they are not particularly well-read (in fictional as well as factual texts), they may struggle, in some areas, to understand the required 90% of vocabulary in a text.

Completing GCSE or iGCSE English Language papers is one way of bringing your teen into contact with many different topics and their associated vocabulary.

A suggestion though: make sure they note down new words and phrases in a dedicated notebook, or digitally, on a flashcard. They need to retain new vocabulary in case they meet that word in the exam 'proper'.

The importance of self-evaluation

The great thing about the past papers that are available to download from the major exam boards (links below) is that they all come with comprehensive mark schemes as well.

So, once your child has completed a past paper under timed conditions, they should then look carefully at the accompanying mark scheme for feedback. (this will be more helpful with the reading skills, than with the writing skills. For detailed feedback on the latter, you'll need a tutor!)

This will inform your child on their strengths and weaknesses in GCSE English language, and they can therefore prioritise further practice of the questions that they are losing the most marks on.

Useful sources

A quick google search will show you that past papers are available from a range of sources (some of them paid). Make sure you exhaust those on the exam boards' sites first:

​AQA past papers​

​Edexcel past papers​

​iGCSE Cambridge past papers​

​iGCSE Edexcel past papers​

After that, they can work through the complete GCSE English language paper, with guidance, that I provide:

​https://verity-bell-english-educator.kit.com/unlockenglishsuccess​​​

It may be that your year 10 or 11 student completes lots of exam papers, but then feels frustrated that they need more detailed feedback in order to progress. In that case, I can help with my brand new Year 11 small group lessons.

Gear Up for GCSE English: Master Exams and Essays

This group lesson, with just FOUR students is going to be super-focused on helping your child to approach GCSE English Language and Literature with confidence. It will offer:

• Strategies to tackle each exam question as efficiently and successfully as possible.
• Clear explanations of what each paper requires
• Mock exam walk throughs
• Intensive essay writing preparation on key texts

It is tailored to students studying under the AQA exam board, all of whom will be studying the same texts: Macbeth, An Inspector Calls, Jekyll and Hyde and /or A Christmas Carol...not forgetting, also, The Power and Conflict poetry.

The cost of each lesson will be just £35.00 per student, per week.

But, because I know that students don't get enough opportunity for timed exam practice in schools, or enough feedback, I am also offering:

Complete, timed GCSE English exam papers, set and marked every two weeks.

Detailed exam feedback can be transformational. If your child acts on it, it can make the difference between one grade and the next. If you'd like to take advantage of this offer, the cost of each lesson will be £50.00.

If you'd like to enrol your year 11 child into my Gear up for GCSE group lessons in January, just get in touch. Please note, it will be on a Wednesday evening at 8pm.

​Send me an email​

But don't wait too long. There are only FOUR spaces, and when they are gone, I am completely full for 2025.

All the very best,

Verity

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Verity