GCSE English Language & Literature
At first glance, GCSE English Language and Literature can seem like a mammoth task. It's a core subject, highly valued by colleges, sixth forms, advanced apprenticeship providers and employers. Generally speaking, doing well in your English GCSE will open up more opportunities post-secondary school, giving you greater control over your future.
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To excel across the four exam papers, students need to have a deep understanding of the set texts, be able to conduct meaningful analyses and must be confident in their abilities to tackle short form, longer form and extended questions on various text types. Being able to craft engaging imaginative, persuasive and descriptive texts themselves is essential too.
Whether online or in person, Mitchell's GCSE English courses break content down into manageable chunks and build confidence from the foundation up. His job is to ensure that before entering the exam hall, students are armed with the knowledge and skills to truly be confident of exam success. Let’s take a look at the AQA GCSE below (ML UK ENGLISH covers all GCSE exam boards).
Breakdown of the AQA English Language and Literature Papers
Literature Paper 1
Students will provide a developed response to a question on a Shakespeare play. They will also be tested on one 19th-century novel.
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Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
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Marks: 64
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Weighting: 40% of GCSE
Literature Paper 2
In paper two, students will be examined on one modern drama or prose text. The poetry section will test on one proem from the anthology and an unseen poem.
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Time: 2 hour 15 minutes
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Marks: 96
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Weighting: 60% of GCSE
Some of the key skills
Comment on implicit meanings, read critically, evaluate a writer's choice of vocabulary, grammatical and structural features, as well as forming comparisons. Writing produced should be clear and coherent and make appropriate references to the texts. Students must have a deep understanding of the set texts, including 15 poems.
Language Paper 1
Students will answer four questions based on a literature fiction text before going on to complete a descriptive or narrative writing question.
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Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
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Marks: 80
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Weighting: 50% of GCSE
Language Paper 2
Students will answer questions on one non-fiction text and one literary non-fiction text before going on to the 'writing to present a viewpoint' question.
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Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
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Marks: 80
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Weighting: 50% of GCSE
Some of the key skills
Read and evaluate texts critically and make comparisons between texts. Summarise and synthesise information or ideas from texts. Acquire and apply a wide vocabulary, alongside a knowledge and understanding of grammatical terminology, and linguistic conventions.
Useful info about Mitchell Luke's GCSE English courses.
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Each course focuses on either one literature text, one cluster of poems from the anthology, unseen poetry or one language paper.
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Most courses run for seven weeks, with students meeting either online or in person once per week for a 60-minute session. The whole GCSE curriculum is covered over 6 courses.
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Students must complete essays independently after class, which will be marked by Mitchell.
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Groups never exceed six students to ensure quality.
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The cost for one student per week is £25 (£175 for an average entire course).
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One-to-one tuition can be arranged where needed.
What will students learn?
Course content will differ depending on which course your teen attends. Here are some of the key areas that most students need to develop in order to excel in GCSE English language and literature.
Set Texts
Students will deepen their understanding of the set texts for literature papers. Emphasis is placed on key themes, characterization, structure and literary devices.
Structure
Explore how to analyse the structure of texts and understand how writers use structure in different ways to create various effects.
Themes
Special focus will be placed on themes as GCSE questions frequently feature them. Students learn how to effectively tackle theme questions.
Writing Creatively
Students will discover and strengthen their abilities on how to write genuinely engaging descriptive and narrative prose.
Language
Acquiring the skills to be able to analyse language and its effects on the reader is a critical element of all courses.
Writing Persuasively
How to write a convincing text that's packed full of powerful language, persuasive devices and is structured to ensure maximum impact.
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