The latest Bethany blog has been written by Mrs Shapland, Head of English and Media at Bethany School, who, along with the help of Bethany pupils, busts the ‘You Can’t Revise for English’ myth.

It’s exam season. Again. Every year a smattering of pupils will insist “you can’t revise for English”.

In Year 7 and 8, to some extent, this is true – we deliberately give them a skills based assessment to introduce them to the examination process gently. But for all other years, this is just a complete fallacy and a myth we work hard to bust in the English and Media Department. We practice a range of revision techniques and make sure that pupils are clear on the fact that, if they prepare well, they can work more quickly and efficiently in the examination and will be able to show off their skills to an examiner in the very best possible light.

For the rest of this week’s blog I am handing over to some of the departments experts on English Revision: pupils who we know revise well and have seen their revision their revision pay off!

“For me, the best way to revise English is with multiple steps: annotating the texts and poems, creating an in depth resource like a mind map that looks at the ideas, themes, thoughts and perspectives communicated by the writer and their use of language, structure and form, and finally completing past papers to get used to the style of the questions and the ideal structure to write the most effective answers.”

– Zoe, Year 11

“Creating mind maps, for example on characters and themes, have helped me to condense my notes effectively, making key information easier to remember. Making and revising essay plans have also allowed me to improve by combining exam practice with active memory recall.”

– Gwyn, Year 13

“My top tip for revising English are using mind maps, this helps me because I can colour co-ordinate the information I know the best and the information I know the worst, secondly I use flash cards which test me on my knowledge and helps me to identify what I need to focus on.”

– Rose, Year 11

“Flash cards are an essential for English revision, I like how I can colour code specific themes and scenes and have groups of flash cards connected to a character or characters. As well as a place to write down quotations that I can expand on and form links with.”

– Savannah, Year 12

“The first thing I would suggest doing is looking at past papers as on some papers the questions would be framed exactly the same way, but you will just be asked to answer a different question, I would suggest this method as it prepares you with what the paper and exam might look like. if you struggle with writing essays, which I did, especially under time pressure, I would suggest looking at essay structures and how to write quickly by practicing on past papers. If you are given an unseen poem, I would suggest that the way to revise for that is by annotating other poems on your own to see how many notes you can get down in a timed period e.g. 10 minutes.

I would also suggest using other revision techniques which worked for me, e.g. Quizlet, flashcards, testing your knowledge by doing tests, revision organisers, and YouTube videos recapping certain topics to help me get a better understanding.”

– Seb, year 10

Mrs Shapland

Head of English and Media