Revision Strategies
There is nothing to memorise, which is why students find this the hardest subject to revise and the easiest to neglect. What you are practising is a set of moves.
Every source in both AQA English Language papers is unseen, so revision cannot mean learning content. It means rehearsing five things until they are automatic: reading a question accurately, choosing quotations quickly, developing a point past the explanation, holding a shape in a piece of writing, and keeping to time.
What is actually worth practising
1. The four-move paragraph, five minutes at a time
Open any book. Take one sentence. Write one paragraph: quote, identify, explain, develop. Five minutes, three or four times a week, does more for the language questions than an hour of reading revision notes.
2. Timed single questions
Do not always do whole papers. A single 20-minute Question 4 is easier to fit into an evening, and it is the question worth the most reading marks. Whole papers are for the last fortnight.
3. Openings, over and over
Write the first 150 words of a description or a story twice a week. Not the whole thing - the opening. Openings are what the examiner meets first, and they are the part most improved by repetition.
4. Reading non-fiction with a pen
For Paper 2, read one opinion column a week and write two sentences: what the writer's attitude is, and one thing in the writing that conveys it. That is the whole of Question 3 and half of Question 4, practised in five minutes.
5. Accuracy drills
Sixteen of the forty writing marks are technical accuracy. Take a piece you have written, and check it for one thing only - sentence boundaries this time, apostrophes next time. Checking for everything at once finds nothing.
A six-week plan
| Week | Reading focus | Writing focus | Timed practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P1 Q2: the four-move paragraph | Descriptive openings | One 10-minute Q2 |
| 2 | P1 Q3: beginning, shift, end | Narrative openings | One 10-minute Q3 |
| 3 | P1 Q4: taking a position and qualifying | Description, full 45 minutes | One 20-minute Q4 |
| 4 | P2 Q2 and Q3: summary and the 12-mark language question | Article and letter forms | One 20-minute pair |
| 5 | P2 Q4: both writers in every paragraph | Speech and essay forms | One 20-minute Q4 |
| 6 | Whole papers | Whole papers | One full Paper 1 and one full Paper 2, to time |
Mark your own work against the real thing
AQA publishes specimen and past mark schemes, and its examiner reports say plainly what candidates did badly that year. Both are free and linked on the papers page.
Read one examiner report before you next sit a practice paper. It is the most direct account available of where marks actually go, and almost no student reads one.
Signs your revision is working
- You can name the question type from the wording, without being told.
- You choose quotations in under a minute rather than rereading the whole extract.
- Your paragraphs have four moves, not three, without you thinking about it.
- You finish Section A in 45 minutes and start Section B without panic.
- You know, before you write a story, what its last line will be.
- Your accuracy check finds two or three real errors, not none.
Questions about revising English Language
How do I revise English Language when there is nothing to learn?
By practising moves rather than memorising content. The five worth practising are: reading the question accurately, selecting quotations quickly, developing a point past the explanation, holding a shape in a piece of writing, and keeping to time. Short, frequent practice beats long sessions, because these are habits rather than facts.
Should I do whole past papers?
In the last two or three weeks, yes. Before that, single timed questions are more useful: they are easier to fit in, easier to mark honestly, and they let you work on the specific question that is costing you marks rather than rehearsing the ones you already do well.
Does reading novels improve my grade?
It improves the raw material - vocabulary range, sentence variety, a feel for how a paragraph is built - which shows up in the 40-mark writing questions. It does not by itself teach you the question methods, and it is slower than practice. Do both, and do not let reading substitute for timed writing.
How much writing practice is enough?
Two short openings a week and one full 45-minute piece a fortnight is realistic alongside other subjects. The writing questions are worth 80 of the 160 marks on this qualification, so they deserve at least half your English Language revision time - which is roughly double what most students give them.
Next
Past papers and model papers
Official AQA papers, mark schemes and examiner reports.
RCF practice questions
Original tasks with model answers.
Common mistakes
What to stop doing first.