Stressing about English exam (first exam for me)

[TheEagle]

Now that there's only ~60 days until the English exam, I am starting to worry. Does anyone have any tips to prepare for the whole exam though I still have a comparative sac to do in a few weeks time. How do I be all round prepared for all 3 sections? I am really worried

Thank you AN

[Sine]

Now that there's only ~60 days until the English exam, I am starting to worry. Does anyone have any tips to prepare for the whole exam though I still have a comparative sac to do in a few weeks time. How do I be all round prepared for all 3 sections? I am really worried

Thank you AN

I know it sounds simple but split the exam into it's three sections when preparing so you aren't too overwhelmed with the thought of the whole exam. Which section do you think you need the most work on? What section is your most confident?

Work on the section you are struggling on the most. You will likely improve your overall score this way since it is much easier to improve from say a 5 to an 7 than an 8 to a 9.

[justaloser]

Now that there's only ~60 days until the English exam, I am starting to worry. Does anyone have any tips to prepare for the whole exam though I still have a comparative sac to do in a few weeks time. How do I be all round prepared for all 3 sections? I am really worried

Thank you AN

Targeted practice is the key, you want to be focusing on the little things like timing, expression, vocabulary, structure by writing short paragraphs under timed conditions (eg. 15 minutes for one paragraph), writing practice topic sentences, getting your introduction timing right (ie. come up with some stock phrases/words that you always use so you don't have to think too hard about making your intro good), planning under time etc.  What Sine said is really good, try splitting it up into each of the three sections and work on those individually as if they're 3 exams. Try to write essays consistently and send them off for marking and note down the areas for improvement. Then dedicate some time, maybe a few days in a week to improving those areas (eg. if your language is long-winded practise writing sentences that use fewer words to convey a message).

Also you just need to keep writing essays in the timed format so you can get used to the exam conditions. By doing so you can establish habits/protocol for what you do and how long it takes, such as how long it takes to plan, what you do in a plan, how long you spend writing the introduction.

Once you're confident with all 3 sections, or at least somewhat confident, try the whole 3 hour exam and see how you go there, but it should be similar to doing all 3 separately in succession.

In terms of content that's a whole other can of worms but do try to analyse the texts in terms of themes and make mindmaps to link themes together. Try to recognise and explore key issues (like we did The Crucible & YoW for Section B, and a key theme there is religion) via important scenes in the book. Use those important scenes to get evidence for the specific themes/ideas/authors' arguments that those scenes represent.

Idk if an example is relevant here but in YoW Anys' Gowdie's lynching was an example of a) How patriarchal attitudes in a society can manifest in hysteria and violence, b) How hysteria turns lethal and c) Suspicion towards of those who diverge from societal norms and d) How the three former points intersect. So whenever I talked about patriarchy, hysteria/herd mentality and societal standards in an essay I'd use Anys' lynching & the associated quotes there as evidence.