This article focuses on 10 last minute revision tips to help you with your GCSE English and GCSE English Literature exam revision.

1. Don’t do it all at once. We only retain a certain amount of what we learn in a single sitting. You are far better off spreading your revision over a week than cramming the night before (if you have no choice, see here. Even fifteen minute slots before you go to bed each night, or on the journey to school can make all the difference.

2. Walk the dog (or tortoise, or small sibling, or whatever). Go for short walks whenever you can. The change of scenery will stimulate your imagination and your learning capabilities. Take a sheet of paper with a few quotes to learn for an essay, or some formula, or a vocabulary list, and you’ll be surprised at how much more you take in just being outside.

3. Cram it all in – onto one sheet of paper, that is. Try to summarise a module or a topic on a single sheet of paper that you can stick to your wall. Not only will you be reminded of your notes whenever you walk past them, but fitting the material into a set space forces you to mentally organise the information, a massive step towards learning it. Making your notes is 50% of your revision

4. Get personal. Relate your notes to your bedroom, to your favorite colours, your favorite foods. Make up stories involving the information you have to learn. Once for an exam, I had to remember the stages of a phonological change called ‘Grimm’s Law’. It was indeed grim (just like that pun).

5. Get out the colouring pens! Making all of your revision notes in black ballpoint is fatal – buy some cheap felt tips and write different words in different colours. Pictures tell a thousand words, remember, especially if they’re in colour.

6. Shout it for the world to hear. You might feel an idiot at first, but it is definitely worth reading your revision notes aloud. Even better, get a friend to quiz you on the intricacies of electromagnets, or insist on explaining the plot of Hamlet to your mum. Speaking practice is essential for the revision of foreign languages. Even saying basic words like “yes” and “no” and “please pass the ketchup” in the language you are learning are steps towards fluency.

7. Learn it inside out and backwards. If you are learning a list of chemicals, then try saying the list backwards (without looking at your notes!). Spell words back to front to make sure you really know what they look like – just remember to get them the right way around in the exam.

8. Have a good gossip. Discuss your revision topics with a friend in the same class, especially if you will have to write essays in the exam. See what ideas you can glean from each other – it is surprising how differently two people can approach the same questions.

9. Test yourself both ways. Don’t just learn how to recognise French words: practice translating the English into French. Learn how to work out each segment of a formula triangle.

10. Practice, practice, practice. Find some past exam papers and have a go at the questions. There’s nothing like writing an essay on Shakespeare for really getting to know what you don’t yet know …

Read more at Suite101: Ten Top Exam Revision Tips: How to Revise for Exams in School, College and University.

GCSE English

AQA – English B Tuesday – 8th June

AQA – English A Tuesday – 8th June

OCR – English: Reading Paper – Tuesday 8th June

OCR – English: Writing Paper – Tuesday 8th June

OCR – English: Non-Fiction, Media and Information:Written Paper: Foundation Tier – Tuesday 8th June

OCR – English: Non-Fiction, Media and Information:Written Paper: Higher Tier – Tuesday 8th June

Edexcel – ENGLISH THE CRAFT OF THE WRITER – Tuesday 8th June

CCEA – English 1 (Higher Tier) – Tuesday 8th June

WJEC – English Paper 1 Higher – Tuesday 8th June

GCSE English Literature

CCEA – English Literature 1 – Friday 14th May

WJEC – English Literature Specification B Theory Higher – Tuesday 25th May

WJEC – GCSE English Literature Specification B Theory Foundation – Tuesday 25th May

WJEC – GCSE English Literature Specification A Theory Higher – Tuesday 25th May

WJEC – GCSE English Literature Specification A Theory Foundation – Tuesday 25th May

OCR – GCSE English Literature: Poetry and Prose Post-1914:Written Paper: Higher Tier – Tuesday 25th May

OCR – English Literature: Drama Post-1914:Written Paper: Higher Tier – Tuesday 25th May

Edexcel – GCSE English Literature Higher – Tuesday 25th May

AQA – GCSE English Literature A – Tuesday 25th May

LearnThruMusic learning songs can be used to help you revise and learn the WJEC, CCEA, EDEXCEL, OCR and AQA GCSE English and GCSE English Literature syllabus.

In addition to our great GCSE English learning songs, currently availalbe to purchase online. We will be helping you by posting free exam tips and GCSE English guidelines.

To help you go excel with your GCSE English check out our Paper 1 and Paper 2 GCSE English learning songs or one of our free GCSE English articles:

GCSE English Articles

12 key GCSE English texts

Poems from different cultures

Reading non-fiction texts

Speaking and Listening

Writing to analyse, review and comment

Writing to argue, persuade and advise

Writing to imagine, explore and entertain

Writing to inform and describe

Mock exams

Check out the community section for full details on learning blogs or visit the shop for access to demos of all GCSE English and GCSE English Literature  learning songs.

There are hundreds of free GCSE resources available online. Over the run up to this years GCSE exams we will be asking you to review your favorite free GCSE revision resource.

At LearnThruMusic we are dedicated to helping you excel at GCSE English and GCSE English literature, therfore we would like you to review free GCSE English and GCSE English learning resources. Starting with GCSE Bitesize

The BBC’s popular Bitesize revision guides have proved to be a valuable revision resource for students preparing to sit their GCSE’s.

GCSE Bitesize English Literature covers the following topics:

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Frankenstein
Great Expectations
Jane Eyre
Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
Pride and Prejudice
To Kill a Mockingbird
Flight
Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit
The End of Something
Your Shoes
A View from the Bridge
An Inspector Calls
Hamlet
Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
The Merchant of Venice
William Blake: The Little Boy Lost / The Little Boy Found
William Blake: London
John Clare: Sonnet
Gerard Manley Hopkins: Inversnaid
Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Charge of the Light Brigade
Walt Whitman: Patrolling Barnegat
William Wordsworth: Upon Westminster Bridge
W B Yeats: Song of the Old Mother
Simon Armitage
Gillian Clarke
Carol Ann Duffy
Seamus Heaney
Wilfred Owen: Dulce Et Decorum Est

If you have used the BBC GCSE Bitesize English or English Literature resource then please send us a review to help other students who may be approaching their GCSE exams.

As part of our FREE character profiles for 12 key GCSE texts. We want to help you revise and learn GCSE English and GCSE English Literature to your full potential.

• Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch: 6 Year old daughter of Atticus and Sister of Jem. Scout is the narrator of the story. An intelligent and adventurous tom-boy Scout has a strong moral sense that is explored in the novel by her encounters with her own fears and the prejudices and racism of the American South.

• Atticus Finch: Father of Jem and Scout, Attics is a widowed lawyer who is respected amongst his community. Unlike much of the white community in the south, Atticus is committed to racial equality. Atticus’ good example and teaching give his children their strong sense of morality.

• Jeremy Atticus ‘Jem’ Finch: Son of Atticus and brother to Scout. Jem is a close and caring brother to Scout even though he is 4 years older. Jem is a typical American boy of the period and is daring and protective of his sister. Jem’s ideas about justice are badly affected by the unfair trial of Tom Robinson and he learns about his own prejudice through interaction with Boo Radley.

• Calpurnia: Cook to the Finch household. Calpurnia is the children’s link to the black community.
• Aunt Alexandra: Atticus’ sister. A perfect example of a white American woman in the south. Alexandra is very traditional ad would have Scout behave in a more ladylike fashion.

• Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley: A mysterious and reclusive man who has captured the imagination of the children with his strange ways. Initially feared by the children Boo shows that he is a good man when he helps and then saves them. Boo is a tragic example of an abused character hiding from the world. Like the Mockingbird Boo is badly treated even though he just wants to do good.

• Nathan Radley: Older brother of Boo. Nathan shares some of his fathers cruelty, seen when he blocks the hole in the tree that the children use to communicate with Boo.

• Bob Ewell: An unemployed drunk from a poor family. Bob accuses Tom Robinson of raping his daughter although he knows this was not the case. Bob is a racist and would rather have an innocent man punished than see his daughter with a black man. Bob represents the kind of racist attitudes in the south that Atticus is very much against.

• Mayella Ewell: Daughter of Bob Ewell. One pities Mayella for having such a drunken, abusive father however she goes along with accusing Tom Robinson.

• Charles Baker ‘Dill’ Harris: Jem and Scouts friend who stays in Maycomb for the Summer. Dill has a wild imagination and a fascination with Boo Radley.

• Miss Maudie Atkinson: A Neighbour and Friend of the Finch family. Although Sharp tongued Miss Maudie is the best adult friend of the children and shares Atticus’ liberal attitudes.

• Tom Robinson: A black field hand whose relationship with Mayella gets him wrongly accused of  rape and faces unfair justice. Another of Harper Lee’s mockingbirds.

• Link Deas: The employer of Tom Robinson, a good man who defends the character of Tom showing the opposite of the prevailing racist attitude.

• Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose: An old, grumpy, racist neighbour of the Finch family. Atticus respects her for the way she copes with her morphine addiction however the children, especially Jem, do not like her.

• Heck Tate: The Sheriff of Maycomb. A decent man in bad circumstances who is a major witness in the trial of Tom Robinson.

• Mr Underwood: Publisher of Maycomb’s newspaper and ally of Atticus.

• Mr Dolphus Raymond: A wealthy white man who unusually for the time has a black wife and prefers the company of black people. Rather than explain his choice to the largely racist public of Maycomb, Mr Raymond pretends to be a drunk to explain his behaviour.

• Mr Walter Cunningham: Father of Walter Cunningham who is a classmate of Scout, Mr Cunningham is a poor farmer. Part of the mob that attempt to lynch Tom Robinson, he learns a lesson when Scout through her innocence an politeness persuades him to break up the mob.

• Walter Cunningham: Mr Cunningham’s son. Classmate of Scout.

Educational resources

We help 14-16 year olds learn and revise key exam and coursework topics by combining the GCSE syllabus with modern music.

For example GCSE English LearnThruMusic is an audio based learning/revision resource comprising of 15 educational songs and educational notes.

We take a section of the curriculum, talk to teachers who are actively using it. Then organize all the information we’ve gathered into a music track that reflects a genre currently popular with the age group e.g. Shakespeare’s Othello, becomes an easy to understand RnB song!

Songs are supplied via download or streaming, and can then be used in class or on Phones, MP3 Players, PC and Macs to help students learn, and retain, the key points and sections of the syllabus e.g. Books and exam papers.

To date over 15,000 students have benefited from access to LearnThruMusic resources.

See the demo section for 30sec samples of all our LearnThruMusic resources.

Educational Services

LearnThruMusic workshops are interactive learning and key skills sessions where students work together with the assistance of professional musician mentors and relevant specialists to create unique songs that inspire students to learn about set topics

No prior singing or production experience is necessary.

LearnThruMusic workshops are tailored to meet the specific needs and requirements of your institution and are designed to be fun and relevant.

LearnThruMusic educational services are a great way of engaging young people of all ages and abilities; we have worked with University students, college students and secondary schools students.

We also specialize in creating unique fun learning experiences for young people who are NEET or potentially at risk of becoming NEET.

To date we are proud to have provided educational resources or services to the following organisations:

- The Princes Trust

- Swansea University

- City and County of Swansea Council

- City and County of Cardiff Council

- Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council

- Bridgend County Borough Council

- Carmarthenshire County Borough Council

- Glyndwyr University

- Coleg Powys

- Swansea Metropolitan University

- Gower College

- Neath Port Talbot College

- Caerphilly County Borough Council

- Merthyr County Borough Council

- Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

- Torfaen County Borough Council

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