Hi,What tips do you have for a student who is about to do his GCSEs in a month. I managed to get a 8 once in the mocks but have never reached 9. Do u have any tips that like techniques ,structure or good points to talk about in macbeth?Any help would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards ,Ben
Hello Ben! Thank you for your question.
The GCSE format is a very particular thing, and something your teachers are probably more familiar with than I am now. But the fundamental things that make a good English literature essay remain the same at any level of academic study.
First and foremost: answer the question, and plan. When you see the question, plot down the five most important points that come to mind. Put them into an order that makes sense (make them follow on from one another). These can then form the core of your structure. In other words, think of each point as a paragph, and don't be tempted to deviate from that core. If you include things that have nothing to do with the question, it really looks like you're just trying to write everything you revised instead of answering the question. Remember that an exam is there for you to show that you know the subject, so it actually looks better if you can show that you can tailor your knowledge to the specific point. It shows that you know more than you're writing down.
Second: think deep. A good point analysed carefully is worth more than a multitude of points made vaguely. So use the quotations you've studied and really think about the implication of each line, the choice of words, the wordplay. A key part of what a GCSE examiner looks for is evidence of awareness that there's a writer behind these words making deliberate choices. So think in terms of 'why did Shakespeare choose to do this?', 'what effect does this create?', 'what is the meaning of this line, and how does Shakespeare create that meaning?'. For this, it can be very useful to have some fluency with terminology. So if you can identify the iambic pentameter you might be able to talk about where the stress falls in the line, or note when a line is shared and think about what effect that creates, or you might be able to identify that the weird sisters talk in iambic tetrameter, more fairytale and riddle-like. You can show that you know Shakespeare used these techniques deliberately. It's also a chance to show off that you know a line can be interpreted in lots of different ways. At university level, people will want you to be more clear about what you think, but at GCSE level they really want you to show that you know there are many responses to a text, that there are opinions other than your own out there. If you happen to know any criticism, you can use it for this purpose, but it's not necessary at this stage.
Third: contextual information. I think many teachers stress the need to include historical information, but actually, contextual information is broader than that and can include things like your awareness that this is a play, written for an audience. If you know your history you can of course bring in things like King James' obsession with witchcraft, the fact that the play was written soon after the succession crisis created by Elizabeth being childless, the contemporary debates on the nature of tyranny, or even that the play seems to flatter James I somewhat as the descendant of Banquo. It can be vaguer too if you don't know your history. The fact that England was a monarchy, for instance, or the fact that Macbeth is set in a Christian world, where questions of the afterlife concern him. Or you can go more detailed and specific about the conditions of the existence of the play text: things like the fact that this is Shakespeare's shortest play or that recent scholars suspect it was edited and amended by Middleton might be relevant if you wanted to talk about, say, the sense of urgency, or the fact that the Hecate scenes have a very different feeling about them. BUT only bring in these things if directly relevant to the question. You can already see how I've connected the length of the play with a dramatic feature of the text (its speed). You shouldn't just drop facts for the sake of it. Ideally, context isn't a separate point but something you integrate into the rest of your response, but it can be a paragraph on its own if that works best for you.
As for points... You might find some curious things under my Macbeth tag on this blog, which has quite a number of strange points you probably won't encounter at school.
The best essays integrate all the aspects I've talked about here into a cohesive response that flows naturally from one point to the next, and that's why it's useful to have your key points and to stick to them.
And most importantly, though this may sound strange... Enjoy yourself. The best thing is to enjoy the text, and the chance to analyse the text, because that interest comes through in your writing. Turn any nervousness into excitement and take it as an opportunity to write and have your work read by somebody else.
Good luck!
