How to Improve Your GCSE English Grade: Advice From a Former Edexcel Examiner

As a former examiner, students ask me all the time: how can I improve my GCSE English Language grade quickly. The answer isn’t necessarily simple. A lot of it depends on where each individual student is in their learning at that particular point in time - but there are a few things that I’ve tried and tested over the years that have worked well. I want to share some with you here.

Something that has always frustrated me about how most schools prepare their students for exams is the lack of exam technique. For me, students aren’t taught enough about what an examiner is actually looking for, and in order to know that students must first learn the mark scheme. I teach every student the mark scheme for their board, whether that’s AQA, Edexcel or any other, so fanatically in fact that they can recite it - under pressure - for every single question in the exam paper.

Think about it: you could be the most talented English student in the country, but if you’ve got no idea what you should actually write to get yourself a mark, that talent is wasted. And that is what I see year after year from students who come to me for their exam preparation. Mark schemes are, mostly, designed to be quite easily digestible. There are some key elements students need to really understand - and in fact I’d put this at the top of the list of how to improve one’s grade.

Comment on, Explain, Analyse

These three words and phrases make up the majority of mark schemes and it is how an examiner marks the depth of an answer.

Fundamentally, if you’re receiving grades 3-4 you are merely commenting on the text, if you are attaining grades 5-6 you are explaining and if you are analysing (to varying degrees of success) you will be achieving grade 7 and above. There’s a word I used there which is very important: depth. People stuck at grade 4 and 5 need to try and go deeper into exploring the impact of words, phrases and techniques. Sometimes that involves taking a risk with one’s interpretation, but as long as this is well explained and thought through, the examiner will reward you. This type of depth leads to what the examiners call ‘perceptive’ analysis. Most students, when I first say this word to them, have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about. And I have quite a simple way of explaining it.

If you are the Head of Police and you are recruiting new detectives to examine a crime scene, you are looking for people who see more than most. People who can look at a series of clues and build a picture that others would miss. That is what it means to be perceptive. To see beyond the obvious and to pick out elements the others missed. Being perceptive with English is not something that happens overnight. But it is something that can be taught and explained. The beginning of the journey to perceptive analysis is to ask yourself a few questions about a piece of writing:

What Does “Perceptive” Actually Mean?

• Why does a technique have that effect?

• How does it create that effect?

• Why do you think that?

I call this the how/why/because. I actually have a theory that, if you took all the students who scored a grade 6 and above and counted up all the times they used the word (or a synonym of) ‘because’, you would see a direct correlation. You can’t end a sentence on the word because. It forces you to go further. To go deeper, which, as we know, is what examiners are looking for to get into that ‘perceptive’ territory.

So, next time you are thinking about putting a full stop, pause for a moment and truly ask yourself - am I ready to put a full stop? Could I write more? Could I go deeper into my point? Could I instead use the word because, explain my position further and take a risk? That is what the students who score highly do, and something I have taught to turn people from grades 4 and 5 to grade 7 in GCSE English within about 4 sessions. It takes practice and confidence but is the single quickest way to get the grade improvement you may be looking for.

If you'd like to work through this with me directly, book a free introductory call here and we can talk through exactly where you are and what you need to hit your target grade.

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