The best way to study for an English literature exam is to practice recalling quotes and planning essays from memory, instead of rereading the text. The exam asks you to argue a point using evidence from the book, poem or play, so your preparation should rehearse exactly that: pull the evidence out of your head and build an argument with it.
How do you organize what you need to know?
Do not try to hold the whole text in your head. Organize your notes around the things essay questions usually ask about, and keep each one short.
- Themes: the two or three big ideas, such as power, identity or conflict.
- Characters: what each one wants, how they change, and one or two moments that show it.
- Context and technique: the setting, the author's choices, and the effect they have on a reader.
A one-page summary per theme, with a few quotes under each, is far easier to review than a whole annotated book.
How do you memorize quotes?
Choose quality over quantity. A handful of short, flexible quotes that can support several arguments is more useful than dozens you only half remember. Then test yourself: cover the quote, read a prompt such as a theme or character, and write the quote out. Check it, fix any words you missed, and try again later.
This is active recall, and reviews of the testing effect generally find that retrieving material builds longer-lasting memory than rereading it. Say what each quote shows, too, since you will need to explain it and not just copy it down.
How do you practice essay writing?
Full essays take a long time, so practice planning more often than writing. Pick a likely question and, from a blank page, write a thesis, three supporting points and a quote for each. Then compare your plan with your notes to see what you forgot.
- Do a few plans a day on different questions, using different texts if your exam covers more than one.
- Write one full timed essay each week so you know how much you can get down in the real time limit.
- Check each paragraph: does it make a point, give evidence, and explain why the evidence matters?
How should you schedule your revision?
Start with the text you know least, and spread your review over several days. Research on the spacing effect generally finds that the same study time spread out is retained better than one long session, and spaced repetition is a simple way to bring older quotes back before they fade. Mixing texts and themes within a session also helps, a method covered in our guide to interleaving.
Can a study game help with literature?
It can make the daily quote practice easier to keep up. If you turn your notes into a game on ZykoStudy, your quotes, characters and themes become short rounds with XP and streaks, and if you are taking AP Literature there are also AP English Literature study games. Whether games help learning more broadly is covered in do study games work, and you can read about the approach on our gamified learning page.