11 Bulletproof Tips to Score Highest Marks in English literature Exams

In my academics, there is one thing that I learnt the hard way. Before enlightenment, I used to believe that being very knowledgeable is prerequisite to score highest marks. 

Later, with experience, I came to know that Presentation plays a greater role in disciplines of Language & Humanities. Here, in these fields, subjectivity is the norm with multiple point-of-views.

These are my findings which will help you fetch more marks in literature exams:-

• Remember the themes - The main thing about a literary text, apart from the story, are the prominent themes associated with the text. For example, Albert Camus' The Stranger has Absurdism as a philosophical theme of the novel. It is a must to mention it in an exam essay related to the novel. 

• The conventional structuring of your essays or long answers should be kept in mind.

             -Introduction - Begin with a few lines about author, the novel, themes, then deal with the demand of question
             -Body : Use different paragraphs for different ideas and arguments.
             -Conclusion :

• Use numerous quotations (from texts) and comments from noted critics:

Matthew Arnold defined criticism as "a disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought of in the world".

Note: To impress the examiner, make sure the examiner can find the quote with ease, so write quotes with a different-coloured pen or underline it.

•  Whenever you are studying for an exam, look out in your books and internet for those quotes which depicts the main theme of texts. e.g.

Useful tips: you can begin your answer with a quote- prepare those quotes from a text which could be fit into any question from the text.

• Write with different pens to highlight the important part. Underline what seem crucial.
• Create diagrams to describe categories. Another reason is that it fills more space of the pages than words and create more impact and get examiner's attention. 
• Beautiful handwriting - Whether you believe it or not, having good handwriting makes the task of checking papers smooth for the examiner. 
• Write with neatness with less number of words in a single line (spacious)
• Paraphrase a critic if unable to quote him/her word to word.
• Avoid using complex vocabulary and too long sentences.
• Write in points - Although, we, literature students, are always told to write in paragraph format. For other Humanities subjects, you should always write in points rather in paragraphs. It is visually more appealing to the examiner and creates an impression that you wrote variety of arguments in your answer and covered different aspects.