Edexcel IGCSE English Literature Revision

If you are preparing for your Edexcel IGCSE English Literature qualification and feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of poetry, drama, prose, and context you have to revise - breathe. You do not need to memorize every single line of every single text to walk away with a Grade 9. I’m an English teacher, and this comprehensive revision course has been built from the ground up to guide you through every essential component of the specification so you can walk into your assessment with complete confidence.

The Edexcel IGCSE English Literature course is assessed through two distinct pathways, and this course supports both routes. Under the examination-only route, students sit two linear papers:

• Paper 1 (60% of the total qualification): A closed-book, two-hour external exam divided into three demanding sections: Section A Unseen Poetry (20 marks), Section B Anthology Poetry (30 marks comparing two studied poems), and Section C Modern Prose (40 marks testing deep contextual analysis alongside plot, themes, and characters in texts like Of Mice and Men or To Kill a Mockingbird).

• Paper 2 (40% of the total qualification): A one-hour-and-thirty-minute open-book examination covering Section A Modern Drama (such as An Inspector Calls) and Section B Literary Heritage (such as Shakespeare’s Macbeth), each worth 30 marks.

Alternatively, if your school follows the coursework route, you sit the exact same closed-book Paper 1 exam for 60% of your grade, but replace Paper 2 with Component 3: an internally assessed portfolio featuring Assignment A (Modern Drama) and Assignment B (Literary Heritage), requiring sustained, high-level analytical insight.

To help you master this specification, this course brings together high-grade analytical video lessons that break down every text methodically.

What my lessons cover:

• In-depth analysis of all 16 poems from the Edexcel Poetry Anthology, including:

  • "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

  • "If—" by Rudyard Kipling

  • "Prayer Before Birth" by Louis MacNeice

  • "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

  • "Half-past Two" by U. A. Fanthorpe

  • "Half-Caste" by John Agard

  • "War Photographer" by Carol Ann Duffy

  • "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare

  • "Search for My Tongue" by Sujata Bhatt

  • "Poem at Thirty-Nine" by Alice Walker

  • "Piano" by D. H. Lawrence

  • "La Belle Dame sans Merci" by John Keats

  • "The Tyger" by William Blake

  • "Blessing" by Imtiaz Dharker

  • "Hide and Seek" by Vernon Scannell

  • "Remember" by Christina Rossetti

• Core exam strategies for tackling the unseen poetry question with confidence.

• Step-by-step methods for building perceptive, comparative essays for Section B.

• Contextual frameworks and analytical toolkits for modern prose and drama texts.

All of these videos are on my YouTube channel. However, there are a few benefits to watching them here instead:

1. You can register to keep a track of which videos you’ve watched

2. You can bookmark lessons for later

3. There may or may not be no ads, but I can neither confirm nor deny and I definitely didn't tell you if YouTube asked, OK?

There are also study materials on the site that can help with this IGCSE:

• Fiction Technique Bank: An extensive revision toolkit outlining key linguistic and structural devices, complete with explanations and model examples to show you how to analyse writer's craft rather than just spotting techniques.

• Unlocking Shakespeare: A complete student guide packed with practical reading strategies, contextual breakdowns, and methods to decode Early Modern English without getting stuck in the language.

• Still I Rise Teaching PowerPoint: A fully resourced, line-by-line slide deck exploring form, structure, poetic devices, and historical context for focused study or revision.

• Poetry Technique Bank: A dedicated guide designed specifically to master poetic form, metre, rhyme schemes, and structural choices across both seen anthology and unseen poetry questions.

Work your way through each lesson, make thorough notes, and let’s get you that top grade.