English Literature for BCS

What you'll learn

• Place major English writers and works in the correct literary period
• Recall the key works, characters and quotations of Shakespeare, Milton, the Romantics and the Victorians
• Recognise modern, American and world literature frequently asked in BCS
• Define the literary terms and figures of speech that appear in exam questions
• Answer "who wrote" and "who said" questions quickly using structured memory techniques

About this course

English Literature makes up roughly 15 of the 35 English marks in the BCS preliminary. The questions are almost entirely factual: who wrote a work, which period a writer belongs to, who said a famous line, what a literary term means. That makes literature very learnable — if you study it with structure instead of trying to read everything. This course walks through English literary history in chronological order, from Old English and Chaucer through the Renaissance, Shakespeare, Milton, the Restoration and eighteenth century, the Romantics, the Victorians and the modern era. It then covers American and world literature in English, Nobel and Booker winners, literary terms, figures of speech and the quotations most often tested. Each lesson presents writers in tables for fast revision. Make a flashcard for every writer — name, period, three major works, one famous line — and revise with spaced repetition.

Course content

Who this course is for

• BCS preliminary candidates
• NTRCA and English teaching aspirants