Key Strategies to score A for General Paper

Keep up with current affairs

Perhaps the most obvious but most overlooked aspect of preparing for the A level GP paper is keeping up with local and international affairs. Knowledge of current affairs is vital to the GP essay portion and the AQ portion of the A level GP paper. Particularly in A level GP paper 1, students are not given a choice of GP questions. Hence, students need to have a working knowledge of a wide range of popular A level GP topics. 

The Straits Times is the first and most important resource that any student should consult to improve how they tackle GP questions. All will receive a complimentary Straits Times Online Subscription. The 'Opinions' section is particularly valuable for writing GP essays. This section will introduce students to a range of argumentative writing approaches in order to help them improve their GP essays.

Following that, students can rely on GP notes curated by GP tuition centres such as illum.e. Curated notes would enable students to swiftly establish basic knowledge for popular A level GP topics. In this way, notes can help students get a jump start on their A level GP paper journey. It should be stressed, however, that curated GP notes are not a substitute for being up to date on current events by reading newspapers.

Learn from others

The best practices of other students and even their mistakes are very useful to a student on their A level GP paper journey. For instance, by reading GP model essays produced by their peers, students will become familiar with the standards expected in their essays.

Crucially, by borrowing ideas from these GP model essays, students will learn how to approach a range of GP essay questions. KS bull, a collection of good essays produced by Rafflesians, is arguably the most famous source of GP model essays.

By reading non-ideal answers to GP questions, students can learn to avoid common mistakes. By being exposed to such errors, students will be able to identify these errors in their own GP essays or in their compre answers. 

Good GP tuition centres focus on both aspects of learning from one another. They pick up best practices from essays that have done well in tests or written by experienced tutors. They would also have GP tuition classes focused on identifying errors in GP essays and AQ answers. 

Keep practicing

Lastly, it is vital that students keep practicing. There is this misconception that as the A level GP paper is only a H1 subject, it does not require much effort. However, this is simply not true. The A level GP paper not only requires great amounts of content for popular A level GP topics but it also tests language and writing skills. Without practicing these skills, they may get rusty and impede the student’s ability to do well in the A level GP paper. 

This is especially vital to the short answer GP questions in the A level GP paper 1. These questions require a great amount of skills in identifying the GP question type, identifying relevant text and paraphrasing. 

Without sufficient practice, these skills can and will get rusty. Hence, it is crucial that students keep practicing their craft by writing GP essays or doing past year compre papers. Often GP tuition centres have dedicated drill sessions for both papers to ensure that students are well equipped to answer any GP questions that come their way.

For example, at illum.e we have compre drill sessions where students learn to answer GP questions of the different types. Our GP notes for these sessions will provide students with ample opportunities to practice answering GP questions of the various types. Hence leaving them in good stead to tackle similar GP questions in the A level GP paper.

Studying for the A level GP paper comes down to these 3 main things. If students are able to keep up with current affairs, learn from others and practice a lot, they would most definitely do very well for the A level GP paper!