Question 1

How long does it take to learn the analytical vocabulary for English Language?

Accepted Answer

Most students need around 4 to 6 weeks of regular flashcard practice to get the analytical vocabulary, command words and mark scheme criteria to a point where they feel automatic.

The word 'regular' is the important one. 10 to 15 minutes a day is far more useful than one 2-hour session a week. The gaps between sessions are when you actually forget things, which is what makes coming back to them so powerful.

It's worth starting now even if you're months out from the exam, because the analytical vocabulary is the kind of thing that takes longer to feel automatic than you'd think.

Question 2

How many flashcards should I do a day?

Accepted Answer

20 to 30 cards in a 10 to 15-minute session is a sensible daily rhythm. If you're new to flashcards, start smaller (10 to 15) and build up as you get used to it.

After you've been through a deck, our wrong-answer mode lets you go back to just the cards you got wrong so you can revisit the terms that haven't quite stuck.

Question 3

Should I make my own English Language flashcards or use Cognito's?

Accepted Answer

Both can work, and there's an argument for using a mix of the two. Our flashcards are written by subject specialists against the AQA spec, with the exact analytical vocabulary and mark scheme wording examiners use, so they save you the hours it would take to build a deck from scratch.

If you do like writing things out by hand, one useful approach is to make your own cards for any analytical term you find particularly hard to remember. Adding a short example sentence on the back of each card (rather than just the definition) gives the term more context to attach to, which tends to help it stick.

That way you get the writing-by-hand benefit on the terms you actually need it on, without spending hours rebuilding decks for terms you'd remember anyway.

Question 4

What's worth putting on flashcards for English Language?

Accepted Answer

Anything built on precise terminology where examiners reward you for using the right word. That covers analytical vocabulary (caesura, antithesis, juxtaposition, sibilance, anaphora), command words (the difference between identify, summarise, analyse, compare, evaluate), and the levels-of-response criteria the mark scheme uses.

Flashcards aren't really useful for extended writing, because writing skill is built on practice and feedback rather than recall. For that side of things, head to past papers.

Question 5

I keep blanking on analytical terms in exam practice, how do I fix it?

Accepted Answer

Blanking on terms in the moment is really common, and it's not a sign that you've done anything wrong. Memory works in cycles, and a term you learned a month ago will fade unless you've come back to it more recently.

A good way to handle this is to build a custom quiz on the analytical vocabulary you covered earlier in the year. Our quiz builder lets you pick the terms you want to revisit and put them into one short quiz, so you can test whether last month's vocabulary is still there.

Doing that once a fortnight on older terms keeps everything ticking over alongside whatever section you're currently learning, which is much more effective than trying to relearn everything in one big push close to the exam.