How do I prepare for my paper 1 and paper 2 essays?

Something that I definitely struggled with in GCSEs was figuring out what to learn and how to learn it- the information available is overwhelming. What I have found helps is breaking down the content of each story/poem/work you're reading in class, into different categories. Character, themes, settings etc. Break the different elements of the work into these categories, because often in the GCSE paper you'll get a question about a character and their relationship with a theme. Or a setting and how it demonstrates a theme. Or something similar along those lines. So by breaking down the content of the work, when you're faced with a question in the exam about Character X or Setting Y, you can think back to your notes and about the msot significant things that stood out within the category of Character X or Setting Y, and connect it to what the question's asking. This way the work becomes much less daunting, and you're streamlining your thought process into an exam style of thinking.