How should I plan an essay about a particular set text in an English A Level exam?

Often exams are as much about knowing what to leave out of an answer as they are about knowing what to put in. The most important thing is to read the question carefully and then set aside 10 minutes to plan each point that you will make in sequence. This will give your answer structure, and will prevent you from running out of time when you are answering the question. To begin with, read the question three times and underline the important words. If the question is “To what extent is King Lear a play about the tragedy of old age?”, you would probably want to focus in on the words “tragedy”, “old age”, and “to what extent”. By choosing these words the person setting the question wants to put you in mind of the play’s genre (tragedy), and to suggest a central thematic element (old age). The question is encouraging you to weigh up the degree to which the play revolves around this theme (to what extent). There is no single correct way to answer such a question, but when you are thinking about the question and planning your answer you should decide whether you broadly agree with the statement or not. This will give your answer coherence, and give it a kind of argumentative direction. The best answers will not only examine one side of the argument, but will also consider arguments that could be made against the claim, weighing both sides up against one another and demonstrating judiciously that your own interpretation is better. This kind of subtlety is what will allow you to reach the highest grade bands.
In an exam with 2 equally weighted questions that lasts for 1 hour and 30 minutes, students should spend 10 minutes planning each question and 35 minutes writing them. In an essay of this length, students should try and make between 3 and 5 points. On your note page plan each broad point. Structure your plan like this: 1) the point you want to make (Lear’s old age is emphasised as a tragic burden); 2) the evidence you want to draw upon, either quoting specifically from the text or making broader claims about the text or the narrative (“The oldest hath borne most. We that are young // Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”); 3) explanation of the significance of this evidence (Edgar’s lines at the end of the play present Lear and Gloucester’s age as a grand and yet tragic burden that they had to bear – the younger characters will not share this burden as they will never have to live as long Lear or Gloucester). Think about the text’s themes, its genre, and the broad historical context under which it was produced. What narrative and rhetorical techniques are used (irony, pathetic fallacy, ? What is its political significance?, how might one interpret it from the perspective of literary theory?: how does it reflect or explore questions of gender, race, sexuality or class? How do these questions relate to the words and themes that you have highlighted in the question? If an essay is planned well then the task of writing up the plan will be much easier.