How can I make my essays more interesting whilst keeping within the grade boundaries?

Grade boundaries can seem to hold back creative freedom, but as long as the information is relevant it can still be made to be interesting. Secondary reading of anything can help here. This doesn't have to be used in the final exam, but exploring new avenues and schools of thought can be used to open up new and interesting ideas that can be used over all of the grade boundaries. With English, technically nothing is irrelevant, but a lot that could be said won't get any marks, this does not mean that only things directly surrounding the text should be read, as to understand the core of a text it must be placed within the wider context of a literary continuum.