"I don't know how to go about analysing an unseen extract in an exam. Where do I start?"

The key thing to remember when you're analysing unseen extracts is to remember your LSF: Language, Structure, Form. Before your exam I'd recommend you revising all the key devices which are used throughout literature. Make sure you know your similies from your metaphors and vice versa. But the key to analysing unseen extracts isn't just to analyse language elements (which most people are confident with), but make sure you're showing how these different elements are interacting with each other. If you know it's going to be an unseen poem in the exam, make sure to know all your different metres that poetry is written in for example, and if these have any specific connotations (for example, love sonnets are written in iambic pentameter). When analysing the poem, always check the metre to see if any keywords are on a stressed or unstressed syllable. And what does this mean if they are? Remember, it's not just about identifying these devices, but showing what effect they have and how this impacts the overall meaning of the poem. Make sure to always be focusing on the wider argument at play, and how this ties in with historical and theoretical context of the time.Also remember: the internet is your friend! You can find endless amounts of poems and literary extracts on the web. Print off some poems of poets of your choice and just practice analysing some going through language, structure, form and linking this to your wider thoughts on the poem extract in timed conditions, and you'll find it less daunting in the exam when you're presented with the unseen extract. Good luck!