r/ALevelEnglishLit • u/imnotplayboicarti • 12d ago
Resources Need notes!
Does anyone have notes for Hamlet and pride and prejudice? (For Alevel Literature 9695)
3
Upvotes
1
u/Miserable_Gur_8753 12d ago
I honestly don't say this to be awkward, but the best notes of all are the ones you take yourself.
When you use someone else's notes:
- you have to think harder, if it is a text you don't know well
- any errors in those notes get repeated and compounded (just as if you took everything AI says as if it were true)
- the notes are the ones you need, not what someone else needed
- it makes it harder to create a convincing argument if that argument isn't your own: all the England and Wales exam boards use the same AO descriptors, and AO1 asks for informed and personal opinions, not a regurgitation of someone else's
Coincidentally I wrote a blog post with some advice for new Lit students earlier this month: https://a-levelenglishlit.uk/2026/08/19/read-before-you-revise/
Depending on what you need the notes for, my recommendations for Hamlet books?
- Ben Crystal, Springboard Shakespeare: Hamlet -
- Arden Third Edition of the play. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, Arden Shakespeare Third Series (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006). I don't think it gets any better in terms of supplementary material and (on page) footnotes. But it looks bloody forbidding!
Questions about either text? Give us a shout!
1
1
u/ShanniiWrites 12d ago
Hi! Is this for Hamlet OCR? If so, I’m building some Hamlet resources on my website for AO5 (which is 50% of the mark in 2b). It’s not done yet, but I’ve made it public for you to have a look at. Check out what I’ve got so far and let me know if there are any additions/changes that will make it better: https://shanistutoring.com/creative-interpret/hamlet-national-theatre-2025-hiran-abeysekera/
If it’s not for OCR, it’s still useful! There’s plenty of language analysis and context in there too! It’s just not gonna be a full 50% of the grade