O-Level English: One Week Out, What to Stop Doing
Paper 1 is next Monday. The four-week plan is done: sentence control, Situational Writing, Continuous Writing. This week is maintenance. Nothing new goes in.
Keep doing, ten minutes each
- Editing drill. Six error types on one paragraph of your own writing. Daily.
- The four checks. Tense, agreement, joins, every part. Say them out loud until they are reflex.
- One opening a day. A thesis sentence for an argumentative question, or a first line for a recount. Just the opening.
Stop doing
- Full practice papers. You will arrive tired.
- Vocabulary lists. A word learnt this week is a word used wrongly on Monday.
- Model essays at bedtime. They do not improve yours.
- Guessing the topics. Nobody knows. The group chat does not know.
The weekend
Saturday: one short drill, then stop. Sunday: pack the bag, two working pens, entry proof. Reread one strong Situational Writing answer and notice how every reason came from the stimulus. Normal bedtime.
Monday in three lines
- Read the whole question. Number its parts. Then write.
- Use the information you are given. Hold the tone. Join your sentences.
- Four minutes at the end, one check at a time.
You have done the work. The week is for arriving rested enough to show it.
Read next
- O-Level English: Two Weeks Out, Week Two of the Plan
- The Thesis as a Map
- Continuous Writing: Content Is 10 Marks. Language Is 20.
The Sentence Repair Kit Complete Bundle covers the sentence-level control that decides the Language band — all four editions for $22.90. Free practice sheets download instantly.
Mark allocations and assessment criteria from the SEAB GCE O-Level English Language (1184) syllabus, 2026.
