Hey all. I'm having my 'O' level exams this year and honestly,
I'm pretty worried about my grade for Literature. My desired grade
is about A2 (the same grade for English) but I managed to have only
gotten a B4 for MYE, which was enough to galvanize me! 
I'd like to know what must I really do to attain a good grade
(e.g. A2) for Literature? Besides knowing one's set texts/plays
really thorough, what else must I do to score a
distinction? I thought I wrote pretty well for MYE but it came out
as a B.
And is it true that being individual i.e. having your
personal opinion and response towards a text helps score a better
grade? A senior told me that because of that, he'd scored an A1 for
Literature in '08.
Peeps, help me out, yeah? 
Having your personal opinion and response is good, but I can
tell you it will be a gamble.
If the marker is not please with the response which you have
given, you may get even lower grades than without it.
Indeed, your senior is right on target, those who has A1/2 are
the ones who give their personal opinions and thoughts onto the
paper, BUT let me warn you, if you are not fully-prepared to give
proper statements which you can back up, and is just writing what
straight away comes to your mind, you might end up flunking the
paper instead.
In short, what you will mostly be giving is "standard answer
opinion", instead of your REAL own opinion, as it will take a lot
of effort to back up what you believe in, and it is highly
unrecommended for people who are not able to back up their own
points properly.
Ask your senior to lend/give you his works, and look at how he
wrote his opinions, and what opinions he gave for what type of
questions. Nevermind what you have in mind when you faces such
questions, just give back the same opinions which your senior has
given, and you should be able to score well.
