What should I focus on in an A-Level English essay?

It is important when writing an A-Level essay to focus on all of the assessment objectives, this means analysing the text itself, drawing on criticism and exploring the context. This can seem like a lot of work, but it isn't as scary as it sounds. I always find it helpful for this to first focus on my own reading of the text, and make sure that my ideas about it are clear, as this forms the main part of the analysis. Criticism and context are important, but should not shape your answer, they should be used to support your points. The best thing to do is make sure you do some background reading relating to the text, its themes, and its cultural context and draw on this when relevant.