How would I approach a question on an unseen text?

Spend time annotating the text before you start writing, it will be easier to make a plan if you have your ideas written down. The examiners will be looking for original ideas, so have confidence in your ideas and try to catch their eye, but do make sure to refer back to the text as evidence. You can select quotations from the text and analyse the language, this might be a good place to start if you are not completely confident with a text you are seeing for the first time. Explain your line of thought, don't jump to conclusions. Remember to be analytical rather than just describing the text. For example if you are discussing the form or structure of a text, don't just identify it but describe the effect this has on the reader.