How do you revise for the ELAT when you don't have any texts to prepare with?

The important thing to remember about the ELAT is that it is not designed to test your memory of knowledge of texts, but instead to test your aptitude and close reading skills, and most importantly, your ability to articulate a sustained argument. Therefore, the best thing to do is to treat it like the 'unseen' sections on your English GCSE/A Level exams. The texts will be from a variety of different genres - prose, poetry or plays - that will all be thematically linked; for example, when I did my ELAT the theme was 'food.' When revising, then, it is important to practise reading these different genres so you get used to the different layouts - for example, how a play or a poem is formatted differently to a novel. To do this, read samples of each genre (easily obtained online). It doesn't matter what they are about. Then, take a small section and try and pick out the significant features and how those features different from features in another genre. For example, with a poem you will want to discuss rhyme (or lack of), rhythm and poetic techniques such as enjambment (continuing a line after the line breaks) or caesura (a punctuated pause mid-line), whereas in a play you may want to discuss stage directions.Once you get used to the different features of each genre and used to practising spotting them, focus on how they contribute to the meaning of the text. Whilst memorising jargon and techniques are useful for close reading, you do not want to end up just 'feature spotting.' The examiners are looking for a consistent and sustained argument throughout your essay, and knowledge of features and techniques should work as evidence to back up your argument, not the basis of the argument itself. Therefore, once you have practised close reading the best thing you can do to revise is look at past ELAT papers and practise using the skills and techniques you developed when reading different genres. Past papers will help you practise how to come up with an argument and articulate it, and can be found on this website https://www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/elat/preparing-for-elat/. You have 90 minutes to take the test, but the best strategy to build up your arguing abilities is to start by doing it outside time conditions and work on planning an argument and then using close reading to support it, before eventually then moving on to timed conditions. Remember, the ELAT is not a test of how much you know, but instead how you can adapt what you already know into a sustained argument for an essay.