I keep losing marks on my essay answers because of how I use context. How can I fix this?

Use of context is a very common thing to find tricky when responding to an essay question. It can often feel like you're "tagging on" extra information just for the sake of hitting all of the Assessment Criteria for the essay. My top tip would be to plan the points you will make about context at the same time as you plan your main responses to the text(s) you are writing about. This will make it easier to "integrate" the context into your writing, as you may decide to open your paragraph with this information or offer it mid-way through, as opposed to adding it as an afterthought at the end. For example: Instead of: "Quote X presents the reader with imagery relating to power, which suggests Y and Z. Also this relates to the [context point] from the time of writing." you may end up with something like: "Considering how the [context point] at the text's time of writing relates to ideas of power, Quote X from the text is significant because it reflects these ideas. This is particularly interesting where Quote X evokes Y and Z."