IEB English Home Language – Past Papers, Memos & Study Material

IEB English Home Language - Past Papers, Memos & Study Material

Date Published: October 5, 2020

English Home Language is the most popular subject in IEB schools. English Home Language is a lot more detailed than English first additional language and can sometimes be a bit tricky. 

Luckily, Matric College has compiled this cheat sheet where you can find all the past papers and memos that you need, in one place. 

Past papers

English is a great subject to practise because more often than not, it’s about the application. By practising with past papers, you’ll become very good at literacy, comprehension and all the other aspects that come with the exam.

Remember that practice makes perfect! 

Here is a link to all the past papers from 2015-2019 

If there aren’t enough past papers here for you and you’re eager to practise a bit more, click here and choose the IEB options! 

Marking guides

Once you’ve done past papers, check your work against the marking guidelines so you get used to how markers will mark your work.

Once you learn how to answer the questions, especially in English Home Language, you’re closer to nailing the exam! 

Here are the IEB marking guidelines from 2017-2019.

Tips and tricks for passing English Home Language

English is all about reading, reading and more reading. 

Make sure that you do all the necessary reading and poetry work before the exam. When you’re writing your exams and you get to the literature section, you need to know your stuff. Dedicate your time to learning your poetry, novels or plays. This section can be tricky! But again practise is key here! 

Try using sites like SparkNotes to help you understand old English or just the themes of your literature! 

A great tip when it comes to poetry is to immerse yourself in understanding the poem! Once you do that, the questions become fairly easy.

Lastly, know your rules! This goes for everything from grammar to comprehension. 

Good luck! 

Author: Andrea Frisby