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1. Read the books early.
If possible don't leave the book reading too late... i.e. preferably before you begin working on it in school, and the first time (more about this later) if possible before the start of the school year/term. This takes some of the load off of you during the school year, when you will have homework and other time-erasing responsibilities.
2. Read the books often.
In the simplest terms, more is better. There's no universally accepted 'magic number': you can read the books as many times as you want. But I'd suggest at least one preliminary reading to get an idea of the plot, characters, and general development of the novel, then a second reading (if available, while reading the Sparknotes as you go along). If you are doing a book in an exam, it is a good idea to read it a final time as late as possible before the exam - if you have several books here, work smart. It is easier to read the Great Gatsby than Anna Karenina, so if you 'get' the book - or at least like it - then it might be better to focus on re-reading the shorter books.
3. Use available resources!
Some teachers - most teachers, I'd hazard - don't like Sparknotes. Mainly because students tend to rely on it too much, especially when writing essays. But the thing about Sparknotes is that the chapter summaries, for example, are really useful in jogging your memory. The quotes section often helps clarify obscure or confusing fragments. I would read the entire Sparknotes for a book more than once, particularly to try to keep a large number of events and characters in mind. The fundamental edge you need when it comes to novels is to know them backwards - and Sparknotes is useful! Just close it when you start writing...
4. Read novels in as short a time as possible.
This is mostly my own opinion... the thing is, it's easier to get through a novel, especially something like Madame Bovary, Catch-22 or War and Peace, chapter-by-chapter. It's tempting to read a little bit at the end of the day, and pretty much forget the book otherwise. But this sort of reading doesn't really exercise your mind, since you're sleepy as you do it.. a small test: when you open up the book the next day, check back and see how much you remember. When I read before going to sleep I found that the last few pages were increasingly hazy; I could barely remember what had happened and none of the specifics of the language. This is up to you, but I'd suggest reading the book in as few chunks as possible: this enables you to see connection, patterns, motifs, etc. The more you stretch the reading the less complete your understanding of the novel will be.
5. Take notes.
As you go through the book during the more thorough reading, it's useful to make your own notes in some sort of structural pattern (i.e. chapter-by-chapter, organized by section, and so on). This helps you use certain sections of your mind that aren't employed during just passive reading, and makes it much easier to remember the actual storyline, etc. Also you should try to select important passages and quotes - the perfect exam essay includes specific quotes, and the best way to learn them is to write them down repeatedly. The earlier you identify them, the better. Some specific passages you should always be especially aware of: the opening/introductory passage, the climax, the end of the book, long monologues or soliloquy, and I guess moments when somebody dies (i.e. in Madame Bovary when Emma commits suicide). But there are usually lots more too.
6. Create lists.
This is book-specific, so use your own good sense to decide when it's necessary. For some books like Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, it's really helpful to create lists of foreign words with definitions. Or sometimes, as with Joyce's Portrait, a lot of very specific vocabulary will be used, in this case to do with religion and churches, and if you've been secularly raised (like me) these may be confusing or, at the far end of the spectrum, completely meaningless. Lists and definitions are good because you can fold them and keep them as a bookmark in the book, and refer to them whenever you need to (or add to them) during subsequent readings, or even later in the book.
7. Write Journal entries.
This is a bit of a personal choice as well. I've seen it suggested several times but I've never done it myself in so many words, but it sounds helpful: writing occasional informal journal entries about specific scenes or passages. These can be pretty individual, spontaneous and unstructured. It has to do with the active thinking principle and also finding a personal response to books.. for example, you could even write about what you like and don't like in a book. Making neural connections is good, because it helps you remember things, and active thinking builds neural networks.
8. Pay Attention to Specific Features of Novels.
I could write a lot here, probably too much, so I'm just going to try to make a short list with some notes of the specific features of books it's a good idea to pay attention to, because they come up often in essays. A really useful reference book here is The Art of Fiction by David Lodge, which you can probably order on Amazon to arrive tomorrow, and lists 50 of these with examples and notes. But basically narrators are important, and the narrative 'tense' (is that the right word?) is very important. For example, first person narrators tend to be more personal than third person narrators, and that has an effect on the reader's perception of the story, how closely we identify with the characters, etc. Stream-of-consciousness is a particularly 'close' form of narration, but also look out for free indirect discourse, when the third person narrator takes on the speech mannerisms and opinions of a certain character. Setting/weather/landscape is also important; in some books it has symbolic importance, in others weather closely mirrors character's thoughts/emotions (look also for the pathetic fallacy) and time is significant too. Some books take place in twenty-four hours, others over years or even decades, and authors use these for specific reasons I guess. Also very significant are changes in any of these, like a sudden change in setting. And many, many books have changes in the passage of time - for example in Johnny Got His Gun, the first section is very specific and seems to take place over a few days or weeks, while the second suddenly leaps out to the scale of months and years. Changes in the passage of time, for example, often mirror other underlying shifts in the story, and I guess are good indicators of an important change.
Also finally I've included a list of books that may be useful for studying novels, in the form of an attachment of a screenshot from the Oxford Study Courses guide. This can be purchase for something like 20 pounds and shipped to wherever you are, and might be a good investment by the way, even if you're good at your A1 Language.
Good luck!
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I was hoping for some advice about WL essay formats in it and I don't think I ever read it after buying it and having a quick flick through! So check before getting it, in case it turns out to be a bit of a dud relative to what you were looking for.
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