When marking essays, markers are most impressed by the way you synthesise everything together into a strong argument. You really got to have the "passionate" feel in the argument as if you were debating the point furiously.
When studying for english, the most basic thing to do (if you already don't know them off by heart) is to revise your basic writing structures and techniques. Taking it to the next level means you need to also remember quotes or examples from your texts and how it shows or relates to the idea or topic you are studying.
Some people take that even further, by writing pre-written essays, memorise them and regurgitating them onto their work. In a test situation, this would not be effective, since it is often difficult to relate what you have pre-written to the question. My teacher says that regurgitated essays are often made obvious to the markers because people often do not synthesise (or disguise) the ideas in their memorised essays well enough to match (or make relevence to) the ideas and needs in the essay question given in the test.
In a nutshell, to succeed in English it just takes more practice. Note the cliche "pratice makes perfect".
