First time: Some children's book that I was like 2 when I read it with my mom
Second time: Of Mice and Men (Read it for my English Literature GCSE, was poop at it until I thought "why don't I used other books to get an external understanding" in March. Year 10 Exam, 1 mark off an A. Year 11 exam, got another B. Poetry essay in Year 10, C with a complete Essay. Romeo and Juliet Comparison essay, C with an incomplete essay.
Year 9 who start taking their GCSE English Lit and Year 10 who start their final year in September: Read. Books. It's better to write 2 or 3 chunky, relevant, repetitive, non-theory paragraphs than 7 small, less detailed paragraphs.
TL;DR Don't remember the first time. The second time helped me object or my teacher's suggestion which saw a D in my Year 10 mock and chose my own which saw me go over my predicted grade by a full grade (Predicted was C, 75% of my grade was a B, 25 a C)