okay. from my experience doing well in eng adv is to do lots of ur own research and 2 stay as far as u can away from the teacher's notes and the like.
dont make notes everyday....if that doesnt work 4 u i mean. do them at the end of everyweek or sumthing. i found it extremely annoying 2 redo(times infinity) my notes from teacher/class discussions. but u might find doing ur notes everyday much better. do what works out for u....
look up as many different essay qs as u can and attempt them under test conditions-that is give one essay about 40mins working time. do one and then bug ur teacher 2 mark it...if ur teacher's crap then get a good teacher that u like 2 mark it! keep doing practice qs and continue 2 bug ur teacher(s). (this may make u look like a suck-up but it depends on how and when u approach them).
do not stick 2 study guides - they lead 2 ruin in many cases esp when a teacher finds too very similar stuff in ppl's writings. anyway researching on the net is more fun. go to sparknotes.com and try finding links from there!