[foreverundecided]

Hello Looking for some help making a decision between the combined Lit/Lang, Edexcel, and AQA Literature. I've been trying to finalize this for nearly a year now, but I can't settle on either one so ANY help/opinions/advice would be really appreciated.

I got A*'s in the mocks for GCSE Literature and for Language, and high A*'s in the coursework. I found GSCE Language easier and more interesting, but our school doesn't offer Language A Level and I've been told its not as useful as Literature or as similar to the GCSE course, whereas Literature is meant to be very similar to the the GCSE... is this true?

I don't know a lot about the Lit/Lang, but the technical side seems intimidating in its complexity and just boring. Although, it looks like something I could understand with some work, just not.. enjoy. The coursework is creative writing, but a strangled version where you have to write a piece explaining why you chose to write it as you did. Any more information on the Edexcel coursework for Lit/Lang would be really useful...

I want to do English at Uni, but I don't know which one and a lot of unis seem to accept the combined Lit/Lang and show no preference for Literature. My other A Levels are Classical Civilisation, Philosophy and RE. I expect Lit/Lang would be a contrast to these... I don't know how similar Literature might be to Classics, for example, because of the studying of texts..

I'm better at Language, but probably wouldn't enjoy Lit/Lang as much, although I feel I'd get a higher mark in it. I could do Literature but it would be challenging and I'm taking Philosophy for the 'challenging' A Level.

Anyone?

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[amyj955]

I do both separately and I have had no benefits at all, it's annoying really when applying for an English degree to find that doing A level English lit and A level english language is help in no higher esteem than simply combined Lit/Lang. English Literature on it's own is quite hard, I had to really fight for a B, but if your A* then thats not a problem. I heard a lot of people complain about there being too much to cram into a lit/lang combination however.

[foreverundecided]

Thank you

[thompsonic7]

I do separate English A levels (Aqa b for both) and I've really enjoyed them. They aren't a walk in the park but A levels aren't designed to be... My teacher used to say that the combined course is worthless as it doesn't go into enough depth on any of the skills needed for further education if you choose to do an English degree.

Oh, and to call the Lang coursework 'strangled' is not doing it justice at all- I actually really enjoyed doing mine. The commentary is relatively straightforward and easy to complete, provided you know what the marker is looking for, and there's a degree of flexibility that you don't get in most other course works.

[adamjay]

I did combined (finished my A2 year more than a month ago) and found it quite pleasant when stepping from GCSE to A-Level. The great thing is that you get to do the interesting parts of Lit (novels, poems) and the flexibility of Lang (analysis).

It is not like doing two A-Levels. The Literature/Language elements in my specification (WJEC) were very much integrated, not separate like you may think.

I see it as English lit, but without having to memorise a huge amount of context - which you do indeed in combined, but less so.

Choose what you feel will be beneficial to you. I've heard from many that lang is really boring, but I've not heard that from friends that did lit.

[amyj955]

Language isn't as interesting but it's easier, which is always a plus.

[foreverundecided]

Thank you

Sorry about calling the coursework 'strangled', I just meant that it is known as creative writing but its very tethered to a text and needs to be analysed, which really put me off.

I guess with A Levels it's all about the marks but I don't know if that means I should go for lit (although I really hate The Road) or Lit/Lang (although I really hate Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf).

Which has less Shakespeare? Or is it equal? And is there still a considerable amount of solid Lit in Lit/Lang? Similar to that of GCSE?

[shaybethxo]

i did AQA lit/lang and found it really interesting. it's like picking the more interesting parts of both.

[ambbs]

I did Edexcel LitLang AS and enjoyed it! The coursework is nowhere near as bad as you think, trust me - everyone in my class got an A in it, apart from 3 people who got a B, and we're only in Year 11 (doing it early), so I'm sure you'd be fine. The two commentaries on your two creative piece where you explain what you did are also piss easy, because you know exactly what you put in and why - plus each one's only about 500 words! The paper is pretty long at 2hr15, but it's not too bad - the lang part of the paper is pretty straightforward and offers easy marks. As for the lit part, I can't comment on the other set texts but we did 'Address Unknown' which was interesting and relatively easy to analyse; plus the mark scheme is quite generous.

However, I think Lit on its own is more respected (probably because it is harder), and will probably be more useful to you if you're thinking of doing English at uni Good luck with whichever one you choose!

[ambbs]

Also, your coursework only has to be very loosely based on the text - you're given free rein to pretty much write about what .you want! No Shakespeare by the way (although I only did AS - I don't know about A2.)

Feel free to ask any more questions about the Edexcel AS course

[ToyosiBaby]

It depends but I know that as an English Literature and Language student I am told that we go more into depth on the language of text's and both their meanings and representations. It's really interesting and of course there is a little bit of reading.
However, in English Literature there is not a lot of depth into the language of text's if any at all, from what I understand, and there is A LOT of reading about different genres e.g. sci-fi, black power etc...

It depends..I did English LIT/LANG and I remember not being told all this about reading etc but luckily for some reason I just thought that I'd stick to what I knew best from what we had done in GCSE's and I'm glad I did so, EVEN THOUGH I am generally better in the English Literature part of English Lit/Lang I despise tooooo much reading! BUT If you love to read, then go for English Literature but definitely be prepared to be reading a wide range of genre;s HOPE THIS HELPS to put things into perspective because I never had this kind of information told to me it was just the basics like English lit/lang is a combined subject...my response "ermm yeah..I KNOW THAT!" lol

[foreverundecided]

Thank for the replies I will keep thinking..