What is English lit like at A level?

it is trash

stay away

I've done my English lit GCSE and would like to take it further to sixth form as it is my favourite subject. Any tips? Amount of work?

It's very different to GCSE Literature - that's the most important thing to know. It has a fair amount of work and it is a difficult subject, to an extent. You'll be doing a lot of wider reading and research (to get the higher marks for context, etc). You will also need to memorise much more than at GCSE - for example, you'll need to structure critics into your answers, etc - as well as remembering to include terminology (plastic theatre, anaphora, etc) in your analysis.

Tips would be to read through the text before you start studying it in class - it'll allow you to know where the storyline is going before the class are reading it together. You'll be able to pick up a lot more features, devices and analyse the text more thoroughly this way. Ensure you note down key quotations - split them up by themes, devices, whatever else helps you. Do plenty of practice questions (if you can get your hands on any - the new spec A Level only has one or two specimen papers at a maximum) and read the mark schemes thoroughly.

Of all my subjects, this is the one I spent the least amount of time on, because I dislike it wholeheartedly. Please remember that it is incredibly different from GCSE and yes it is much harder. Of course, everybody is different - but I adored English Literature at GCSE, I got an A* (near full UMS in every exam) and wanted to do it at University - yet, now, after studying it for a year, I cannot wait to potentially drop it after this year. Be aware that you may hate it, you may love it, but don't go in thinking it's going to be an easy ride.

I've done my English lit GCSE and would like to take it further to sixth form as it is my favourite subject. Any tips? Amount of work?

Fun. Basically the same as GCSE for me, but that's because I think I always wrote in an "A level way" at GCSE. I think that you need to do less to get an A* at GCSE than what I was doing at GCSE if that makes sense, and when it come to A level I just continued in the same fashion. Work wasn't that heavy, I just turned up, did the essays set, and went over themes and quotes within the last couple of weeks before the exam. However you should expect to do more practice essays. Furthermore you have to write in a more confident, analytical way in general, and you want your ideas to be interesting, original, and thought-provoking; any contextual references should come strongly back to the author's intentions, any comparisons between texts should be "illuminating"/productive and not just reiterate things you've already said, and your analysis should be in-depth. You should also be adept at less laborious analysis, using embedded quotes constantly and not having such an apparent "point evidence explain" structure (it's fine to use this sort of template a bit, but at GCSE you can probably just do this over and over again in very obvious fashion and be fine), but more of a natural one.

It's very different to GCSE Literature - that's the most important thing to know. It has a fair amount of work and it is a difficult subject, to an extent. You'll be doing a lot of wider reading and research (to get the higher marks for context, etc). You will also need to memorise much more than at GCSE - for example, you'll need to structure critics into your answers, etc - as well as remembering to include terminology (plastic theatre, anaphora, etc) in your analysis.

Tips would be to read through the text before you start studying it in class - it'll allow you to know where the storyline is going before the class are reading it together. You'll be able to pick up a lot more features, devices and analyse the text more thoroughly this way. Ensure you note down key quotations - split them up by themes, devices, whatever else helps you. Do plenty of practice questions (if you can get your hands on any - the new spec A Level only has one or two specimen papers at a maximum) and read the mark schemes thoroughly.

Of all my subjects, this is the one I spent the least amount of time on, because I dislike it wholeheartedly. Please remember that it is incredibly different from GCSE and yes it is much harder. Of course, everybody is different - but I adored English Literature at GCSE, I got an A* (near full UMS in every exam) and wanted to do it at University - yet, now, after studying it for a year, I cannot wait to potentially drop it after this year. Be aware that you may hate it, you may love it, but don't go in thinking it's going to be an easy ride.

Please ask the school which exam board you'll be on with the new reformed A Levels.
I'm with edexcel and it's horrible. We had to cover

a full play (A Streetcar named Desire- this I thoroughly enjoyed),

28 stupidly long poems (from poems of the decade. There are no resources on any of the poems and they're all modern, which I hate)

and two fairly long novels (wuthering heights, which I enjoyed, and Mrs.Dalloway, which I hated)

The workload was just huge, especially considering I despised half the content so I had little motivation to study this year. Please ensure that you will enjoy the things you're studying before you take it. I loved it at GCSE and now hate it.

I also found it very difficult to do well. My teachers are unsure of when to give marks due to the new reforms, and it seemed that even when I include everything they want from me, my marks weren't glowing. The workload totally ripped away time that could've been better spent learning how to answer the questions to a better standard. For example I only completed 2 poetry responses before my exam.

It's easy to pass, but the difference between a B essay and an A essay was seemingly very large. Plus no one is exactly sure where the grade boundaries are because the A level is new.

A2 looks much better, and if I don't drop the subject, then I'll be anticipating the Shakespeare unit.

English Lit was also my favourite subject when I was doing my GCSEs and I expected to love it just as much at A Level. Honestly it's probably my least favourite now but that might just be personal preference (I know quite a few people who love it even more now than before!) In comparison to my other subjects, I found that the jump from GCSE to A Level in English Lit was fairly small. Be prepared to do quite a bit of wider reading, learning quotes and writing essays. Keep an open mind and try to really enjoy the texts you have to study, as it'll make it much easier to write about them in an exam! English Lit is a great A Level to have. I hope you enjoy it!

I've done my English lit GCSE and would like to take it further to sixth form as it is my favourite subject. Any tips? Amount of work?

If you love it, I'd say go for it!

Make sure you get critics and quotes early in the year, the last thing you want to do is spend the night before the exam cramming quotes to learn. Also read a lot about the context (ask your teachers for recommendations) and practise writing.

Amount of work really depends on how much you are willing to do, but in my class there seems to be a direct correlation between that and the grades we get. This year (AS) I had 5 hours of classes a week, plus 1-2 essays, some background/critics research and some independent reading. Occasionally we had to do prepare 30 minute lessons to teach to the rest of the class and stuff like that. I like to be super prepared and often take several hours for each essay, but others would knock it out over a lunchtime. It really depends on how fast you work.

I've loved it this year, I'd say definitely do it if it's your favourite subject

Fair enough, I'm looking forward to it, going to start the reading list once exams are over. I usually take a few hours to write a good essay as well but it depends on the topic, thanks for your help

I guess things differ by exam board, and in fairness I only scraped an A* at A level (111/120 in exam, 72/80 in coursework, though admittedly that was more to do with only drafting the coursework once), so I hardly have the perfect advice. But I think you're exaggerating the memorisation aspect. At A2 for instance I literally memorised 3 critics quote for The Tempest and 2 for the Wife of Bath, my knowledge of context extended roughly to "colonialism was happening, politics were a certain way, Shakespeare knew George 1st" and "Society was patriarchal, Chaucer was a fairly well-off guy, religion was important and corrupt". As for terminology, barely ever used anything esoteric/that I wouldn't have used at GCSE (only new thing I remember learning is caesura..)

edit: Actually James 1st lol, see how great my knowledge was..