What is English lit like at A level?

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Reply 20

Platopus

Hell

Reply 21

katodizzle

Original post by dragonhunter

No worries, glad I could help!

What exam board would you be doing?

OCR

Reply 22

katodizzle

Original post by QPRTeags

My AS experience this year was awesome. It's an extremely enjoyable (and easy!) subject if you like reading.

As for work load, read the novels 2 or 3 times, the plays 2 or 3 times and you will be able to answer pretty much any question, but the poems may require some more time. My college barely gave us any homework (and when they did it was "reread chapter 3" or something like that) that will probably be different at sixth form so I can't tell you what to expect.

It's definitely worth it - at least with AQA, gold-confetti's experience with Edexcel sounds dreadful

Thanks, I hope it is. I'll be doing the OCR course which hopefully won't be a nightmare :smile:

Reply 23

math42

Original post by celloel

Clearly it does differ by exam board. Memorisation was highly important - I'm guessing you did an open book exam? I did not. Completely closed book - memorisation of quotes, etc. In regards to critics, if we included only 2 (as you said you did) we barely scraped passing level for that AO - your clear very low amount of knowledge for context would also be barely high enough to scrape a pass. And to only use the terminology you learnt at GCSE level too?

It's very clear A Levels have become harder with the new specification, or you completed the qualification with a particularly kind examining board.

No, entirely closed book at A2 (open at AS). I learned tons of quotes, I'll admit that, but generally I found they stuck quite well so weren't really a strain/a massive effort. I did WJEC and examiner reports stated, I believe, that emphasis was on quality over quantity. If you analysed a small number of critics very well, you'd get good marks for that. So I had two big paragraphs, starting with a critics quote, analysing it in depth. As for context, tbh I was probably downplaying it a little, but not extremely. I knew more than that, but it was stuff I just sort of picked up from class, and general historical knowledge, and I never felt I had to be researching very in depth or anything. Emphasis, as said in examiner reports, again, was on using context effectively to indicate the author's point. So I could throw something in (though written better than this..) like "James 1st would go see Shakespeare's plays as would other nobles and therefore it would have been his interests to avoid apparent mockery of politics, therefore it is difficult to say that The Tempest is intended as a criticism of the nature of government" and that's a sufficient enough point.

Well, I do question teachers/the info provided for such subjective subjects as these. For instance my girlfriend is doing the exact same spec as I did, in A2 year now, and teachers are always telling her she needs to include tons of critics; I think they said something like if she includes less than 10 critics quotes or something like that it's only worth a C in that category. I dunno where these teachers get that information as it is patently not true. Or maybe I got 1/5 in critics and that's where some of my 9 lost UMS came from...but I wasn't much better in coursework and only dropped 2 raw marks in that, one was, indeed, due to a lack of specific historical context, but I got all the marks for critics. And the teacher doing it has never had his marks moderated up or down which implies accuracy.

As for terminology, I mean, I had most of what I needed from GCSE. Typical stuff like dramatic irony, metaphor, unreliable narrator, iambic pentameter. Maybe I'm not remembering some of the weirder ones, in AS we did get taught some new stuff I think and I might be mixing it up with what was taught at GCSE. I guess the point is not that I knew nothing at all but that the level of knowledge I required was attained through just paying attention in class, and I tried to exaggerate my own cluelessness to get across the point that I didn't need to memorise much, looking back at that post it is a bit extreme.

I think WJEC were probably kind with the amount of knowledge expected. They are all about using knowledge well, and less about how much you have. However, to be honest, I am very good at stretching the resources I have and writing something convincing without optimal specificity. But I did give an exaggerated impression with regards to context before (not really with critics).

edit: by tons of quotes I refer to from the texts themselves. They stuck better because I thought a lot about their meaning and their context within the text

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 24

sullyomo

I did AQA English literature B and have reallyyyyy enjoyed it! My teachers were great and even though the texts we were given at first looked really boring eg. Wuthering Heights/Dr Faustus/Twelfth Night - after studying them they were really fascinating! The only thing I didn't really like was doing the coursework, but to each their own.
I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys class discussion and sharing their own views aloud :smile:

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Reply 25

dragonhunter

Original post by katodizzle

OCR

That's the one I did this year, it's worth noting that there's only one specimen paper (well two, one for each component) and you'll also have the paper we've just done. So in terms of preparation, there may not be all that much from the exam board compared to other subjects.

However I think there's a good variety of texts to choose from (we did Chaucer's Merchant's Tale, Hamlet, The Bloody Chamber short stories and A Streetcar Named Desire) and it really requires you to know a lot of context which is really interesting even for general knowledge.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about the course :smile:

Reply 26

flyingpanda

Pain and death and suffering.

I still wish I chose it over physics.

Spoiler

Reply 27

Nadine_08

Draining.

I personally regret choosing it.

Reply 28

Nadine_08

Original post by katodizzle

Thanks, I hope it is. I'll be doing the OCR course which hopefully won't be a nightmare :smile:

I'm currently doing OCR English lit' first year. So far we've done Hamlet, Christina Rossetti poetry, Bloody Chamber short stories and A Streetcar Named Desire.

The OCR exam board has really high grade boundaries so it's quite hard to get a really good grade.

Analysis is a huge part of this course so if you're good at/enjoy analysing texts and coming up with original ideas/interpretations then you're good to go.

Also, the exams are closed-book, so you would have to memorise all the key quotes, acts/scenes, etc.

Reply 29

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by katodizzle

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?

My A-level days were just a blur.

But I did the GCSE English combined course, then took each English A-level separately and I'm now studying Literature and Philosophy at uni.

I think with most subjects it really depends on the teacher you have and how the deliver it - esp for Literature.

But, if you do enjoy it and its your favourite subject yoiu'll be fine. Yes, there will be texts you can't stand but they'll be texts you'll never be able to forget. It really depends on what you study. For OCR, there are a lot of texts. But if I knew I would be studying the theme of Women in the prose section, I just wouldn't pick it.
So it depends on what you like I think.
Have you considered the A-level English Lit and Lang combined course if your school does it?

I found it a lot of work because when I did my exams with AQA, our marks were from how much we had read outside of the prescribed texts. We had to compare unseen extract from a studied theme and link how our wider reading related to that text and the theme as a whole. So quite difficult and it was close exam too! So we had to prepare for our exams 4 months in advance.

At the end of the day, if you like it at GCSE, I say you might as well take it at A-level.
I never liked English at GCSE. But my year 11 English teacherr inspired me to become passionate about the subject right before exams. So you never know!

Reply 30

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by Rajive

Do you guys advise to do it even if you got a B at GCSE but you still enjoy it?

Yet. I got a B at GCSE English and enjoyed it!

Reply 31

katodizzle

Original post by Nadine_08

Ok cool, I like analysing so hopefully it'll be good, thank you! :smile:

Reply 32

katodizzle

Original post by dragonhunter

Dammit, past papers are so useful, oh well. Thank you! :smile:

Reply 33

MattThomas

Run while you have the chance,, don't be the wally like me with my final Lit exam in 2 weeks needing a B to get into uni, pick a fun subject instead. It isn't worth the effort

Reply 34

Rajive

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

Yet. I got a B at GCSE English and enjoyed it!

What are you hoping to get?

Reply 35

loveleest

I did it last year and failed :frown:

like 90% of the people who did the course failed but that might eb due to the teachers.

Reply 36

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by Rajive

What are you hoping to get?

I already did my A-levels and im studying lit and philosophy at a top 40 uni. :smile:

Reply 37

RedxNin

Original post by Rajive

Do you guys advise to do it even if you got a B at GCSE but you still enjoy it?

Definitely! You technically have two years to work on your exam skills etc, and a B at GCSE is good. As long as you work hard, take on board advice and enjoy it as much as possible, you'll do well and get the grade you truly deserve.

Reply 38

Candy55

I'm doing English lit Alevel and it's fun, challenging but you can pass if you try hard. It's not impossibly difficult and can be fun so go for it!

Reply 39

fefssdf

I know of many people who got B's in english lit gcse but are on track to get A's overall so it doesn't seem to be that difficult compared to biology for instance where many people couldn't even make it past AS