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English Literature Pre-U

I'm doing English lit pre-u next year, and I was just wondering if people doing it or who have done it what its like in general, I've heard its difficult but that's it, my school hasn't told us too much about it, I'd love for some of you to share your experience with it?
(edited 7 years ago)

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I did my first Pre-U exam today. Feel free to drop me a PM!
Hey I'm currently studying 2 Pre-U's : English and History. For me I didn't notice the step up in English a lot, it was nicely softened by the teachers. It's not that hard if you genuinely like the subject or are good at it.
Original post by Edminzodo
I did my first Pre-U exam today. Feel free to drop me a PM!


hey how did you find this course? i'm doing pre u english lit too and i can barely find any resources online
Original post by goldenusername
hey how did you find this course? i'm doing pre u english lit too and i can barely find any resources online


There are barely any resources online. You can use some resources from A-Level English courses but a lot of it is more academic. I had critics' books and used jstor a lot as well for articles. I'm sure your teachers will point you in the right direction if you ask them. I found the course a little tricky at first, my marks were very consistent and not that high, but in Y13 I shot up from an M1/D3 borderline to a good D2, which is the grade I achieved in the end. If you need any more help just let me know.
@QuantumSnowy If you need any help just let me know as well.
Original post by Edminzodo
There are barely any resources online. You can use some resources from A-Level English courses but a lot of it is more academic. I had critics' books and used jstor a lot as well for articles. I'm sure your teachers will point you in the right direction if you ask them. I found the course a little tricky at first, my marks were very consistent and not that high, but in Y13 I shot up from an M1/D3 borderline to a good D2, which is the grade I achieved in the end. If you need any more help just let me know.


Thanks for the reply :smile: I don't really understand how the marks work and what m1 d2 etc stands for in terms of grade C, B etc. For example i did quite terrible in my first mock and got 6/25 but i don't know what grade that is. And how did you revise for it?
Original post by goldenusername
Thanks for the reply :smile: I don't really understand how the marks work and what m1 d2 etc stands for in terms of grade C, B etc. For example i did quite terrible in my first mock and got 6/25 but i don't know what grade that is. And how did you revise for it?


D1 - A^
D2 - A*
D3 - A
M1 - B

I don't really know how it goes after this but there's M2, M3, P1, P2, P3 but I guess it follows a fairly similar pattern, maybe P2 and P3 are both Es. 6/25 isn't as bad as it sounds in the Pre-U considering 14/25 is an A (D3). I think maybe you need to speak to your school to get them to clarify what you don't understand and put you on the right track.

In terms of revision, you need to know your set texts back to front. That means knowing your poems by heart, as well as critical views, context and analysis points. You'll get questions like 'Explore the theme of love in XYZ's poetry'. You need to know exactly what poems you'll talk about and be able to back it up. We had 43 poems in our selection and were told to learn 15 by heart and to know bits from most of the others. Prose is along the same lines. Know the whole plot, know character quotes and other quotes as well.

For the Drama paper, you get the option of passage questions but you still need to be able to refer to other parts of the text, and know critics and context.

For the Unseen, read around the subject. Learn literary techniques and what is typical of different eras of literature. I got a surprisingly high Unseen score from this because I could refer to other works and talk about literary eras and genres.

My advice to you is to have a look on the website to see the criteria. Pre-U is quite a bit different from A-Levels.

May I ask what your set texts are? I may be able to give you some specific advice if I happened to have done the same ones.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Edminzodo
D1 - A^
D2 - A*
D3 - A
M1 - B

I don't really know how it goes after this but there's M2, M3, P1, P2, P3 but I guess it follows a fairly similar pattern, maybe P2 and P3 are both Es. 6/25 isn't as bad as it sounds in the Pre-U considering 14/25 is an A (D3). I think maybe you need to speak to your school to get them to clarify what you don't understand and put you on the right track.

In terms of revision, you need to know your set texts back to front. That means knowing your poems by heart, as well as critical views, context and analysis points. You'll get questions like 'Explore the theme of love in XYZ's poetry'. You need to know exactly what poems you'll talk about and be able to back it up. We had 43 poems in our selection and were told to learn 15 by heart and to know bits from most of the others. Prose is along the same lines. Know the whole plot, know character quotes and other quotes as well.

For the Drama paper, you get the option of passage questions but you still need to be able to refer to other parts of the text, and know critics and context.

For the Unseen, read around the subject. Learn literary techniques and what is typical of different eras of literature. I got a surprisingly high Unseen score from this because I could refer to other works and talk about literary eras and genres.

My advice to you is to have a look on the website to see the criteria. Pre-U is quite a bit different from A-Levels.

May I ask what your set texts are? I may be able to give you some specific advice if I happened to have done the same ones.


Wait how many set texts do we have to do overall? The paper says, ''Emma'' , ''Auden'' , ''Hamlet'' and ''Waiting for goblet''. And we also have some unseens.
Also, with the personal investigation, can i pick four books by four different authors?
Original post by Edminzodo
D1 - A^
D2 - A*
D3 - A
M1 - B

I don't really know how it goes after this but there's M2, M3, P1, P2, P3 but I guess it follows a fairly similar pattern, maybe P2 and P3 are both Es. 6/25 isn't as bad as it sounds in the Pre-U considering 14/25 is an A (D3). I think maybe you need to speak to your school to get them to clarify what you don't understand and put you on the right track.

In terms of revision, you need to know your set texts back to front. That means knowing your poems by heart, as well as critical views, context and analysis points. You'll get questions like 'Explore the theme of love in XYZ's poetry'. You need to know exactly what poems you'll talk about and be able to back it up. We had 43 poems in our selection and were told to learn 15 by heart and to know bits from most of the others. Prose is along the same lines. Know the whole plot, know character quotes and other quotes as well.

For the Drama paper, you get the option of passage questions but you still need to be able to refer to other parts of the text, and know critics and context.

For the Unseen, read around the subject. Learn literary techniques and what is typical of different eras of literature. I got a surprisingly high Unseen score from this because I could refer to other works and talk about literary eras and genres.

My advice to you is to have a look on the website to see the criteria. Pre-U is quite a bit different from A-Levels.

May I ask what your set texts are? I may be able to give you some specific advice if I happened to have done the same ones.


Auden is for poetry not a text, my bad
Original post by goldenusername
Wait how many set texts do we have to do overall? The paper says, ''Emma'' , ''Auden'' , ''Hamlet'' and ''Waiting for goblet''. And we also have some unseens.
Also, with the personal investigation, can i pick four books by four different authors?


Original post by goldenusername
Auden is for poetry not a text, my bad


You have a novel, which is Emma by Jane Austen in your case.
You have a poetry collection, which is W. H. Auden.
You have a play, which is Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett.
And you have a Shakespeare play, which is Hamlet.

The Unseen is the last component. You'll take three exams - Drama, Poetry & Prose, and the Unseen, as well as the PI. All of the papers and the PI are 25% each, so each text is worth 12.5%.

The PI has to be done thematically, so you can't just pick random books. In many cases, the school will set two primary texts for you and allow you to choose your secondary texts. One of my secondary texts was a play and one was a poetry collections, so you're not just limited to novels, either.

I hope this helps.
Original post by Edminzodo
You have a novel, which is Emma by Jane Austen in your case.
You have a poetry collection, which is W. H. Auden.
You have a play, which is Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett.
And you have a Shakespeare play, which is Hamlet.

The Unseen is the last component. You'll take three exams - Drama, Poetry & Prose, and the Unseen, as well as the PI. All of the papers and the PI are 25% each, so each text is worth 12.5%.

The PI has to be done thematically, so you can't just pick random books. In many cases, the school will set two primary texts for you and allow you to choose your secondary texts. One of my secondary texts was a play and one was a poetry collections, so you're not just limited to novels, either.

I hope this helps.


Thank you so much, this was very helpful. Did you study any of the texts and poetry i'll be studying?
Original post by goldenusername
Thank you so much, this was very helpful. Did you study any of the texts and poetry i'll be studying?


I studied Emma. It was definitely my most challenging text and I scored the worst in that paper, but I'm happy to help you out if you need it.
Argh, I forgot about this thread, @Edminzodo, is it possible for you to tell me a bit more about the PI?

We haven't gotten too much info on it yet, but I'm enjoying the course so far
Original post by Edminzodo
I studied Emma. It was definitely my most challenging text and I scored the worst in that paper, but I'm happy to help you out if you need it.


do you have any notes on emma? ive actuaally never read the text before
@goldenusername are you by any chance a HWSF student? Sorry if too personal, but I'm going the same texts
Original post by Anna021298
@goldenusername are you by any chance a HWSF student? Sorry if too personal, but I'm going the same texts


Hey and yeah i'm a student from HWSF :smile:
Hey can you give me some tips on how you managed to get you work up to D2 level? I am in a similar position to you in that I currently produce decent essays that get 15/16 out of 25 but would love to get nearer towards a D2 mark. Can you give me some advice?
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What did u do for your p I?

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