English BA 2011

Anyone firmed an offer to study English this year? Just wanted to start a thread to talk to anyone else excited about going :biggrin:

I noticed on the department website that there is a summer reading list - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/english/internal/forstudents/vacation . Presumably that will get sent out on results day. Anyway, I hope you're having a great summer!

Reply 1

Mia11

Original post by tombriars

Anyone firmed an offer to study English this year? Just wanted to start a thread to talk to anyone else excited about going :biggrin:

Hello! I've placed Sussex as my first choice to read English and really looking forward to going (providing I get the right grades of course!) :tongue:

I thought it looked like such a lovely uni on the open day and the course looks fantastic too. And it will be amazing to be living so close to Brighton! :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

University of Sussex

Brighton

Reply 2

tombriars

Hi Mia, lovely to hear from you! Yeah I completely agree with everything you said: uni, course and location, all look amazing! How are you feeling about reaching your offer? Have you applied for accommodation yet? By the way, if you are a member on yougo, there is an Sussex English students thread with a few other people :smile:

Reply 3

tombriars

For anyone who is interested, the reading list has moved - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/english/internal/forstudents/schoolinfoug/vacationreading/literature-vacationreading/firstyearliterature-vacationreading

Reply 4

Mia11

ah brilliant, thank you, I will definitely check out the yougo thing! :smile:

I'm feeling quite nervous about making my offer... I have a pretty pessimistic attitude when it comes to exams though, so perhaps I'm just being negative. I find it hard to make judgements about how well I've performed in an exam, as I don't want to either give myself false hope by telling myself it went well, or putting myself under immense pressure by convincing myself that it was a failure of an exam! :s-smilie:

How are you feeling about making your offer? Did Sussex make you the AAA/A*BB offer? I haven't applied for accommodation yet, I'm a bit torn... I'm thinking of either putting Lewes Court first or the Park Houses. Have you applied yet?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5

tombriars

Thats completely understandable. I'm normally like that with exam results too and knowing that getting into uni just before fees go up is reliant on them makes it even more worrying! My situation is a bit different from most people because I missed year 12 and 13 due to illness, so my offer was based on passing an open university course and getting an A in English A-Level (both of which I've self-taught this year). I'm feeling quite confident about reaching the conditions, but I still won't be happy till I've got the results in writing! Yeah, I'm hoping for Brighthelm or Lewes Court Phase 1.

Reply 6

Mia11

good on you! That must have taken a lot of self-motivation and discipline, teaching yourself for a whole year. Does your open uni course mean you effectively have a degree already? I know what you mean about the whole results-on-paper thing, I know that I won't be able to stop worrying until I know for certain what my grades are and, as you said, the whole process would definitely be less strenuous if it wasn't for the fact that the fees going up next year! Is Sussex far away from home for you or are you staying near to home?

Reply 7

tombriars

Thanks

No, its a 60 CATS points course and is supposed to be equivalent to half of the first year at university ( http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/aa100.htm ). I wanted to do something to show a breadth of humanities study and that seemed like a more suitable alternative for teaching myself than more A-Levels. Quite far because I live in Cornwall, its about 5 and a half hours on the train. What about you?

Reply 8

Mia11

that makes more sense... I thought it seemed pretty near to impossible to be able to complete a degree or degree equivalent in just a year :tongue:

That looks like a really fascinating course, it was probably much more exciting and diverse than doing any of those subjects as individual A levels. What books did you study for your English A level? Are you starting to work your way through the Sussex book list for summer reading preparation? I'm not moving that far from home at all, I live in London, so it's only about an hour and ten minutes by train :smile:

Reply 9

tombriars

Yeah I think that would be crazily hard :tongue:

It was really interesting, but there were a few times when it was hard to juggle A2 coursework and OU assignments so then I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have done. At AS, I did Woman in Black, The Wasp Factory and Never Let Me Go for coursework, and The Great Gatsby and Wilfred Owen for exam. At A2, I did Keats' narrative poetry, The Bloody Chamber and The Turn of the Screw for coursework, and Othello, Paradise Lost and Doctor Faustus for exams. What about you? Yeah I made a start because I didn't think that there would be enough time after results day. So far I've read Frankenstein, one of the theory text books that they recommend and I've just started 1599. I decided not to start the bigger texts like Paradise Lost and The Cantebury Tales till August because else I will have forgotten them completely by October :tongue:

There seemed to be quite a few people (girls mainly) from London on the open day.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 10

Mia11

ah yeah I can imagine that it must have been really difficult, trying to ensure that the OU assignments and coursework didn't coincide. You studied a really good selection of A level texts, I'm currently reading Never Let Me Go. Thank you for posting the link for the Sussex reading list by the way, I hadn't seen it before. :smile:

I studied Wuthering Heights and The Color Purple for the exam at AS level, and King Lear and As You Like It for the coursework. At A2 I read Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and a selection of metaphysical poetry for the exam, and our theme for the coursework was American literature; we studied Ethan Frome, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Great Gatsby.
Just in case you're interested, there's a really great section on Sussex University on the Independent website with a factfile and video - http://www.independent.co.uk/student/into-university/az-uni-colleges/university-of-sussex-459085.html - hope it's helpful!
I was actually wondering if I had been in the same tutorial as you on the open day, when you mentioned that you were from Cornwall. I just remember really distinctly that there was a boy from Cornwall and a girl and boy from Cardiff, the reason being that I think pretty much everyone else was from London! :rolleyes: