[Coke1]

In English lang and lit I really want an A*.

My Lang coursework is a mid A. (worth 40%)

Lit coursework is a B (we only did one piece for lit, and worth 25%)

So can I get A* if I do well enough on the exam?

[Coke1]

:/

[ArtisticFlair]

If you're doing AQA A English Language and AQA A English Literature, your chances of getting an A* are near impossible.

You ought to speak to your teacher about resitting the English Literature controlled assessment - in order to get an A* overall, you need a high A/A* grade in the controlled assessment. The 75% exam is ludicrous; loads of really clever people got low A grades, but because they had really good controlled assessment marks, they got low A* grades overall. 25% is a huge amount.

For English Language, what have you got in your speaking and listening tasks? They can easily bring you up as they're worth 20%. You could easily get an A* in the exam (which is 40% I believe), but in order to ensure that you get a good mark (for example, if you don't do that well in the exam for some reason), try to get an A* across the board for your controlled assessments - it acts like a 'cushion' to save you from flopping the entire qualification.

Hope I helped xx

[Coke1]

(Original post by ArtisticFlair)
If you're doing AQA A English Language and AQA A English Literature, your chances of getting an A* are near impossible.

You ought to speak to your teacher about resitting the English Literature controlled assessment - in order to get an A* overall, you need a high A/A* grade in the controlled assessment. The 75% exam is ludicrous; loads of really clever people got low A grades, but because they had really good controlled assessment marks, they got low A* grades overall. 25% is a huge amount.

For English Language, what have you got in your speaking and listening tasks? They can easily bring you up as they're worth 20%. You could easily get an A* in the exam (which is 40% I believe), but in order to ensure that you get a good mark (for example, if you don't do that well in the exam for some reason), try to get an A* across the board for your controlled assessments - it acts like a 'cushion' to save you from flopping the entire qualification.

Hope I helped xx

Thank you so much for your help. Yes I am with AQA. Haven't done the spoken language yet! But in the other English language assessments I have an A. So Language looks achievable to get an A* but Ling I would need to retake? Once again thank you!

[ArtisticFlair]

Hmm, the As in the Language controlled assessments are fine, but in order to achieve an A* overall you would need a very high mark in the exam and speaking and listening, and so I would recommend that you resit the Language controlled assessments anyway.

[hunta]

no.

[kanojyoxx]

I think your coursework grades for language are fine but possible re-do literature to get yourself up to an A (or possibly higher).

[Coke1]

Thank you for the kind and useful feedback from drewb and ArtisticFlair.
Hunta- please find something better to do than trolling!

[tomfisher1]

You will struggle to get an A* with 40% else where, I'm not sure if it's possible the best bet would be to ask these guys because it was a while since I have done GCSE's
http://www.learnthrumusic.co.uk/

[shmuxel]

(Original post by ArtisticFlair)
If you're doing AQA A English Language and AQA A English Literature, your chances of getting an A* are near impossible.

You ought to speak to your teacher about resitting the English Literature controlled assessment - in order to get an A* overall, you need a high A/A* grade in the controlled assessment. The 75% exam is ludicrous; loads of really clever people got low A grades, but because they had really good controlled assessment marks, they got low A* grades overall. 25% is a huge amount.

For English Language, what have you got in your speaking and listening tasks? They can easily bring you up as they're worth 20%. You could easily get an A* in the exam (which is 40% I believe), but in order to ensure that you get a good mark (for example, if you don't do that well in the exam for some reason), try to get an A* across the board for your controlled assessments - it acts like a 'cushion' to save you from flopping the entire qualification.

Hope I helped xx

No, No, No, OP please don't follow this advice!!

Unfortunately this advice relates to the old syllabus, where 75% was exam. Under the new AQA, only 40% of English Lang is exam, with 60% being controlled assessment.

[ArtisticFlair]

(Original post by shmuxel)
No, No, No, OP please don't follow this advice!!

Unfortunately this advice relates to the old syllabus, where 75% was exam. Under the new AQA, only 40% of English Lang is exam, with 60% being controlled assessment.

Umm... no. I've already done both GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature and achieved A* in both. I did follow the new specification (AQA).

40% exam
40% written controlled assessment
20% speaking and listening

Don't comment on this thread if you are unable to even read my post properly. Get your facts right.

[ArtisticFlair]

OP - good luck with English! x

[secretassasin69]

i got a low a in two CA's for OCR lang and lit does anyone think is till have a chance to get an A*

[Dalek1099]

English Langauge and Literature(With Rough Grade Boundaries):
Language:
Unit 1-34/40 A*-36 A-33(20%) Out of 60 UMS
Unit 2-81/120 UMS (C)Resat this January (40%)
Unit 3-40/48 with half completed /96 in total A*-87 A-79(40%) Out of 120 UMS

What do i need in the exam/other half of Unit 3 for an A*?

Literature:
Unit 1-101/120 A(50%) Resat in January 2012
Unit 2-48/50(25%) A*-45 Out of 60 UMS
Unit 3-Yet to sit (25%) -Out of 60 UMS

How much do i need in the 2 exams?

[Felineyx]

(Original post by shmuxel)
No, No, No, OP please don't follow this advice!!

Unfortunately this advice relates to the old syllabus, where 75% was exam. Under the new AQA, only 40% of English Lang is exam, with 60% being controlled assessment.

Not to be pedantic, but it was actually 70%.

OP - I'd speak to your teacher. For Lang, it really does depend on how you do in your S&L assessments, as they can be quite tricky. Also, have a look at a past (or specimen) paper and see if your teacher will mark it, to see whether getting a good enough grade in the summer is going to be achievable.

For Lit, you'll probably need to retake it but is there any more lit coursework? On the last spec we had to do two or three pieces, but that was a couple of years ago.

Dalek1099 - I would assume you would need around 270 UMS in Lang for an A* - but I don't know. But what you would need precisely in the exams is difficult to say, because grade boundaries for the raw mark change every year.

[Dalek1099]

(Original post by Felineyx)
Not to be pedantic, but it was actually 70%.

OP - I'd speak to your teacher. For Lang, it really does depend on how you do in your S&L assessments, as they can be quite tricky. Also, have a look at a past (or specimen) paper and see if your teacher will mark it, to see whether getting a good enough grade in the summer is going to be achievable.

For Lit, you'll probably need to retake it but is there any more lit coursework? On the last spec we had to do two or three pieces, but that was a couple of years ago.

Dalek1099 - I would assume you would need around 270 UMS in Lang for an A* - but I don't know. But what you would need precisely in the exams is difficult to say, because grade boundaries for the raw mark change every year.

how many UMS?

[Felineyx]

(Original post by Dalek1099)
how many UMS?

If it still works as it did last year, then 90% of the UMS on offer for an A*.

[itsmagic]

(Original post by Coke1)
In English lang and lit I really want an A*.

My Lang coursework is a mid A. (worth 40%)

Lit coursework is a B (we only did one piece for lit, and worth 25%)

So can I get A* if I do well enough on the exam?

I don't know whether this varies between exam boards (I was with WJEC) but, for my GCSEs, I really wanted A*s in English Lan and English Lit.
My coursework grades were:
English Lit: B (30%)
English Lang: A (20%)
This was AFTER rewriting pieces :| buuuut I worked my arse off, I actually worked harder for English than any other subject and on results day, I was ecstatic because I ended up with A*s in both.
So work seriously hard, starting now! It will honestly pay off when you get the grades you want and deserve!
Good luck!

[inspired23]

Your coursework grades for english language and literature are fine, I had a very low A for english language coursework and a Mid- B for english lit i came out with A*'s in both, forget about coursework now and focus on exam technique, practice your creative writing skills and get your teacher to mark it and ask how you can improve, also as i was with WJEC we had to right a story in our language exam , it is possible to prepare this before the exam , get together a plot of a small story and create your characters and the events before the exam, then when you go in your prepared to just re-write your story.




Do as many past papers as you can and re-read the exam texts for english literature it always helps to refresh the mind before the exam ,


Hope this helps

[Auror_Phoenix]

I got a A* In my exam and a A in my writing..But a B in my speaking. That brought me to a A over all..:L