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What is a-level English Literature like?

Hey,

In general i am an international student from Europe comming to UK to study a-levels this September. I am not familiar with the style of lessons in UK and with style of English Literature lessons in particular. Apart from English Literature i am taking Math , Economics and History and to be honest i don't have problems imagening how the lessons will go and what expected from students on these lessons. However i am not sure about English Literature, so i thought that you guys can help me? :smile:

It would be nice if you could describe what you do on lessons and what is required from you and what is homework like , etc.Your general impression from these a-level as well as advice will be useful too. Thanks.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

Add!ction

Each centre will vary but mainly it will be reading and analysing texts whether it be a novel, a play or a poem. This is what I did over the 2 years:
AS level: Studied Othello and wrote a piece of coursework on it, studied the poems of Tennyson and Christina Rosetti for the exam as well as The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
A2 level: Compared Ian McEwan's Atonement with another book of our choosing for the coursework, for the second piece of coursework we had to study a poem and consider its value (I chose The Applicant by Sylvia Plath, we also studied a range of gothic text for the exam (Dracula, Frankenstein and Doctor Faustus)

In general you analyse the context of the text, themes and analyse the language in detail. I love english lit and I believe that it improves your critical thinking skills all round. If you like reading, this subject is a must.

We didn't get huge amounts of homework but we were usually asked to analyse chapters etc. for ourselves ready to discuss in class. When it gets nearer to exams we were asked to write practice essays.