The OCR English Literature A-Level

Hi guys,
I'm currently a year 11 leaver and a soon-to-become college student. This September I will be starting my AS, and one of my keen interests is English Literature. However, I'm in a bit of a conundrum. The college I wish to apply to follows the OCR specification for English Literature. I have had a look at June 2012's grade boundaries and here's what I found, to get an A in each unit you needed:

•

53/60 raw marks in the Poetry and Prose 1800-1945 [Closed Text] unit

•

35/40 raw marks in the Literature post-1900 unit

•

53/60 raw marks in the Drama and Poetry pre-1800 [Closed Text] (A2) unit

•

36/40 raw marks in the Texts in Time (A2) unit

As you can see these are close to 90% in each unit which are ridiculously high! Generally it should be around 80% for an A grade, right? These thresholds in the OCR specification are really putting me off from the college that I wish to apply for. My main concern is that it would be ridiculously hard for me to get an A in English Literature if I study at this college, I don't want an A anyways I want an A* in the whole A-Level. So is there anyone out there that is studying this specification? How's it like? Do these thresholds hinder your grades?

(edited 10 years ago)

OP

Im doing OCR too. Supposed to be the best/ hardest one

Reply 3

AJW 12394

7

Original post by tabmax22

Hi guys,
I'm currently a year 11 leaver and a soon-to-become college student. This September I will be starting my AS, and one of my keen interests is English Literature. However, I'm in a bit of a conundrum. The college I wish to apply to follows the OCR specification for English Literature. I have had a look at June 2012's grade boundaries and here's what I found, to get an A in each unit you needed:

•

53/60 raw marks in the Poetry and Prose 1800-1945 [Closed Text] unit

•

35/40 raw marks in the Literature post-1900 unit

•

53/60 raw marks in the Drama and Poetry pre-1800 [Closed Text] (A2) unit

•

36/40 raw marks in the Texts in Time (A2) unit

As you can see these are close to 90% in each unit which are ridiculously high! Generally it should be around 80% for an A grade, right? These thresholds in the OCR specification are really putting me off from the college that I wish to apply for. My main concern is that it would be ridiculously hard for me to get an A in English Literature if I study at this college, I don't want an A anyways I want an A* in the whole A-Level. So is there anyone out there that is studying this specification? How's it like? Do these thresholds hinder your grades?

OCR English Lit is quite tough: loads of quotes to learn with the closed text exams, although there are a few ways of minimising the need for this (e.g. memorable one word quotes embedded into a point). I've just done my A2 exam for it. While the grade boundaries look very high, OCR exercises "positive marking" to a greater extent than other exam boards. Lots of people in my class did better than expected at AS. The material is challenging but stimulating with a broad range of texts. The mark scheme is perhaps a little formulaic, but the "positive marking" means credit's given where it's due, especially I think, for highly original responses.

Hope that helps. Any questions I'm more than happy to help. You know what texts are being studied at the sixth form in question? :smile:

The OCR English Literature A-Level

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