English Literature - A level

Hi guys , I'm taking 4 a level subjects - History , Law , Economics and English Literature . The first 3 are okay so far but I've been struggling at English Literature lately mainly because I've had little to no experience in Literature before . All the stuff I've been learning so far are pretty overwhelming to me and I just have no clue at all on how to approach this subject . Any suggestions would be appreciated , thank you .

What kind of "stuff" have you been learning?

English Lit can be pretty overwhelming if you're not used to reading a lot of texts at a considerably fast past.

Saying that though, doesn't mean you'll struggle greatly. It just means you'd find it harder to begin with.

It doesn't really matter if you struggle with it too much. As long as you actually enjoy the subject you can do well in it. I was better at History than English Lit, but I couldn't stand History A-level so dropped it because I still enjoyed English Lit and ended up doing it at uni alongside Philosophy. So I think if you enjoy your subject, you will be more inclined to do well in it because you want to have a good grade in it.

hey there thanks for the reply . English Lit has been pretty overwhelming to be honest with you . I expected extensive reading and stuff but in all of my class , most of them had some background with literature since they came from a private school while I did government exam in a government school so I wasn't really exposed to much literature . The material as well is very hard to grasp and apply . Stuff like literary devices , analyzing and others are quite advanced to another level . Can't say I never expected any of these though .

You're welcome.

Yes, I see what you mean - it can be really intimidating when someone has more intellectual knowledge than yourself. But everyone grows at different paces.

I think with analyzing stuff, it takes time to get those skills and it also takes a lot of practise. Literary devices are a nightmare, especially for poetry! I think when it comes to literary devices, your best way to improve is to know those devices and apply it to extracts from different genres of texts. There's loads of extracts and excerpts from texts online that you can practise with. With Lit, it's all about essay technique. The usual format is Point, Evidence, Explain/Anaylse, then Link.

Make sure you practise as much as you can and you'll be sure to improve.

hey there , thx for the reply once again . Is there any things online that can help me adjust to english lit easier as a beginner