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Doing 2 A-Levels in English...

... and by that I mean doing A-Level English Literature and A-Level English Language, not the combined programme. Is it wise? In fact, is it even allowed? I just have a real passion for English and the thought of studying this much English is asdfghjkl;

So, is there anyone out there who has done (or knows someone who has done) two separate English A-Levels? Do you think it's a clever thing to do, or will university admissions laugh at my application?

Reply 1

Ronove

Original post by paulpscully

Plenty of people do it. They're different subjects. Surely if you're looking into doing them you should know that?

Reply 2

paulpscully

Original post by Ronove

Plenty of people do it. They're different subjects. Surely if you're looking into doing them you should know that?

Of course

but I haven't seen many sixth form/colleges offer English Language (on it's own) and at the 2 places I have seen, the attitude seems to be one-or-the-other.

Reply 3

Ronove

Original post by paulpscully

Of course

but I haven't seen many sixth form/colleges offer English Language (on it's own) and at the 2 places I have seen, the attitude seems to be one-or-the-other.

Strange. My school had the two separate ones and people did both. I can't see any reason not to do both, it's not like substituting one for some other essay subject is going to give you any advantage in anything.

PS Linguistics is amazing, I gather that there's a fair bit in English Language, so do it. :tongue:

Reply 4

WJRA

I'm currently studying both English Literature and English Language and there are a couple of others who do the same at my sixth form.

In terms of whether its useful or not, I enjoy doing both and the close language analysis developed in the Language course is hugely helpful when studying Literature. Still, the Language course isn't particularly great. Year 12 had an enjoyable course based around contexts (Power/ Gender/ Tech) and some interesting creative writing coursework But i'm not really enjoying the Year 13 course. There is a lot of content to learn for Language Acquisition and its difficult to see sometimes how any of it will be helpful outside of a Linguistics course. I've always found Lit to be great though and its more or less what you'd expect - study some texts, write about them for an exam or piece of coursework.

University admissions never seemed to have a problem with my choice of A-levels (Eng Lit, Eng Lang, History) when applying for English courses but there are a couple of things worth pointing out. I've found that having another essay subject as your third subject is really helpful as it allows you to really focus on essay writing, analytical skills, building an argument etc and admissions seemed to appreciate this. I managed to get four offers and It didn't hold me back from applying to Cambridge either; while I don't have their list on hand, I believe that Cambridge look for at least two A-levels in desirable subjects (English Lit and History for me) but didn't care much about Lang which was viewed as okay in conjunction with my other subjects.

Also I cannot stress this enough, if for some reason you are only allowed to take one English A-Level at your sixth form/college pick English Literature! Its essential for applying to English courses at Uni (Language won't cut it, the combined A-level is usually fine, Literature is preferred) and is better respected overall. Plus, in my experience, its much less work than Language and is far more enjoyable.

Reply 5

Bloxorus

I don't see any reason why not. It's exactly the same as doing maths and further maths.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 6

Mr Faust

I am also and English geek, and want to do it at degree level, thus I take both Language and Literature. I take:
Literature
Language
History
Art

Reply 7

The Empire Odyssey

I was the same as you... But, everyone who studies both English subjects will tell you (regardless of intelligence and etc), the workload is massive!!

It's not like GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature, because you basically get told what and how to write. A-level English's are just horrendously too much. I love both of them though because I have a passion for English.

Even though you may think you love both (the same as I did) don't underestimate the influence oh how teachers teach it. Unfortunately for me, I have one teacher who teaches me Language and Mode (Language AQA A) and I cannot stand it, whereas I have another teacher who teaches me Child Language Development and love it. But because I only like one part of the subject, I have decided that I prefer Lit and shall be applying for ONLY Literature degrees without any Language Modules aha!

If you have a passion for Literature and Language it will help a lot and you will most definitely fall in love with both subjects and your appreciation of the subject will greatly be influenced through what you study! It did for me, so I'm sure it will for you.

English Lit's workload is quite heavy, depending on the Exam Board. For AQA A, we do WW1 Literature and for the exam we have to read about 3 novels, 3 plays and LOADS of poetry n remember the "writer's thoughts and feelings" through their Form, Structure and Language because this part of the exam requires your knowledge. For Section B, we have to remember about 50 poems but actually only have to mention 3 for the exam. This part of the exam is so random so it requires you to remember all poems :frown:

Universities will applaud you for studying both English's because they fully know how difficult the amount of workload you get and if you come out with good A-level results in both subjects, they will highly applaud you for this. Another reason why is simply it shows your appreciation and diversity in the subject "English". Both subjects require loads of knowledge and both explore different skills in analysis, looking at language in texts (both fiction and non-fiction), judgement and written expression. By January next year you're language development (spoken and written) will be so much more sophisticated and it really helps with essay writing which is literally a requirement skill for *most* degrees and all English degrees.

Overall, the pressure will be on studying both English's but if you love it, then that enthusiasm will guide you swimmingly through both A-levels!

PS: what other subjects have you chosen?