A-Level English Language?

Wait... you’ve not even got gcse results yet but you’re already thinking about uni?

I need to choose another A-Level on GCSE results day in order to gain enough UCAS points to get into the university I want to go to, does anyone have any comments about English Language A-Level? It intrigues me and i’m not sure. HELP!!😖

I just got my results today and got a B in Eng Lang for A level, think it depends on what exam board you do and how good your teachers are, i struggled with it throughout as it is very technique based- for AQA there are 2 25 mark questions in paper one about meanings and representations which is basically going through and identifying word classes, sentence types and saying how they create different meanings and then another 20 marker on comparing them both then a 30 marker about child language aquisition. the second paper has a question on variations of english language and then a 40 marker which is basically a combination of the 20 marker and 25 markers in paper 2 and then an opinion journalism piece at the end. there is also 2 pieces of course which each represent 10% of the grade. personally it was my worst subject and i had to work really hard to get the correct exam technique but the stuff about child language aquisition and world english etc. was really interesting. depends what your strengths are, if you find identifying different types of verbs or nouns etc. easy then it will be ok, it just wasnt one of my strengths. on the other hand the course work was really interesting to do and also both papers are out of 100 marks and you have 2 and a half hours so you arent really pressed for time in the exam as its over a minute per mark, so its up to you and how well your other a levels will complement it. although i didnt like it doesnt mean you wont and loads of people in my class enjoyed it if you have any questions about it you can PM me

I just got my results today and got a B in Eng Lang for A level, think it depends on what exam board you do and how good your teachers are, i struggled with it throughout as it is very technique based- for AQA there are 2 25 mark questions in paper one about meanings and representations which is basically going through and identifying word classes, sentence types and saying how they create different meanings and then another 20 marker on comparing them both then a 30 marker about child language aquisition. the second paper has a question on variations of english language and then a 40 marker which is basically a combination of the 20 marker and 25 markers in paper 2 and then an opinion journalism piece at the end. there is also 2 pieces of course which each represent 10% of the grade. personally it was my worst subject and i had to work really hard to get the correct exam technique but the stuff about child language aquisition and world english etc. was really interesting. depends what your strengths are, if you find identifying different types of verbs or nouns etc. easy then it will be ok, it just wasnt one of my strengths. on the other hand the course work was really interesting to do and also both papers are out of 100 marks and you have 2 and a half hours so you arent really pressed for time in the exam as its over a minute per mark, so its up to you and how well your other a levels will complement it. although i didnt like it doesnt mean you wont and loads of people in my class enjoyed it if you have any questions about it you can PM me

Hey!

Thanks for responding, your comments were really helpful! Congratulations on your B!

I’m still so unsure but based on what you just said it sort of puts me off (that’s not a bad thing, id rather know the honest reality before i get myself into it), I don’t know if i’ll enjoy it as much as my other subjects? Still torn. What other subjects did you do? Do you recommend anything else? I’m still not sure on what career path i want to go down so really I just wanna know any subjects you found fun and easy!

Wow your AQA exam sounds pretty different to my OCR hahahah
I got a B too though, 2 marks off :/
We did child language acquisition too, how did u find that?

Our questions were quite hood on that paper, the writing task was actually pretty fun to do- a guide for parents I believe it was

well done on getting a B!! yeah we had cla and i didnt mind the question too much, we got to choose between a question on speak or writing and i hate the writing one and so did the speak and i think it was ok, or at least better than some of the past exams i did XD and wow we just have an opinion journalism writing task at the end of paper 2 and i cant remember what ig was on now XD did you have course work for yours??

Thank you, well done to you too!

We’ve only got coursework for A2 I believe, which is 2 pieces of writing which are linked by topic but are for different audiences.

Your opinion journalism writing sounds really cool though that’s the sort of thing I really enjoyed in GCSE, it’s a shame we only get to try it again for coursework :/

What unis are you applying to soon?

I just finished year 13 so they were my A2s, im not even sure what the course work was meant to be for like year 1 or 2 XD we started it right at the end of year 12 and did the majority of it in year 13. yeah i enjoyed the opinion journalism and then one of the course works is an investigation linked to one of the topics, the other was an original writing piece so i did a short story and then you had to write a commentary explaining why you chose certain things to use like language devices etc.

im going to swansea university to do psychology but have deferred a year and so am going next year instead, what about you??

Ahh Yh , kind of similar to GCSE then with the narrative or opinion journalism.
Congratulations on your university!
I’m hoping to study law, I’m looking mainly at UCL at the moment)

How quickly did your university choices respond after the application deadline? Obviously it’ll differ for all universities, but I was just wondering if they like to take their time and leave us to worry over it hahahah

thanks! and law sounds cool! they werent too bad tbh, some took longer than others, some of mine were a few days and others a few weeks but i think it depends on what grades you are predicted that your teachers send off compared to what you need to get in and also how quickly you send off your application, i sent mine in october and the close is january so i was quite early which may be a reason i got some decisions quickly.

many unis will also send you an email to say that they have got your application as well so you arent completely in the dark ))

good luck with your application!

Ahhhh ok, thanks for letting me know!
Thank you, UCAS is so stressful Hahahah