Is GCSE English lit hard?

iPad User

Did you get higher in Lang or Lit.

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Reply 1

IPlayThePiccolo

exam in less than a week :frown:

I think lit is harder

Reply 2

Juunis.

got B's in both no revision loool :colone:

language. easily

Lit is really easy you can just remember a ton of quotes and practice essays, because the questions boil down to about 5 different ways of answering them, so if you memorize all this it is easy as there are no surprises in the exam

Reply 5

laumbrooks

English at gcse is easy in the sense that there's less revision, although in lit you have to learn some quotes and understand the texts.

How well you do in the exam depends on how good your English ability is, with literature you can't necessarily be wrong, you give an opinion and as long as you can back it up with a quote or example it's fine :smile:

Again the unseen poem is just your own interpretation of it, so as long as you can back it up :smile:

I had the same in Lang and lit, as long as your writing is quite sophisticated and your spelling is good you shouldn't need to worry :smile:

Reply 6

LiviD

i got a*'s in both :biggrin:

lit is definitely harder because for the board we did we had to learn loads of stupid quotes from books and plays...
but saying that you can revise for lit and definitely can't for language.
GOOD LUCK THOUGH!

Reply 7

Juunis.

Original post by LiviD

i got a*'s in both :biggrin:

why rub it in -_- lool

Reply 8

mevidek

language is much easier, but so far literature has been quite easy, but poems is really not my thing (I'm doing Higher Tier)

Reply 9

Keckers

I personally found Lit easier but got an A* in lang and an A in Lit. I guess the lang exams suited me slightly more

Reply 10

LiviD

Original post by Juunis.

why rub it in -_- lool

well considering i was the worst in my english class and got high B's/low A's in the mock i'm pretty proud of it. and if i can do it then ANYONE can do it, because i am awful at english.

Reply 11

sheep_go_baa

Got the same grades in both. I think lang is easier, but so tedious (no offence to lang lovers). Literature is the life of the party.

Reply 12

Appeal to reason

Well. The poetry half of literature is easy, I can write loads on that (thanks to various links to websites with notes on, thanks TSR :wink:

), the novel (TKAM for me) - not so easy. :P

Language paper 2 is a doddle, but paper 1, I'm not so good - especially the writing to persuade. :frown:

Both are about even for me then, but I have good coursework, which can help my grades out in both. (In my mocks it boosted my grades from B,A and A in the 3 papers to A* in both lit and lang :biggrin:

)

Reply 13

Juunis.

Original post by LiviD

well considering i was the worst in my english class and got high B's/low A's in the mock i'm pretty proud of it. and if i can do it then ANYONE can do it, because i am awful at english.

i got D and E in the mock loool my teacher predicted me a C but i proved her wrong :smug:

LOOL

Reply 14

LiviD

Original post by Juunis.

i got D and E in the mock loool my teacher predicted me a C but i proved her wrong :smug:

LOOL

haha what did you get in the end???

Reply 15

iPad User

Original post by LiviD

haha what did you get in the end???

What exam board did you do?

Reply 16

popdrops

Prefer lit. Use Sparknotes or something...was my hero :sexface:

Reply 17

Deema

Depends on your personal ability. I found both lit and lang easy, got 1 A*'s with no revision. The difficulty of the exams are so over-hyped at GCSE. If you're really worried, just check one of the mark schemes, make a mental note and tick them off one by one in your head as you write. Language is just common sense, Literature is just making a point, backing it with evidence, linking it back to the question. Simple!

Reply 18

muffingg

Original post by IPlayThePiccolo

exam in less than a week :frown:

I think lit is harder

It is quite hard, but if you do enough practice, you can easily get a B or higher (assuming you are aiming for at least a B). My teacher was very nice and she offered us that we could do any past paper questions or questions from our books and she would mark them. Essay questions obviously, which only a teacher could have properly marked. I took this opportunity and did as many of them and handed them in. At the end of each essay she gave comments on what I could have done better.

This way I managed to get a B, which was very satisfactory, considering I only came into the country from Germany at the start of GCSEs. I would say look at as many sample essays and their commentaries, buy revision books who will give you tips on how to write a well constructed answer at a high level of English.

That and a lot of practice should do it. But to your question directly: It is hard if you don't know how to answer the questions.