Self teaching English Lit. A2?

Aardvark1998

Last year I sat an AS in English Lit. (WJEC) through my college. I really hated the teaching style and I found it incredibly boring to have to sit through each lesson and just be forced to digest the teacher's opinion constantly, so after I'd done the exam I made the decision not to go back to the lessons for A2 (we started our teaching during the last 5 weeks of term) because I was dropping it at the end of the year anyway. I still stand by that decision, but when I got my results yesterday it turned out that I'd only dropped 12 UMS points across the entire course. I'm naturally good at English (that's not me bragging, I'm just able to write well - I'm crap with numbers) and it seems a bit of a waste to just leave such a high score and only get an AS out of it. Would it be feasible to get my college to enter me for the exam and then just study the texts and do the coursework in my free time? I did minimal work for my coursework and exam this year because I felt satisfied with my work, so I don't think I'd need to put an excessive amount into the A2. What does everyone think?

I'm trying to find the overall grade boundaries at the moment to see what score I'd need in the A2 to still get an A overall.

EDIT: Just worked it all out. I need roughly a C in both units to still get an A overall, and I'd need roughly a D to still get a B overall.

(edited 10 years ago)

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having just finished English lit A2 myself and getting an A overall I would be incredibly lost without the guidance form my teachers for marking essays. I am naturally better at English than everyone else in the class but you really don't know how you are doing in essays unless someone marks them. Also a teacher is the best resource with every theme, motif, language analysis you can think of. I just don't feel English lit can be self taught from my prospective, as each lesson involved long discussions about the text which threw up ideas I had not thought of alone.

Reply 4

Aardvark1998

OP

18

Original post by ladynova

having just finished English lit A2 myself and getting an A overall I would be incredibly lost without the guidance form my teachers for marking essays. I am naturally better at English than everyone else in the class but you really don't know how you are doing in essays unless someone marks them. Also a teacher is the best resource with every theme, motif, language analysis you can think of. I just don't feel English lit can be self taught from my prospective, as each lesson involved long discussions about the text which threw up ideas I had not thought of alone.

The full extent of the feedback that my college's English department gives out is a mark standard scheme stapled to the back of your essay and a scribbled note telling you that your opinion is wrong. But yeah, I take the point. It would be probably be quite worrying to not have any general indication of progress all year.

Hmm that's a good point about the discussion side of things. Do you not think that I could more or less achieve the same affect as discussion but just do it through internet research? It just seems a real shame to have a brilliant AS score go to waste just because the English teaching at my college is a bit uninspiring.

Reply 5

RandomGeordie

4

Original post by bad_moose

The full extent of the feedback that my college's English department gives out is a mark standard scheme stapled to the back of your essay and a scribbled note telling you that your opinion is wrong. But yeah, I take the point. It would be probably be quite worrying to not have any general indication of progress all year.

Hmm that's a good point about the discussion side of things. Do you not think that I could more or less achieve the same affect as discussion but just do it through internet research? It just seems a real shame to have a brilliant AS score go to waste just because the English teaching at my college is a bit uninspiring.

I just finished A2 Lit with a B overall (got 105/120 in the exam but my college had all the Lit coursework marked down by the exam board). Honestly I hardly attended and when I did all of my contributions were notes I'd written in the book after a night of research on the book. Honestly all you need to do is know how they are marked and then learn from there.

For example we had to put in at least 4 readings in our exam response. Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytical etc. Plenty of literary terms: http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_literary_terms and the ability to show a general understanding of the text and actually ANSWER THE QUESTION that is written instead of waffling on. Oh and don't forget context as well, be it on the text or the author or any inter-textual references / allusions.

Your best bet if you were to do this is check the exam specification for whatever exam board will be marking your paper. It's doable. After all, it's all your own interpretation and how well you can express your opinion / get an argument across.

Reply 6

ladynova

16

Original post by bad_moose

The full extent of the feedback that my college's English department gives out is a mark standard scheme stapled to the back of your essay and a scribbled note telling you that your opinion is wrong. But yeah, I take the point. It would be probably be quite worrying to not have any general indication of progress all year.

Hmm that's a good point about the discussion side of things. Do you not think that I could more or less achieve the same affect as discussion but just do it through internet research? It just seems a real shame to have a brilliant AS score go to waste just because the English teaching at my college is a bit uninspiring.

well I think it could be good if you enrolled in better sixth form/college? I think it is definitely achievable with online notes but I know how much examiners like original ideas I am sure you are capable of that though! What are the texts you are doing I might have some notes on them? :smile:

I am surprised that you do not get work marked, not very good teaching at all!

Reply 7

Aardvark1998

OP

18

Original post by ladynova

well I think it could be good if you enrolled in better sixth form/college? I think it is definitely achievable with online notes but I know how much examiners like original ideas I am sure you are capable of that though! What are the texts you are doing I might have some notes on them? :smile:

I am surprised that you do not get work marked, not very good teaching at all!

If English were my focus then I definitely would, but I'm headed for a more science based career. The rest of the college is brilliant, just not the English department. I haven't decided on any texts yet, I haven't had much opportunity to think about it yet. Are there any that you would particularly recommend?

Yeah I know, I was really surprised. I mean it's all well and good telling me to change what I've written, but if you're asking me to write about someone elses opinion instead of my own then what's the point in me being here? When I did my AS coursework I got told that all my interpretations of The Great Gatsby were wrong. Didn't change a thing and still got an A. It's just such a strange teaching style, very different to what I had at school.

Reply 8

ladynova

16

Original post by bad_moose

If English were my focus then I definitely would, but I'm headed for a more science based career. The rest of the college is brilliant, just not the English department. I haven't decided on any texts yet, I haven't had much opportunity to think about it yet. Are there any that you would particularly recommend?

Yeah I know, I was really surprised. I mean it's all well and good telling me to change what I've written, but if you're asking me to write about someone elses opinion instead of my own then what's the point in me being here? When I did my AS coursework I got told that all my interpretations of The Great Gatsby were wrong. Didn't change a thing and still got an A. It's just such a strange teaching style, very different to what I had at school.

well you can look at the course specification to see what texts are examined. I didn't do WJEC but AQA. I rarely hear good things said about WJEC to be honest.

Reply 9

The Empire Odyssey

21

Personally, I believe English Literature isn't really one of the subjects you can 'self teach'. I agree if what others have said - without the guidance of my teachers, I wouldn't know where to start with my stuff. Especially at A2 where it will be considerably harder.

Do you know who you might have? In my Sixth Form, the English Department is excellent apart from two teachers. So maybe if you found out what teachers you'll be having and the texts you'll be studying maybe you could reconsider? English is a subjective subject so there's no real way to teach it - it does come down to the teacher and their style.

The ultimate decision will be up to the teacher who runs the English Department. They might think "well why isn't he/she carrying it on in college?" which then you might have to explain your situation to the head of English or someone higher perhaps?

If your year 12 teacher is a good teacher but you just don't like their teaching style then there's nothing they can do about it to be honest. Maybe if everyone else who were previously in your class felt the same, then maybe something could be improved. This happened with my Lang teacher. People complained because she was just terrible so they sorted it and she improved with her teaching methods and style. Maybe this could happen with you? We complained that her lessons weren't engaging enough so we felt ill-prepared when it came to essays and coursework practise.

I agree with the discussion side of Lit. We spent roughly about 7 lessons (1 hour per a lesson) analyzing three chapters in great detail and this came from group/class discussion to independent analysis with feedback. This was so good because it gave us an insight into how to interpret the same line differently and etc.

But to be honest, I couldn't see studying Literature to be any fun without my peers and being in a classroom joking about how Enduring Love is basically a gay novel with my teacher and peers. I would imagine it to be really dull without that sort of atmosphere to be honest. But I suppose it would be different depending on what your class is like.

Reply 10

BankOfPigs

12

I feel like you could get away with self teaching english as long as you had one very competent figure who could guide you.

Basically one decent enough teacher that could mark your practice essays and work and you'd be generally set. The lessons in class are generally not very productive (I find this true for all subjects to be honest, which is why im self teaching maths), but the marked homework essays and mock exams are all extremely important in my opinion. You'll probably need to ask a teacher to mark your coursework anyway.

If you have a natural aptitude for english then you will continuously improve with or without much help. There's quite a a lot of resources online anyway.

Reply 11

Denver2010

1

I got a total of 346/400 Ums for literature a level. I did this through distance learning and had minimal tutor contact - she marked work etc but no discussions of face to face. So it can be done!! It just depends how much you want it x

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Reply 12

IL0veBooks_55

6

I dropped History in May last year before my AS exam - I ended up doing well in it, so picked it up in September again having had no teaching, done no reading and been completely away from the subject for so long. I ended up getting full marks in A2 and have only dropped 10 marks on the whole course, from a single AS paper - I'm not bragging, a course can definitely be picked back up and to a greater extent in the arts and humanities whereby it is easier to catch up on reading. I'd really pick it back up if I were you as you seem to have a natural aptitude for it!

Self teaching English Lit. A2?

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