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What do you study at A-Level English

I'm thinking of taking this for A-Level as I'm very good at it. However I'm not quite interested in it and I know it's not right to pick an A-Level based on what you've seen an GCSE.
Currently I'm going to Year 11 and recently in my last term exams I got a 6(B).
Could I take it?
Do you mean English Language or Lit?
Reply 2
Original post by Oneiropólos
I'm thinking of taking this for A-Level as I'm very good at it. However I'm not quite interested in it and I know it's not right to pick an A-Level based on what you've seen an GCSE.
Currently I'm going to Year 11 and recently in my last term exams I got a 6(B).
Could I take it?


I can only talk on behalf of English Language as I just finished an a level in it. If you did get a B in English Language gcse you should probably be able to take it unless your college/sixth form has stated they'd like students to have at least an A.
Also English Language a level is very different to gcse. The course content will depend on the exam board but for aqa (which I did) we learnt about rhetorical, lexical and semantic features in texts and how to analyse them, theories on how gender/accent/occupation/ethnicity influences how people use English, how English has changed throughout time, attitudes towards this change, child language acquisition, original writing and we got to do our own research for coursework. Originally I wasn't gonna take it for a level but I didn't get the grades to do a subject I wanted to do so I took it, expected to hate it and ended up loving it. Hope this helps!
Original post by Batgirl98
Do you mean English Language or Lit?



Sorry I should've stated.
If I took English I'd probably take English Lit only
Original post by Oneiropólos
Sorry I should've stated.
If I took English I'd probably take English Lit only


Oh I see, sorry I can't help then as I'm taking English Language :redface:
Original post by Oneiropólos
I'm thinking of taking this for A-Level as I'm very good at it. However I'm not quite interested in it and I know it's not right to pick an A-Level based on what you've seen an GCSE.
Currently I'm going to Year 11 and recently in my last term exams I got a 6(B).
Could I take it?


I finished both Language and Literature A-levels recently (AQA). Therefore I have experience with both.
Language at AS is fairly simple. You learn about the various linguistic frameworks (discourse, lexis, grammar etc...) and how to use them to analyse a text. You also learn various synoptic units such as language and gender/power/occupation and all the theory that goes with that. Overall AS is fairly straightforward. As for A2, you carry over what you've already learned but also learn about the history of language change as-well as child language acquisition. While you also complete 2 pieces of coursework (depending on exam boards) for me, that was a language investigation and an original writing piece/commentary. Overall I preferred A2, the course can be tedious bit it's fine.
Now Literature...
AS literature is essentially just a gateway from GCSE and in my case was far better than A2 as some of the texts limited to AS I enjoyed a lot. I can only speak for AQA but our class had a choice of texts based on comedy or tragedy (chose tragedy) with one Shakespeare play (Othello, Streetcar, Gatsby, Keats) while you'd also learn one or more poetry collections. A2 was slightly more tedious but still enjoyable. You carried over some of the texts studied at AS (for me tragedy texts) while you studied a variety of new texts (for me we did a module on political and social protest literature) however this depends on your centre and exam board (Othello, Death of a Salesman, Keats, W Blake, Doll's House, Kite Runner). For me, we also did 2 pieces of coursework (one on a poetry collection of choice and one on a novel of choice) where you constructed your own question and essay. I personally didn't like 2 of my A2 texts to the point where I hadn't actually finished reading them going into my exams, a mistake but I think I still did fairly well. Overall I preferred Literature over Language (even though I think I did better in Literature), but both are very good and useful courses.
These are my personal experiences with the courses despite being very long and tedious I hope this helps you to make a decision!
(edited 6 years ago)
I do the exam board EDUQUAS and I do English Lit.
We study the Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named Desire comparitively and then we do The Tempest.
We do the poetry of Phillip Larkin and Carol Ann Duffy comparitively.
We do an unseen poetry and prose paper.
We do the poetry of John Keats.
And for coursework we do a comparative essay of our choice on Wide Sargasso Sea (or Jane Eyre) and any book of our choosing written after 2000.
Original post by rosie.mn
I do the exam board EDUQUAS and I do English Lit.
We study the Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named Desire comparitively and then we do The Tempest.
We do the poetry of Phillip Larkin and Carol Ann Duffy comparitively.
We do an unseen poetry and prose paper.
We do the poetry of John Keats.
And for coursework we do a comparative essay of our choice on Wide Sargasso Sea (or Jane Eyre) and any book of our choosing written after 2000.

I did both Keats and Streetcar too. Streetcar is a dream of a book. Keats is just simply depressing!

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