The Student Room Group

What is OCR English lit like at A level

I’ve made a couple posts like this but haven’t really gotten any answers and what with the new school year coming up fast I really need to decide whether to take this or not, sooo if you’ve taken this as your A level can you please tell me:

Did you struggle with the workload?

Was it really time consuming compared to other subjects you took (if so what were the other subjects)?

Did you regret taking it? Or did you enjoy it?

Is there more coursework than exams (I mean like will we be expected to do loads and loads of work outside of the classroom or is it more remembering stuff and applying it in the exams)?

Is it similar to gcse, for example is it mostly memorising quotes and poems, or is it different?

Any other advice would be appreciated as well, thanks

Reply 1

Hii!
I'm starting year 13 this September so I completed AS level for Ocr English lit.
Bare in mind that my experience might be different from others :smile:
I was really good in GCSE eng lit and I loved it so I decided to do it for A level. Guess what? It was really different, ok... not that much, but in terms of work load and expectations yes.

I studied Hamlet, Rossetti (poetry pre 1900), The bloody Chamber by Carter (prose post 1900), A streetcar named desire by Williams Tennessee (drama post 1900- you won't study the play in year 13 and you can use it for your coursework task). In Year 13 you study the same text + a pre 1900 prose and play, we're gonna do Frankestein and A Doll's House.

I did struggle with the workload because in year 12 you have to memorize a lot of quotes, I made flashcards and I ended up with more than 300-400 quotes.
You also have to memorize critical quotations which are basically interpretations made by critics of the text ( you also have to remember the name of the critic). The problem here is that you don't know which topic will come in the exam so which critics to memorize, so you have to remember tons of critics for different themes and characters.

It was much more time consuming than Psychology (which is a heavy content subject but as long as you memorize the facts you're fine) and Spanish.

Before the exams me and my friends were complaining about taking English Lit and how we regretted it 😭. Ocr has really high grade boundaries than other exam boards like aqa ( more than 80% for an A in AS level and more around 95% for an A* in alevel but obviously grade boundaries change every year and with covid they might be lower) . But it is an enjoyable subject during lesson as you have interesting discussions, also the classes tend to be small so you get to know each other well.

You definitely need to work a lot outside of class memorizing quotes, critics, context, interpretations, making annotations... but unlike my other subjects it had less homework and if I had any they were either doing extra reading or doing research.
In Year 13 you'll be expected to do extra reading on the topic chosen by your teacher. Mine chose the gothic (That's why I'm studying Frankestein and the Bloody Chamber) and in the exam in Year 13 the question will also refer to the Gothic genre in general. So you'll have to include other Gothic texts you read on your own time.

Unlike GCSE you need to do more than memorizing quotes, you need to be critical and analytical. For example you might get questions like:
" Sexuality is the destructive force that leads to an inevitable downfall"
In light of this statement discuss how XXX presents sexuality in YYY. / or to what extent do you agree?
You can't just argue, yes sexuality is destructive because... you have to be more like: yes it is in X case however this shows it is not...
Basically you need to argue different points.

For Shakespeare and poetry in year 12 you need to include more language analysis in the essay and less context and critics. This was something my whole class was struggling with, language analysis is quite hard as you cant just say this is a metaphor but have to explain what it conveys, suggests, what effect it has on the reader etc...
While the play and prose post 1900 require you to do more contextual links rather than language analysis, this was much easier, you just have to know well the historical period and the author's life and apply it to the text. However you'll get an unseen extract to compare with the prose text.

In year 13 for Shakespeare you'll have to memorize less quotes as you'll have an extract to analyse language ( like aqa gcse eng lit). But you'll have to memorize more critics since the second section is all about different interpretations of a topic ( eg Madness in Hamlet).
In Paper 1 ( Shakespeare, poetry and drama pre 1900) you'll have to compare poetry with the drama but the focus is on historical context so also less language analysis 🥳. Although you still have to memorize quotes its easier for context than language analysis.
Paper 2 focuses on the genre chosen by your teachers ( Gothic, Dystopian, Women's literature etc...) and its highly focused on context and comparing texts.

My advice will be to keep up with what you do in class. At the start of year 12 I struggled a lot because I didn't bother myself to memorize quotes of the act or poem we discussed in class. So if you do Act 1 scene 2 in class, try to memorize the most important quotes from that scene when you go home. Be very selective when it comes to quotes, make sure you can discuss context or make good language analysis with them.
Do extra reading at home, read the text ahead, make a few annotations.
Make a list of critics for each character and theme (for the papers that require critics).
You should do essay practice at home, better if timed and if you don't have much time you could pick past paper questions and make detailed plans.

You will struggle at the start, we all do. But after writing a lot of essays at school you will get better and if you consistently work hard you'll achieve the grade you want. It was hard but at the end I got an A.

Hope this was useful.
Thank you for attending my TEDtalk:h:

Reply 2

Original post by ChunLi
Hii!
I'm starting year 13 this September so I completed AS level for Ocr English lit.
Bare in mind that my experience might be different from others :smile:
I was really good in GCSE eng lit and I loved it so I decided to do it for A level. Guess what? It was really different, ok... not that much, but in terms of work load and expectations yes.
I studied Hamlet, Rossetti (poetry pre 1900), The bloody Chamber by Carter (prose post 1900), A streetcar named desire by Williams Tennessee (drama post 1900- you won't study the play in year 13 and you can use it for your coursework task). In Year 13 you study the same text + a pre 1900 prose and play, we're gonna do Frankestein and A Doll's House.
I did struggle with the workload because in year 12 you have to memorize a lot of quotes, I made flashcards and I ended up with more than 300-400 quotes.
You also have to memorize critical quotations which are basically interpretations made by critics of the text ( you also have to remember the name of the critic). The problem here is that you don't know which topic will come in the exam so which critics to memorize, so you have to remember tons of critics for different themes and characters.
It was much more time consuming than Psychology (which is a heavy content subject but as long as you memorize the facts you're fine) and Spanish.
Before the exams me and my friends were complaining about taking English Lit and how we regretted it 😭. Ocr has really high grade boundaries than other exam boards like aqa ( more than 80% for an A in AS level and more around 95% for an A* in alevel but obviously grade boundaries change every year and with covid they might be lower) . But it is an enjoyable subject during lesson as you have interesting discussions, also the classes tend to be small so you get to know each other well.
You definitely need to work a lot outside of class memorizing quotes, critics, context, interpretations, making annotations... but unlike my other subjects it had less homework and if I had any they were either doing extra reading or doing research.
In Year 13 you'll be expected to do extra reading on the topic chosen by your teacher. Mine chose the gothic (That's why I'm studying Frankestein and the Bloody Chamber) and in the exam in Year 13 the question will also refer to the Gothic genre in general. So you'll have to include other Gothic texts you read on your own time.
Unlike GCSE you need to do more than memorizing quotes, you need to be critical and analytical. For example you might get questions like:
" Sexuality is the destructive force that leads to an inevitable downfall"
In light of this statement discuss how XXX presents sexuality in YYY. / or to what extent do you agree?
You can't just argue, yes sexuality is destructive because... you have to be more like: yes it is in X case however this shows it is not...
Basically you need to argue different points.
For Shakespeare and poetry in year 12 you need to include more language analysis in the essay and less context and critics. This was something my whole class was struggling with, language analysis is quite hard as you cant just say this is a metaphor but have to explain what it conveys, suggests, what effect it has on the reader etc...
While the play and prose post 1900 require you to do more contextual links rather than language analysis, this was much easier, you just have to know well the historical period and the author's life and apply it to the text. However you'll get an unseen extract to compare with the prose text.
In year 13 for Shakespeare you'll have to memorize less quotes as you'll have an extract to analyse language ( like aqa gcse eng lit). But you'll have to memorize more critics since the second section is all about different interpretations of a topic ( eg Madness in Hamlet).
In Paper 1 ( Shakespeare, poetry and drama pre 1900) you'll have to compare poetry with the drama but the focus is on historical context so also less language analysis 🥳. Although you still have to memorize quotes its easier for context than language analysis.
Paper 2 focuses on the genre chosen by your teachers ( Gothic, Dystopian, Women's literature etc...) and its highly focused on context and comparing texts.
My advice will be to keep up with what you do in class. At the start of year 12 I struggled a lot because I didn't bother myself to memorize quotes of the act or poem we discussed in class. So if you do Act 1 scene 2 in class, try to memorize the most important quotes from that scene when you go home. Be very selective when it comes to quotes, make sure you can discuss context or make good language analysis with them.
Do extra reading at home, read the text ahead, make a few annotations.
Make a list of critics for each character and theme (for the papers that require critics).
You should do essay practice at home, better if timed and if you don't have much time you could pick past paper questions and make detailed plans.
You will struggle at the start, we all do. But after writing a lot of essays at school you will get better and if you consistently work hard you'll achieve the grade you want. It was hard but at the end I got an A.
Hope this was useful.
Thank you for attending my TEDtalk:h:

omg u got an A? that's so good - is it hard to get an A*???

Reply 3

it is absolute hell- do not choose it. The lessons are enjoyable but revision for it and the actual exams are near impossible to do. If u need an essay subject id recommend history- enjoyable and also less stressful. But lets just say OCR english lit has made me lose my will to live.

Reply 4

Original post by Lazy.marshmallow
I’ve made a couple posts like this but haven’t really gotten any answers and what with the new school year coming up fast I really need to decide whether to take this or not, sooo if you’ve taken this as your A level can you please tell me:
Did you struggle with the workload?
Was it really time consuming compared to other subjects you took (if so what were the other subjects)?
Did you regret taking it? Or did you enjoy it?
Is there more coursework than exams (I mean like will we be expected to do loads and loads of work outside of the classroom or is it more remembering stuff and applying it in the exams)?
Is it similar to gcse, for example is it mostly memorising quotes and poems, or is it different?
Any other advice would be appreciated as well, thanks

you can practice mock exams on Tilf for lit OCR! itll give a mark and feedback based on the exam board so that will give you an idea how the real exam is

Reply 5

hell

Reply 6

Genuinely hellish. The grade boundaries are ridiculous, the workload is insane, especially if you have other content heavy subjects, and unless you have a genuine passion in English and want to take it further, I would highly advise against it.

That's my personal experience.

Reply 7

Original post by ChunLi
Hii!
I'm starting year 13 this September so I completed AS level for Ocr English lit.
Bare in mind that my experience might be different from others :smile:
I was really good in GCSE eng lit and I loved it so I decided to do it for A level. Guess what? It was really different, ok... not that much, but in terms of work load and expectations yes.
I studied Hamlet, Rossetti (poetry pre 1900), The bloody Chamber by Carter (prose post 1900), A streetcar named desire by Williams Tennessee (drama post 1900- you won't study the play in year 13 and you can use it for your coursework task). In Year 13 you study the same text + a pre 1900 prose and play, we're gonna do Frankestein and A Doll's House.
I did struggle with the workload because in year 12 you have to memorize a lot of quotes, I made flashcards and I ended up with more than 300-400 quotes.
You also have to memorize critical quotations which are basically interpretations made by critics of the text ( you also have to remember the name of the critic). The problem here is that you don't know which topic will come in the exam so which critics to memorize, so you have to remember tons of critics for different themes and characters.
It was much more time consuming than Psychology (which is a heavy content subject but as long as you memorize the facts you're fine) and Spanish.
Before the exams me and my friends were complaining about taking English Lit and how we regretted it 😭. Ocr has really high grade boundaries than other exam boards like aqa ( more than 80% for an A in AS level and more around 95% for an A* in alevel but obviously grade boundaries change every year and with covid they might be lower) . But it is an enjoyable subject during lesson as you have interesting discussions, also the classes tend to be small so you get to know each other well.
You definitely need to work a lot outside of class memorizing quotes, critics, context, interpretations, making annotations... but unlike my other subjects it had less homework and if I had any they were either doing extra reading or doing research.
In Year 13 you'll be expected to do extra reading on the topic chosen by your teacher. Mine chose the gothic (That's why I'm studying Frankestein and the Bloody Chamber) and in the exam in Year 13 the question will also refer to the Gothic genre in general. So you'll have to include other Gothic texts you read on your own time.
Unlike GCSE you need to do more than memorizing quotes, you need to be critical and analytical. For example you might get questions like:
" Sexuality is the destructive force that leads to an inevitable downfall"
In light of this statement discuss how XXX presents sexuality in YYY. / or to what extent do you agree?
You can't just argue, yes sexuality is destructive because... you have to be more like: yes it is in X case however this shows it is not...
Basically you need to argue different points.
For Shakespeare and poetry in year 12 you need to include more language analysis in the essay and less context and critics. This was something my whole class was struggling with, language analysis is quite hard as you cant just say this is a metaphor but have to explain what it conveys, suggests, what effect it has on the reader etc...
While the play and prose post 1900 require you to do more contextual links rather than language analysis, this was much easier, you just have to know well the historical period and the author's life and apply it to the text. However you'll get an unseen extract to compare with the prose text.
In year 13 for Shakespeare you'll have to memorize less quotes as you'll have an extract to analyse language ( like aqa gcse eng lit). But you'll have to memorize more critics since the second section is all about different interpretations of a topic ( eg Madness in Hamlet).
In Paper 1 ( Shakespeare, poetry and drama pre 1900) you'll have to compare poetry with the drama but the focus is on historical context so also less language analysis 🥳. Although you still have to memorize quotes its easier for context than language analysis.
Paper 2 focuses on the genre chosen by your teachers ( Gothic, Dystopian, Women's literature etc...) and its highly focused on context and comparing texts.
My advice will be to keep up with what you do in class. At the start of year 12 I struggled a lot because I didn't bother myself to memorize quotes of the act or poem we discussed in class. So if you do Act 1 scene 2 in class, try to memorize the most important quotes from that scene when you go home. Be very selective when it comes to quotes, make sure you can discuss context or make good language analysis with them.
Do extra reading at home, read the text ahead, make a few annotations.
Make a list of critics for each character and theme (for the papers that require critics).
You should do essay practice at home, better if timed and if you don't have much time you could pick past paper questions and make detailed plans.
You will struggle at the start, we all do. But after writing a lot of essays at school you will get better and if you consistently work hard you'll achieve the grade you want. It was hard but at the end I got an A.
Hope this was useful.
Thank you for attending my TEDtalk:h:

my school only offers Alevel no AS for ocr eng lit and I was wondering whether its vastly different from the A-Level syllabus in terms of content and exam technique if I want to enter myself privately

Reply 8

38/40 for coursework A*...hard

Reply 9

choose anything but english lit ocr, even if you are good and like it at gcse you will despise it soon

Reply 10

This might be a controversial opinion based on what I've already read in this thread BUT I actually loved OCR English Lit A-Level. We studied: The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Tempest, Arcadia, The Kite Runner, Christina Rossetti poems, A Doll's House and Owen Sheers' poems. I didn't even want to take English Lit at first, but my school made us take 4 A-Levels and I really didn't know what do as my fourth so I chose English Lit. The first couple months were hard - I got a 9 at GCSE but I had to work hard for it as English Lit wasn't something I was naturally good at. But, a few months in, it really clicked for me and I just understood it and I absolutely fell in love with the subject and with the texts, especially The Great Gatsby and A Doll's House. I LOVED writing my NEA, I could've sat there for hours writing it if I had had the time.

Don't get me wrong, the grade boundaries are tough. But honestly, even though I definitely put a lot of work in, I didn't spend hours and hours revising and I managed to get an A*.

To answer your questions:

Did you struggle with the workload? No, compared to History, English Lit was a walk in the park for me. I know someone above said to take History, but I would really really advise giving it a lot of thought. For me, if I could go back in time, I would not take History A-Level. I spent literally hours of my life on it, memorising things (things that I found painfully boring) in the most minute detail. If you're into history, take it, but if you're not I really advise against taking it. The workload for English Lit is so small compared to History - even the NEA is so so much easier imo. There's definitely a few essays to write, and you have to write essays if you want to get better, but, at the end of the day, it is an essay subject so...

Was it really time consuming compared to other subjects you took (if so what were the other subjects)? No. As I said above, History was BY FAR my most time consuming subject. Literally hours of my life went into History A-Level whereas I spent significantly less time on English Lit and reaped much greater reward. I also did Politics and French. French is a really different subject so hard to compare but I would say I probably spent more time on Politics than I did English Lit and again English was easier to revise for for me.

Did you regret taking it? Or did you enjoy it? No I did not regret taking it and enjoyed it SO much. I only regret taking History. I absolutely fell in love with English Lit. At the beginning, I considered dropping it and just doing 3 A-Levels, but as I said before, at some point it just clicked and I knew I had to keep it. I'm now at uni studying French but I take courses in English lit every semester and my A-Level has been so helpful for this and it is helpful for my literature courses in French too. DEF do not regret taking it.

Is there more coursework than exams (I mean like will we be expected to do loads and loads of work outside of the classroom or is it more remembering stuff and applying it in the exams)? I think the coursework is actually really manageable. I don't remember doing lots of work outside the classroom tbh - I remember spending much more time on History than anything else.

Is it similar to GCSE, for example is it mostly memorising quotes and poems, or is it different? I did my GCSEs quite a few years ago so I really cannot say how similar/different it is. It is a lot of memorising quotes from the texts but also secondary sources - but I think I just kinda have a good brain for this so if you find this kinda thing not too bad then it won't be a lot of hassle. And it can actually be quite fun. The texts are generally easy to understand, have clear themes that you can write about and compare to other texts within essays when necessary. Most of my revision was sectioning quotes (from the primary texts and then secondary texts) by themes and then memorising them. Also learning context etc. I also did practise essays but my school were quote proactive in this so they set us essays relatively often.

In conclusion, although I didn’t expect to enjoy English Literature A-Level, it became one of the best decisions I made. The texts were engaging, the workload was manageable—especially compared to subjects like History—and the skills I gained have stayed with me into university. If you're unsure about taking it, I’d say give it a chance; it might just surprise you like it did me.
(edited 4 weeks ago)

Reply 11

Original post by Lazy.marshmallow
I’ve made a couple posts like this but haven’t really gotten any answers and what with the new school year coming up fast I really need to decide whether to take this or not, sooo if you’ve taken this as your A level can you please tell me:
Did you struggle with the workload?
Was it really time consuming compared to other subjects you took (if so what were the other subjects)?
Did you regret taking it? Or did you enjoy it?
Is there more coursework than exams (I mean like will we be expected to do loads and loads of work outside of the classroom or is it more remembering stuff and applying it in the exams)?
Is it similar to gcse, for example is it mostly memorising quotes and poems, or is it different?
Any other advice would be appreciated as well, thanks

Death. (OK no I'm exagurating BUT) I did OCR at GCSE for lit and did reallyyyy well but alevel is rather rough - memorising quotes is a part of it, but majority of your skills is gonna be critically analysing quotes and u can't get through it by simply regurgitating information that you learnt. As for coursework, there is some but your question also about doing work outside the classroom is gonna be something for every single alevel - you can't get through them by just doing your homework and then a lil bit of revision like u need to be ON IT with reading and making quotebanks. If youre good at the english lang style stuff with AO2 then you will find shakespeare part A and unseen paper two rather easy - but for the other stuff bear in mind that AO3 is 50% of the marks over language analysis

Reply 12

Original post by Dc152748
Death. (OK no I'm exagurating BUT) I did OCR at GCSE for lit and did reallyyyy well but alevel is rather rough - memorising quotes is a part of it, but majority of your skills is gonna be critically analysing quotes and u can't get through it by simply regurgitating information that you learnt. As for coursework, there is some but your question also about doing work outside the classroom is gonna be something for every single alevel - you can't get through them by just doing your homework and then a lil bit of revision like u need to be ON IT with reading and making quotebanks. If youre good at the english lang style stuff with AO2 then you will find shakespeare part A and unseen paper two rather easy - but for the other stuff bear in mind that AO3 is 50% of the marks over language analysis

what's ao2? and what's ao3? r they difficult

Reply 13

Original post by abbyjj7
This might be a controversial opinion based on what I've already read in this thread BUT I actually loved OCR English Lit A-Level. We studied: The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Tempest, Arcadia, The Kite Runner, Christina Rossetti poems, A Doll's House and Owen Sheers' poems. I didn't even want to take English Lit at first, but my school made us take 4 A-Levels and I really didn't know what do as my fourth so I chose English Lit. The first couple months were hard - I got 1 9 at GCSE but I had to work hard for it as English Lit wasn't something I was naturally good at. But, a few months in, it really clicked for me and I just understood it and I absolutely fell in love with the subject and with the books, especially The Great Gatsby and A Doll's House. I LOVED writing my NEA, I could've sat there for hours writing it if I had had the time.
Don't get me wrong, the grade boundaries are tough. But honestly, even though I definitely put a lot of work in, I didn't spend hours and hours revising and I managed to get an A*.
To answer your questions:
Did you struggle with the workload? No, compared to History, English Lit was a walk in the park for me. I know someone above said to take History, but I would really really advise giving it a lot of thought. For me, if I could go back in time, I would not take History A-Level. I spent literally hours of my life on it, memorising things (things that I found painfully boring) in the most minute detail. If you're into history, take it, but if you're not I really advise against taking it. The workload for English Lit is so small compared to History - even the NEA is so so much easier imo. There's definitely a few essays to write, and you have to write essays if you want to get better, but, at the end of the day, it is an essay subject so...
Was it really time consuming compared to other subjects you took (if so what were the other subjects)? No. As I said above, History was BY FAR my most time consuming subject. Literally hours of my life went into History A-Level whereas I spent significantly less time on English Lit and reaped much greater reward. I also did Politics and French. French is a really different subject so hard to compare but I would say I probably spent more time on Politics than I did English Lit and again English was easier to revise for for me.
Did you regret taking it? Or did you enjoy it? No I did not regret taking it and enjoyed it SO much. I only regret taking History. I absolutely fell in love with English Lit. At the beginning, I considered dropping it and just doing 3 A-Levels, but as I said before, at some point it just clicked and I knew I had to keep it. I'm now at uni studying French but I take courses in English lit every semester and my A-Level has been so helpful for this and it is helpful for my literature courses in French too. DEF do not regret taking it.
Is there more coursework than exams (I mean like will we be expected to do loads and loads of work outside of the classroom or is it more remembering stuff and applying it in the exams)? I think the coursework is actually really manageable. I don't remember doing lots of work outside the classroom tbh - I remember spending much more time on History than anything else.
Is it similar to GCSE, for example is it mostly memorising quotes and poems, or is it different? I did my GCSEs quite a few years ago so I really cannot say how similar/different it is. It is a lot of memorising quotes from the texts but also secondary sources - but I think I just kinda have a good brain for this so if you find this kinda thing not too bad then it won't be a lot of hassle. And it can actually be quite fun. The texts are generally easy to understand, have clear themes that you can write about and compare to other texts within essays when necessary. Most of my revision was sectioning quotes (from the primary texts and then secondary texts) by themes and then memorising them. Also learning context etc. I also did practise essays but my school were quote proactive in this so they set us essays relatively often.
In conclusion, although I didn’t expect to enjoy English Literature A-Level, it became one of the best decisions I made. The texts were engaging, the workload was manageable—especially compared to subjects like History—and the skills I gained have stayed with me into university. If you're unsure about taking it, I’d say give it a chance; it might just surprise you like it did me.

so insightful!! I have a question acc, how did u find the jump for French?

Reply 14

Original post by klnlljkklhklll
so insightful!! I have a question acc, how did u find the jump for French?

The jump for French was a lot at the beginning. I really love French and it is what I am studying at university now but the jump in Year 12 was a lot. I think though that I just found GCSE relatively easy, I didn't struggle a lot to get a 9, it kinda just came naturally to me. But A-Level DID NOT. I had to work really really hard, harder than I'm even having to work now at university. I think at the beginning there's just a lot of now info to deal with. I don't know what board you would be doing but I did edexcel (and think it's fairly similar across the board). You have to to a film and a book, the film is ok but the book was hard and it took me a lot of time to get through - luckily we didn't come to it until year 13 so I spend the summer between year 12 and 13 getting on with the reading which I would definitely recommend.

I found the speaking aspect particularly hard. I'm not confident speaking anyway and I am still not confident speaking in French. There are a lot of modules and I found the mark scheme to be really specific and hard to navigate. But also I just don't really enjoy speaking so that might just be me. (Also my advice to people who don't like speaking French and want to do A-Level, just do it, just speak French, no one in your class is fluent, you will all make mistakes and that's ok, just speak a little every class and it will do the world of difference - that's what I'm learning at uni!!)

The reading and listening were ok, I don't remember them being particularly difficult. We had an Edexcel book with all the vocab and I basically just made quizlets for all of the vocab which really helped as specific vocab from the book did come up often.

There's a really hard translation section in the exam. The translation into English is ok but the translation into French is a STRUGGLE. Some phrases will come up repeatedly, but most of it is not really revisable as it is not predictable enough to revise specific things. But I think most people don't do well with that bit so it's best not to stress too too much about it. I got an A in the end and don't imagine I did super well in that or the speaking so it is possible to have strengths and weaknesses across the paper and still do well.

The essays on the book and film are fine. As I said before, the book is hard to read. But once you get through the main themes and learn quotes and understand the book generally, it's actually not too bad. The film essay is ok too really, they don't expect too much but they do like you to write about film techniques - but once you get the hang of them, it's really fine. Writing an essay in French is also hard, but they don't expect perfection so it's ok - and if you learn some complex phrases that you can use multiple times then that can really help.

I remember people generally finding French A-Level quite hard, especially compared to GCSE. But the thing with GCSE is that people are often made to do a language when they don't want to so it's made a bit easier. There was only 8 of us at A-Level and I think the exam board know very few people do it and those who do are the committed ones so it's made hard for that reason. and it is hard, but as I said I love French and I am LOVING it even more now at uni. When I did A-Level French I wasn't sure I wanted to study it at uni but I am so so glad I did. I also thought I would love politics at uni but have ended up dropping it and pursuing single honours French (but that's off topic lol). Anyway Anyway... I guess what I’m trying to say is: yes, it is a jump, and yes, it is hard but it’s also so, so worth it if you genuinely enjoy French. I think the best thing you can do is go into it expecting it to be challenging, and then not beat yourself up when things don’t come as easily as they maybe did at GCSE. You’re not “worse” at French the level just goes up a lot, and that’s normal. Also, don’t compare yourself too much to others in your class. Some people might be more confident speaking or already know lots of vocab, but everyone has their strengths. If you’re someone who enjoys writing or analysing, you might really enjoy the essays more than you think. And if you’re not confident speaking, just give yourself permission to improve slowly it does happen. You will get better, even if you don’t notice it day to day.

Reply 15

Original post by klnlljkklhklll
what's ao2? and what's ao3? r they difficult

they are assesment objectives from the markscheme - you should probably know them from GCSE but ao2 is language analysis and ao3 is context

Reply 16

Hi! I’m a year 13 student about to do my exams! I’m predicted an A.
I studied The Tempest, Rossetti (poetry pre-1900) and Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ (prose pre-1900) for paper 1. I did the dystopian genre for my paper 2 so I studied ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Atwood and ‘1984’ by Orwell (as well as ‘The Road’ by Mccarthy but that was a choice by my school).
For my close reading coursework I studied Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (the other class at my school did ‘A Color Purple’) and for my comparison I did ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Williams and Duffy’s ‘Feminine Gospels’.
This doesn’t include any wider reading I did for paper 2!

I would say the workload isn’t more than you would expect (obviously dependent on how you work) but it is a lot, which is fair enough as A-Levels are very different to GCSEs.
It is probably a little bit less time consuming than my other subjects but I take History and French which have A LOT to do - if you balance your workload though it will be fine.

I really enjoy it to be honest, some parts dragged but overall the essays are fun to right and there are some bits which I can really delve into talking about what I enjoy/find easy to write about (many essays you drive the argument more than the question does so if you like that then thats good).
There is 2 pieces of coursework to do: 1000(ish) words on a piece of close reading but its all AO1/AO2 so isn’t awfully demanding, and 2000(ish) words on a comparison of texts (my school chose the texts for us but yours might not, you will have to check).
It is quite different to GCSE but you still use the fundamental skills/revision techniques as GCSE. There’s an extra AO that you use as well which only really adds to the development of your arguments (AO5 - literary criticisms e.g. critics comments, literary theories and film adaptations/TV series’). I would say that the essays aren’t written in the same format either so you may have been taught PEEL paragraphs at GCSE but you don’t really use those - the structure changes per question as well because the AOs change in each question.

Overall I would say if you’re thinking about it then do it. It’s really enjoyable and you basically have complete freedom in the majority of the questions!! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Goodluck!

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