Should I switch English lit a level?

I’ve chosen English lit a level for when I start sixth form, but I’m really unsure after seeing other people’s reviews on it, and my school chose OCR as the exam board, which seems to have ridiculously high grade boundaries. I also found that despite my copious amounts of revision and impressive academic comeback in english (3/4s to 7s,8s and 9s) I still struggled, lowkey wrote a bunch of nonsense and blanked in the exam despite the questions being good, so I have an inkling that I will not survive the a level.

I don’t know what to do now bc my other chosen options are history and psych, and my school doesn’t offer law, sociology, RE or classical civilization which I would’ve chosen. Basically none of the interesting subjects. I also can’t do a language (Spanish) bc it’s on the same subject block as history.

For reference I only applied to my sixth form (stupidly) and I’m not a stem person AT ALL, and any science or maths related subject makes me absolutely unfathomably miserable. Should I do an a level outside of school? Try out English lit? Any advice is appreciated (:

Reply 1

bibachu

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by meoow

I’ve chosen English lit a level for when I start sixth form, but I’m really unsure after seeing other people’s reviews on it, and my school chose OCR as the exam board, which seems to have ridiculously high grade boundaries. I also found that despite my copious amounts of revision and impressive academic comeback in english (3/4s to 7s,8s and 9s) I still struggled, lowkey wrote a bunch of nonsense and blanked in the exam despite the questions being good, so I have an inkling that I will not survive the a level.
I don’t know what to do now bc my other chosen options are history and psych, and my school doesn’t offer law, sociology, RE or classical civilization which I would’ve chosen. Basically none of the interesting subjects. I also can’t do a language (Spanish) bc it’s on the same subject block as history.
For reference I only applied to my sixth form (stupidly) and I’m not a stem person AT ALL, and any science or maths related subject makes me absolutely unfathomably miserable. Should I do an a level outside of school? Try out English lit? Any advice is appreciated (:

There are lots of sixth forms and colleges that will accept people who apply on results day, so don’t think that your options are limited just because you only applied to your current school. Personally I only applied to 2 schools, one local sixth form at a secondary school and my current sixth form college. My secondary school still offered me a place on results day, despite me not applying, as I achieved high enough grades to take most subjects at their sixth form. Most sixth forms require people to be studying three A levels as a minimum, so I don’t think taking one outside of your current school would be the best option. I would look into other schools and colleges that accept people in your local area on results day, and if you can’t find any information, call them on results day once you get your results. Someone will be willing to take you for the subjects you want to do. As for English literature, I wish I could reassure you that it is good, but honestly, the feedback I’ve gotten is mixed. Most people I know either took it because they thought it would benefit them and they are good at it (e.g. prospective law applicants) or they just like English literature and want to study something closely related to it at university. It is hard to get high grades, but it’s not impossible. Most people I know average around a B-C, but as we are only at the end of Year 12, there’s lots of time to turn things around and achieve A*s. Personally, I dropped out of English language and literature at A level and switched to politics, as I felt that English was quite a boring subject and I didn’t have a good teacher. I really enjoy politics right now, so I don’t regret my decision, but if I had stayed at my sixth form, I would have probably been talked into doing English literature. My advice - look outside your school.

Reply 2

hannaslays

Original post by meoow

I’ve chosen English lit a level for when I start sixth form, but I’m really unsure after seeing other people’s reviews on it, and my school chose OCR as the exam board, which seems to have ridiculously high grade boundaries. I also found that despite my copious amounts of revision and impressive academic comeback in english (3/4s to 7s,8s and 9s) I still struggled, lowkey wrote a bunch of nonsense and blanked in the exam despite the questions being good, so I have an inkling that I will not survive the a level.
I don’t know what to do now bc my other chosen options are history and psych, and my school doesn’t offer law, sociology, RE or classical civilization which I would’ve chosen. Basically none of the interesting subjects. I also can’t do a language (Spanish) bc it’s on the same subject block as history.
For reference I only applied to my sixth form (stupidly) and I’m not a stem person AT ALL, and any science or maths related subject makes me absolutely unfathomably miserable. Should I do an a level outside of school? Try out English lit? Any advice is appreciated (:

you should try it out and then switch i do ocr english a level and its actually really fun! the exams are terrible though but thats just because you basically have to know like hundreds of quotes... like i get As and Bs in my hw essays where i have quotes and unlimited time but im just bad at exams, but you should try it out its really interesting especially my topic which is women in literature

Reply 3

kerberder

Original post by meoow

I’ve chosen English lit a level for when I start sixth form, but I’m really unsure after seeing other people’s reviews on it, and my school chose OCR as the exam board, which seems to have ridiculously high grade boundaries. I also found that despite my copious amounts of revision and impressive academic comeback in english (3/4s to 7s,8s and 9s) I still struggled, lowkey wrote a bunch of nonsense and blanked in the exam despite the questions being good, so I have an inkling that I will not survive the a level.
I don’t know what to do now bc my other chosen options are history and psych, and my school doesn’t offer law, sociology, RE or classical civilization which I would’ve chosen. Basically none of the interesting subjects. I also can’t do a language (Spanish) bc it’s on the same subject block as history.
For reference I only applied to my sixth form (stupidly) and I’m not a stem person AT ALL, and any science or maths related subject makes me absolutely unfathomably miserable. Should I do an a level outside of school? Try out English lit? Any advice is appreciated (:

as a year 13 who has just finished my ocr english lit exams, i think you should take a moment to think about how passionate you are about the subject, because it is a time-consuming and difficult subject. if you have other options and you're unsure of english lit, i'd listen to your gut! i regret not changing subject when i could have and i ended up being mildly miserable for two years LMAO, even though i usually got As/Bs.

but this is down to each individual - you can't really rely on others for whether you should do the course! i will say that the grade boundaries are soul destroying AHAHAHA.

as someone else said, other sixth forms accept people on results day - maybe explore those avenues too?

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