Is English lit gcse important??
So basically I’m going into year 11 and In my school we do English lit gcse in year 10 and I got a grade 5. If I get a grade 8/9 (hypothetically) in English language will my English literature grade still matter?? I wanna get into a good uni but idk if this will affect that. Also the alevels and stuff i want to do are all maths/science so I’m not doing any English or humanities alevels fyi
Original post by Bubbles404
So basically I’m going into year 11 and In my school we do English lit gcse in year 10 and I got a grade 5. If I get a grade 8/9 (hypothetically) in English language will my English literature grade still matter?? I wanna get into a good uni but idk if this will affect that. Also the alevels and stuff i want to do are all maths/science so I’m not doing any English or humanities alevels fyi
In my opinion, all your GCSEs are important, so you should try and do as well as you can in ALL of them, even if you personally don’t see the importance.
However, language is the subject you actually need to pass, alongside math, so I understand if you want to prioritise that subject, and getting anything between a 5-9 be good for any uni (other than maybe Oxford, but even then, as you have mostly of your grades are 7-9, one or two 5/6 wouldn’t really matter as long as you write a good personal statement and ace your entrance exam, so don’t give up!)
But I would really recommend not giving up on English literature, especially since you have a year until your GCSEs. I got an 8 in English Literature for results day 2024, and I too really struggled with it throughout Y10-Y11, normally getting low 6s and an occasional 5 (it wasn't until my final mock I got an 8 and a 7 for my Macbeth and Jekyll and Hyde essays!)
So, here's some advice that might help you.
Flashcards: get some flashcards and write a quote, then highlight and add your analysis (metaphors, similes, etc.) to them. Do this for as many quotes as you can, and organise them into themes, characters, etc. This was useful for active recall to help learn analysis to write about in the exams.
Content sheets: My teacher gave my class context sheets for all the books and the poetry anthology we studied, so perhaps ask your teacher if they can provide something similar. If not, get pieces of paper in whatever size you see fit, and write down all the context for all the texts you are studying. This will make it easier to revise because you have one piece of paper to refer to when revising context. You could also do these on flashcards as well if you find that easier.
ESSAY PLANS/PRACTICE!!!!: I know, I know, this one is really annoying. But it really does help! I’m telling you, if you try to write as many essays/plans for as many themes and characters as possible, you can then learn them off by heart and regurgitate them in the exam. This will save you a lot of time planning within the exam and will also make you feel calmer because you don’t have to worry about coming up with ideas off the top of your head since you’ve already prepared the analysis and context before the exam! I did this much more for my history exams than I did English, and I got a 9 in history! So, I'm TELLING you this really does work, and if I could go back, I'd tell myself to do more of it!
Other than that, look on YouTube to see how others have revised for English literature, as this may be more helpful than the examples I’ve given.
Good luck with your GCSEs!
Original post by Daisy._.7777
In my opinion, all your GCSEs are important, so you should try and do as well as you can in ALL of them, even if you personally don’t see the importance.
However, language is the subject you actually need to pass, alongside math, so I understand if you want to prioritise that subject, and getting anything between a 5-9 be good for any uni (other than maybe Oxford, but even then, as you have mostly of your grades are 7-9, one or two 5/6 wouldn’t really matter as long as you write a good personal statement and ace your entrance exam, so don’t give up!)
But I would really recommend not giving up on English literature, especially since you have a year until your GCSEs. I got an 8 in English Literature for results day 2024, and I too really struggled with it throughout Y10-Y11, normally getting low 6s and an occasional 5 (it wasn't until my final mock I got an 8 and a 7 for my Macbeth and Jekyll and Hyde essays!)
So, here's some advice that might help you.
Flashcards: get some flashcards and write a quote, then highlight and add your analysis (metaphors, similes, etc.) to them. Do this for as many quotes as you can, and organise them into themes, characters, etc. This was useful for active recall to help learn analysis to write about in the exams.
Content sheets: My teacher gave my class context sheets for all the books and the poetry anthology we studied, so perhaps ask your teacher if they can provide something similar. If not, get pieces of paper in whatever size you see fit, and write down all the context for all the texts you are studying. This will make it easier to revise because you have one piece of paper to refer to when revising context. You could also do these on flashcards as well if you find that easier.
ESSAY PLANS/PRACTICE!!!!: I know, I know, this one is really annoying. But it really does help! I’m telling you, if you try to write as many essays/plans for as many themes and characters as possible, you can then learn them off by heart and regurgitate them in the exam. This will save you a lot of time planning within the exam and will also make you feel calmer because you don’t have to worry about coming up with ideas off the top of your head since you’ve already prepared the analysis and context before the exam! I did this much more for my history exams than I did English, and I got a 9 in history! So, I'm TELLING you this really does work, and if I could go back, I'd tell myself to do more of it!
Other than that, look on YouTube to see how others have revised for English literature, as this may be more helpful than the examples I’ve given.
Good luck with your GCSEs!
However, language is the subject you actually need to pass, alongside math, so I understand if you want to prioritise that subject, and getting anything between a 5-9 be good for any uni (other than maybe Oxford, but even then, as you have mostly of your grades are 7-9, one or two 5/6 wouldn’t really matter as long as you write a good personal statement and ace your entrance exam, so don’t give up!)
But I would really recommend not giving up on English literature, especially since you have a year until your GCSEs. I got an 8 in English Literature for results day 2024, and I too really struggled with it throughout Y10-Y11, normally getting low 6s and an occasional 5 (it wasn't until my final mock I got an 8 and a 7 for my Macbeth and Jekyll and Hyde essays!)
So, here's some advice that might help you.
Flashcards: get some flashcards and write a quote, then highlight and add your analysis (metaphors, similes, etc.) to them. Do this for as many quotes as you can, and organise them into themes, characters, etc. This was useful for active recall to help learn analysis to write about in the exams.
Content sheets: My teacher gave my class context sheets for all the books and the poetry anthology we studied, so perhaps ask your teacher if they can provide something similar. If not, get pieces of paper in whatever size you see fit, and write down all the context for all the texts you are studying. This will make it easier to revise because you have one piece of paper to refer to when revising context. You could also do these on flashcards as well if you find that easier.
ESSAY PLANS/PRACTICE!!!!: I know, I know, this one is really annoying. But it really does help! I’m telling you, if you try to write as many essays/plans for as many themes and characters as possible, you can then learn them off by heart and regurgitate them in the exam. This will save you a lot of time planning within the exam and will also make you feel calmer because you don’t have to worry about coming up with ideas off the top of your head since you’ve already prepared the analysis and context before the exam! I did this much more for my history exams than I did English, and I got a 9 in history! So, I'm TELLING you this really does work, and if I could go back, I'd tell myself to do more of it!
Other than that, look on YouTube to see how others have revised for English literature, as this may be more helpful than the examples I’ve given.
Good luck with your GCSEs!
Tysm for the advice! Sorry for not making it clear in my school we do the English lit gcse in year 10 so I’ve already done it and ended up with a 5. I do agree with you saying all GCSEs are important i just struggled to revise and ended up procrastinating a lot but if my grade does end up affecting me I guess I could retake it. Ty tho ill make sure to do a lot of essay practice this year with English language and my other subjects!!
Original post by Bubbles404
So basically I’m going into year 11 and In my school we do English lit gcse in year 10 and I got a grade 5. If I get a grade 8/9 (hypothetically) in English language will my English literature grade still matter?? I wanna get into a good uni but idk if this will affect that. Also the alevels and stuff i want to do are all maths/science so I’m not doing any English or humanities alevels fyi
Also, just because you’re doing science/maths at A-level doesn’t mean you can neglect English and humanities subjects! If anything this might reduce your chances of getting into a top uni.
Universities want you to be a well rounded student with lots of skills, and so will jobs. So, even if you got all 9s in maths, chem, bio and physics, If you got bad grades in subjects like RS, History, English Literature, languages etc-, they may question why these are lower, and this might put your work ethic into question, as it suggests that you don’t put effort into everything you do.
Plus, at uni you will be doing a lot of writing, so getting lower grades in essay subjects may make top universities worry that your writing skills are not up to scratch.
There is an old saying that says, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” So, if you wanna get into a good university, you’ve gotta show them through your grades that not matter what work you are given (and regardless if you care about/you are interested in it) you will put in 100% of your care and effort.
Once again, I hope this helps! Don’t stress too much about your GCSEs, just keep working hard at school everyday and you’ll get there.
Original post by Bubbles404
Tysm for the advice! Sorry for not making it clear in my school we do the English lit gcse in year 10 so I’ve already done it and ended up with a 5. I do agree with you saying all GCSEs are important i just struggled to revise and ended up procrastinating a lot but if my grade does end up affecting me I guess I could retake it. Ty tho ill make sure to do a lot of essay practice this year with English language and my other subjects!!
Oh I’m sorry for misunderstanding! Well done on your English Literature result!
Original post by Bubbles404
Tysm for the advice! Sorry for not making it clear in my school we do the English lit gcse in year 10 so I’ve already done it and ended up with a 5. I do agree with you saying all GCSEs are important i just struggled to revise and ended up procrastinating a lot but if my grade does end up affecting me I guess I could retake it. Ty tho ill make sure to do a lot of essay practice this year with English language and my other subjects!!
I don’t think it will end up affecting you too much, like I said, a lot of top unis are happy with grades 5-9 or 6-9, and whilst Oxford usually expect grades 7-9, there are many other factors to getting an offer from them, like you predicted A-level grades. But, if this is still a worry for you by the time your applying for uni, and you still wanna apply to Oxbridge, Cambridge puts less of an emphasis on gcse grades, so that could be an option!
Also, I would also like to let you know that I’ve heard some universities don’t like when people retake their GCSEs. I’m not sure how true this is, so maybe look into it, but apparently some (particularly Oxford), don’t like it when you retake and want high results the first time round. This shouldn’t discourage you from retaking if you want to, because a lot of unis don’t care, but it’s definitely something to look into!
Out of curiosity, do you know what you wanna do at uni? Or do you just know it’s something STEM based?
(edited 2 weeks ago)
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