How to get A* in English A Level? Advice appreciated :)

9

Ok so I was wondering if people could please give me advice for English Literature A level Aqa? I was so close to getting an A* but I think I am being limited by my clarity of expression and am struggling for support
Context
- in year 12 got
A in English (less than 1% off A*)
A* history
A in drama
Any ideas to write better essays would be really appreciated- I want to study English at Cambridge so the A * is essential!

Reply 1

Kingston Eve

Official Rep

13

Original post

by Academicssssss

Ok so I was wondering if people could please give me advice for English Literature A level Aqa? I was so close to getting an A* but I think I am being limited by my clarity of expression and am struggling for support
Context
- in year 12 got
A in English (less than 1% off A*)
A* history
A in drama
Any ideas to write better essays would be really appreciated- I want to study English at Cambridge so the A * is essential!

Hey @Academicssssss!

I achieved an A* in A-Level English Lit - however, I know how frustrating it can be to be so close to the A* boundary whilst still sitting on an A!

Have you spoken to your teacher about where exactly your essays are falling short? If you're less than 1% off an A*, you're clearly writing strong essays - it's just about figuring out how to get that extra percent or two. Do you think you cover enough points/content in your essays?

In terms of clarity of expression, I'd recommend looking at mark schemes. They usually bullet point key points of discussion for the examiner to refer to - understanding these key points may help you express your ideas more concisely.

Hope this helps and best of luck with A-Level English Lit,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Reply 2

Plumywumy

6

Original post

by Academicssssss

Ok so I was wondering if people could please give me advice for English Literature A level Aqa? I was so close to getting an A* but I think I am being limited by my clarity of expression and am struggling for support
Context
- in year 12 got
A in English (less than 1% off A*)
A* history
A in drama
Any ideas to write better essays would be really appreciated- I want to study English at Cambridge so the A * is essential!

A great idea when you are so close, as you are, to an A* is to go and look at examiners reports for your subjects. They will give detailed guidance about what areas exam boards feel most people fall short on. It’s hard to say exactly what makes an A* rather than an A as you could hit all the assessment objectives and still get an A. But, I feel that sometimes taking a more interesting approach to a question rather than the usual approach can be helpful. What I mean by that is if 90% of people answer a question in a certain way (they might for example answer a question about Macbeth by mainly talking about Macbeth and his wife) you might want to consider answering in a less obvious way by talking about a more subsidiary character. Obviously this depends on the question and whether it’s an extract which limits your scope but maybe just start trying to think out of the box a little more and challenge yourself to answer questions in a more personal way and take some risks with your own ideas. Ideally you want to be writing about ideas that are not in A Level text guides so the examiner actually wakes up a bit and thinks this is original and this candidate has a fresh take that they haven’t seen in other essays. You tube degree level lectures and programmes like ‘In our time’ on radio can also help you think about more interesting concepts and ways of viewing texts.

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 3

jcrollie

4

Sounds like you are already on track for the A*. I'd just keep up what you're doing. With each essay you get marked try focus on the feedback from that essay the next time you write one. If you are really worried about it I am sure you could do some extra practice essays and get more feedback from your teachers. My teachers always said the more you read (whether that be other novels for the wider reading for the critical commentary or AO3 for the other components), the more it will pay off in the end so if you keep that up I think that would also help. Examiners reports may also be helpful as has been mentioned.

Reply 4

Confusedboutlife

14

Hello, I got 99% in A Level English though a few years ago. One of my exams went south pretty fast but I resat it and that taught me tons about what to do right in A Level Lit.
My advice:
Find full marks essays/ top scoring essays from the board and look at them in depth, pick apart their patterns and aim to do better than them.
Most English essays do best with a clear, lucid argument: research and plan your essays and notes. Look at good critical ideas and close readings to use in your own writing. You can find these easily with AI now: a poor writer, but a great researcher (tip: tell it to look for 'sensible', 'provable', 'pivotal' academic theories about your set texts.
Keep your sentences ULTRA short. Full stops are your friends. The shorter your sentences, usually, the more controlled your thinking. Leave longer sentences for university.
Rush out a draft for your first paragraph THEN edit it, and then edit it again. The challenge with each edit is to look for the through line or key point you're making in that paragraph, allowing it to be pushed forward with detailed close readings. It can be helpful to edit the thesis of your paragraph once you've written the whole paragraph. I also like to end my paragraphs with 'therefore'/ 'thus,...' as a way to tie them up properly, repeating my paragraph's thesis or a variant of it to show I have indeed proved/ developed the idea across my paragraph.

Reply 5

Academicssssss

OP

9

Thank you so much for all your replies! I will try them out :smile:

How to get A* in English A Level? Advice appreciated :)

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