Is A-level English Literature Hard?

The A-Level English Literature curriculum will take students through hundreds of years of literature, touching on various societal issues from contemporary inequality to racial, social, and sexual prejudice. For some students, this sounds like a great opportunity to expand their minds, learn more about society (both their own and by-gone eras), and develop advanced critical thinking skills.

Yet, not everyone is in the same camp when it comes to the A-level exams. Of course, rating any A-level in terms of difficulty is deeply subjective. For one student, the notion of writing 1000s of words about different texts seems fairly easy; to another, this is their idea of hell. While ThinkStudent ranks A-Level English Literature as the 5th hardest A-Level, the reality is its difficulty will scale directly with the skills you have.

In this article, we’ll be looking at the various skills that are needed within English A-level, helping you to see if this is the right subject for you.

We’ll be discussing:

• Reading Widely
• Learning to Write
• Broad Curriculum Learning

Let’s break this down.

Reading Widely

Unsurprisingly for an A-Level subject that centres around literature, A-Level English is a subject in which you’re going to have to read a lot. Across the course, there are typically between 6-9 central texts, ranging from 400-page Victorian novels to poetry anthologies of 50-100 pages. With only the central reading, that’s a lot of hours that you’ll have to spend moving through literature.

That’s not to mention the English Literature A-Level coursework, which will then require you to read several more books, depending on what themes you’re looking to cover. On top of that, you’re also expected to read literary analysis, pulling on opinions from academic scholars that have commented on the texts you’re interacting with.

After all of that, you’ve only just completed the first read through of everything. Before the exam date, it’s likely that you’ll have read all of your texts a minimum of 2-3 times, providing you enough time to completely know the plot, farm quotes, and create a comprehensive understanding of the thematical nature of each novel.

If you’re someone that doesn’t like to read, the English Literature A-Level probably isn’t for you. Before selecting this A-Level, be sure that you’re okay with reading frequently and for extended periods of time. If you’re not someone that actively reads, then you’ll likely struggle with this subject.

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Learning to Write

Commonly known as the most demanding essay-based subject, English Literature involves a lot of writing. Disregarding the two years of continual essays for homework and developing your knowledge of the subject, the final exams will require you to produce around three essays per paper.

A student conducted by TES revealed that A-level English students would write twice as much per question as they did at GCSE, often totalling around 1,300 words per essay. Considering you’re often having to write three essays in three hours, you’re going to be producing almost 4,000 words during your exam.

Of course, this is far from an easy feat, with the vast majority of A-Level English Literature students working right up until the final bell. Unlike Biology A-Level or Geography A-Level, which are very much knowledge-based, where you’re left with time at the end, English Literature is often a subject where you’ll be writing for the entire duration of the exam.

To prepare yourself for an English Literature A-Level exam, most students will be writing at least one essay a day in preparation towards the last stint of the revision process. This extends in the last week to 2-3 essays a day, improving writing speed to the level where a student will be able to write everything they want in the allotted time.

If you’re someone that doesn’t like writing, or finds it hard to get your thoughts down on paper, then A-level English Literature might be hard for you. That’s not to say you can’t get better. Especially when working with an A-Level English tutor, you’ll be able to get tips and feedback on your essays, helping you to speed up while improving quality.

But, if you think back to your GCSE exams and hated the writing element, then English might not be for you.

Broad Curriculum Learning

One of the core elements of A-Level English Literature that makes it different to GCSE English is that context becomes much more important. While only a few marks were up for grab when talking about the context of your Shakespearian text at GCSE, AO3 is now a large part of the A-Level exam.

When you decide to take English Literature A-Level, you’re not just taking a subject about reading books. On the contrary, you’re going to have to learn history, politics, and even 1600s scientific theory in some cases. English Literature is a subject in which you study a little bit of everything.

Source.

While the most obvious case of this is historical context, like learning about what society was like within certain time periods, you’ll also need to know detailed aspects of the authors’ lives, political and social movements at the time of writing, as well as having a thorough understanding of literature produced in each moment of time.

If you’re not huge on history, politics, or learning about how society works, then this might not be the best subject for you.

Final Thoughts

There’s no denying that the English Literature A-Level is a lot of work. From writing 10,000s of words to reading consistently for the whole two-year course, this subject will put a lot on your plate. If you think you have the skills needed, then this A-Level can be incredibly rewarding, helping you to develop critical thinking skills that you’ll use frequently going forward.

The general recommendation is you should try and obtain a 6 in GCSE English Literature to have a chance of doing well. But, if you want some extra support along the way, then you could consider partnering with an A-Level tutor. With a little guidance, we’re sure you can take on English Literature A-Level.