St Davids student studying English

English Literature A Level

Qualification

AS & A2

Results

A* - C grade: 85.4%

Awarding Body

WJEC

Literature students will be encouraged to actively engage with a range of literary genres from poetry to prose and drama. We will focus upon the way in which structure, form, and language shape meaning as well as draw stylistic and thematic parallels between texts. There is also a significant opportunity for original writing.

Core text authors include: Charlotte Bronte, Christopher Marlowe, Philip Larkin, Carol Ann Duffy, Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Blake.

AS Level (year 1)

Unit 1: Prose and Drama (2 hr exam)
This section requires students to respond critically and creatively to a prose text and to a drama text. They are expected to communicate fluently, accurately and effectively their knowledge, understanding and judgement of texts; to show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers; and to accurately use quotations from and references to texts and sources.

Unit 2: Poetry Post-1900 (2 hr exam)
For this unit, learners are required to read two paired poetry texts. They will then be asked to critically analyse one of the poems, and then to compare the two.

A2 Units (year 2)

Unit 3: Poetry Pre-1900 and Unseen Poetry (2 hr exam)
Candidates are required to answer one question based on the reading of one poetry text. Students will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of an extract from the text, and on their wider knowledge and understanding of the text as a whole.

Unit 4: Shakespeare (2 hr exam)
Students will be asked to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of their chosen play, based on an extract from it. Students will then be required to demonstrate their wider knowledge and of the play as a whole.

Unit 5: Coursework, Prose Study
This unit is internally assessed and externally moderated. It requires learners to submit an assignment based on the reading of two prose texts by different authors, one published pre-2000 and the other published post-2000.

Examinations are in June

A Level English Literature is a Russell Group ‘facilitating subject’. Many careers are open to English students. However, the most obvious professions are law, journalism, teaching, administration, civil service, the media and creative industries.

6 grade C’s at GCSE, including a grade B in GCSE English Language and a grade B in GCSE English Literature.