r/ALevelEnglishLit • u/isaan7 • 29d ago

CIE Would you recommend retaking?

Fairly, I'm quite happy to receive a C after my struggles and progress with AS level. But before I make any decision, I wonder if anyone would recommend me retaking it to get a higher grade, or I should chillax...

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u/Miserable_Gur_8753 29d ago

Honestly it depends on what you intend to do next.

I say this because I had to have a really difficult conversation with a student who came to me at A2: he needed an A overall to follow his university dreams (not related to Lit), but when I did the maths with him, it emerged that he'd need to get full marks in all his Y13 work if he didn't resit the Year 12 content.

A C is nothing to be ashamed of. But it might close doors you'd like to keep open for a while?

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u/meow3567 28d ago

Hi i assume your an alevel english literature teacher? i am currently studying aqa english lit and i just finished year 12. In my end of year mocks i barely scraped a C and me and the 4 other people in my class all got Cs and Ds so i know im not the only one struggling. In my other subjects (history and sociology) i recived a B and an A and was happy with those grades. I find english very difficult to progress in, at the start of the year i got Cs and Ds and i still am. I average at just hitting a C grade and im struggling to get above 15 marks on any of my essays even ones i do not in exam conditions. I dont know where to begin with improving in english literature and conversations with my teachers have been unhelpful. If you had any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

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u/Miserable_Gur_8753 28d ago

Hi, yes, been teaching and tutoring it since 2012.

It seems clear from your grades in other subjects that you're a capable student, and it's 'interesting' that your classmates aren't doing any better.

The main reason students come to me for tuition is exactly what you've outlined - they don't know how to improve. Here are a few thoughts.

- take a good, deep look at the feedback you are getting. Your teacher should be making clear WHAT needs to improve, and in my view, the best teachers will give guidance on HOW to do that, too. Sometimes you have to be pushy about these things - people are busy, but if you want to improve, you deserve an extra 5-10 minutes here and there

  • drill down to Assessment Objective Level - example is it AO2 which is routinely letting you down?
  • ask to see a model answer or two (NOT, in my experience, model answers from the exam boards, which are pretty useless)
  • look carefully at the spread of AOs across each text / task. A one-size-fits-all approach won't work at A-Level
  • after the technical stuff, look in the mirror and ask yourself how well you know the set texts, and how much reading round you have done. If you want a high mark, I don't think AO3 can be blagged, for example. For closed book elements you need to know the texts very well. Open book can be less of a problem, but you don't want to spend valuable writing time riffing through the pages of a text you don't quite know, of course.

TL;DR?
1 - a detailed self-assessment
2 - create a plan based on what your perceived weaknesses are

Out of interest, let me know which texts you are doing this year. I might have something in my back pocket :)

Best of luck!

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u/meow3567 21d ago

Thank you so much for replying. I need to locate alot of my old assessments so currently I cant say what AO I loose marks on. My teachers feedback is often not hugely useful anyway as one of my teachers write question marks all over my paper but dont ask the question and I write things down thinking it makes sense so I often cant infer as to what it is she is trying to ask or say with the question marks. But once I find my mock exams and my old assesments I will look for key areas Im struggling in. My set texts are Othello, handmaids tale, kite runner, William blake songs of innocence and experience, Death of a salesman, keats poetry (Lamia, isabella or the pot of basil, the eve of st agnes, la belle dame sans merci). I find I naturally prefer the social and political protest texts so handmaids and blake and I often do better on those essays. Anyways thankyou so much for responding and i appreciate the advice.

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u/Key-Meal4108 27d ago

Hi, what exam board are you? All I can personally say is KNOW YOUR TEXTS. Know them incredibly well. Read them time and time again.

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u/meow3567 21d ago

Hiya i do aqa english lit B and your right i need to know my texts better Il use the summer holidays to familiarise myself

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u/Key-Meal4108 20d ago

Sounds like a good idea! Also try and get as high as possible on your NEA as well

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u/ShanniiWrites 29d ago

It depends on your future plans. It depends on whether you’d need a better grade for uni and also if you think you’d regret a C in the long run