How to get an A star in A Level English Language?

[pollyputtheteapoton]

Hi

DS is apparently consistently working at an A in tests and assignments for A Level English Language, and has asked what he can do to push for an A star - but the teacher has told him that he has no idea, he doesn't normally teach to A star, and the rest of the class is only working at a low C/high D.

DS's college is in a recognised deprived area, which as received a "required improvement" from Ofsted for the last 3 inspections.

DS has a really rough time at secondary, and had a period of severe illness which badly affected his GCSE's. He had to take two years out to recover before he was able to consider A Levels, so I think he's doing exceptionally well and want to encourage him.

Does anyone know of any English Language resources that we can use that will help with extension work?

Thanks

That's weird, if the teacher can share the marking schema and DS assessed work you should be able to work out where the marks were missed and go from there. Doesn't matter what level the class is testing at, A* requires a certain amount of marks which DS isn't getting so you need to find out why

You could consider a tutor. To get a student from A to A* should only take a dozen sessions. I used Tutor Doctor and quite pleased with results.

Id be wary of pushing the teacher or school as they don’t sound very clued in. I don’t think you’d get any helpful help from them. Your DS may not actually even be at the A grade level because it makes no sense for a teacher to be able to judge A work but not A* work.

I had a teacher like that. Gave me an A on everything because I was top of the class. It was very frustrating as I would get zero feedback on how to improve my writing. There was never a negative comment ever. I later found out my writing had actually gotten worse over the first year of A levels, but I only found that out because the teacher went off long term sick and his replacement was a far better teacher.

That's what I would have thought @Matchingcollarandcuffs.

DS asked when he got his last test back, and the teacher said "it's stuff I haven't taught you, I don't usually bother as the rest of the class won't be up to it"...

Oh dear…saying A* twice made it bold everything in between. In each sentence the second A is actually A star.

@Discovereads that's my concern, that's he's not actually working at an A but the teacher's just awarding one. Maybe we need to look at a tutor. Getting the best grade he can is really important to him after not doing so great in his GCSE's.

Exactly. He definitely has the potential, he just needs some feedback and guidance. The fastest and surest way is a good tutor.

Has he got the textbooks and revision guides? If not, obviously buy them (look inside first to see which style he likes best). Then, I would suggest reading around the subject - lots of books on linguistics and the history of the English language eg David Crystal.
You could use a past paper marking service like Mark My Papers so he could see where he was losing marks and get tips on essay technique.

Thank you, I'd not heard of Mark My Papers, that might be a good place to start.

I really think a tutor works be good, if nothing else to try and bench mark him and accurately assess his level (as it doesn't sound like anil can be trusted).

I suspect it's techniques rather than content he's not been taught, which again a tutor may be best placed to help with.