DC took A Level Language not Lit - anything that would mitigate?

[bowlerhatt]

For a variety of reasons, DC signed up to A Level English Language rather than Lit. Some down to DC, some College's error.

It's too late to transfer to Lit this year, DC could transfer next year but would then sit Lit a year after their other A Levels - and I'm not sure what issues this would cause re funding etc.

DC is predicted an A in Language.

The problem is that most of the university courses that DC is considering require Lit, or at very least strongly recommend it.

Is there anything you can suggest DC can do over the next year to try to mitigate not having Lit? They already read widely, volunteer in a charity bookshop, and act as a reporter on the college newspaper.

Or is it best to just try to do Lit later...?

If that all fails, then I fully recommend the National Extension College too. He's going to have to graft and show commitment. But none of that will be a bad thing for a university application.

@bowlerhatt

Thanks everyone, no I've not posted about this before.

DC's ambition is Education (English Drama Art) and Cambridge, which we know will be massively competitive anyway. Most colleges seem to require Lit, there's just a couple say "recommended" and one we've found (Fitz) which says "There are no specific required subjects, but one or more A Levels (or equivalent) in subjects relevant to the chosen track are highly desirable. "

Other than that it would probably be Liberal Arts somewhere, maybe Nottingham or Keele, with some English modules.

My DD did that course, the exam and interviews were very literature heavy. She was interviewed with the other straight English literature candidates at her college because they didn't want to dilute standards. In one interview she had to analyse part of a previously unseen Jacobean text. They also asked for marked English lit essays from school as part of the application procedure.

Having said all that, there were people doing Education with non-traditional backgrounds and education.

It's a great course, good luck to your DD>

Sorry, she did Education with English and Drama, no art.

It’s too late to switch BUT there is an option that I actually recently offered to a student wanting to change to my subject in year 12 (with college approval) which is they switch now onto my course, do the second half of year 12, and next year, do year 13 as usual AND do the first half of year 12 with the year below until caught up. It’s a lot of work and not to be massively recommended but if switching from a similar course can work and I’ve seen it done before. So for the first half of next year they’ll essentially be doing 4 A-levels, but two will be the same subject!

For Education and Liberal Arts this is pretty much a non-issue. There are a good number of Cambridge colleges that don’t have require literature for that stream and liberal arts degrees are very flexible about A level subject. Literature is likely to be a required subject for literature degree courses but Language isn’t poorly regarded. It’s not considered as an alternative for literature because it’s a totally different discipline, rather than because it’s lesser. I did English Language A Level with an MFL and two humanities courses back in the early noughties. It was useful and worked particularly well alongside the MFL. Stuff that I learned as part of that A Level has been really useful to me in my career in education since then, even though it is not the subject that I went on to teach.

I really think your DC will be just fine. I think it might be rash to be considering a whole extra year at Sixth Form when their current subjects will likely be fine for their application to university. What are the DCs other subjects?

That's great advice and context from madame there.

@Pinkflask A Level English Literature and A Level English Language are not the same subject. I only did Language but my friend and classmate (a Cambridge Grad who did English Literature and Education, as it happens) did both English Literature and English Language, and there was effectively zero overlap between the two. I think her third subject was Philosophy and Ethics.

On the plus side - he could do lit in September plus the extra year - he would already have 3 Alevels plus a predicted grade so almost certain to receive an offer ahead of others waiting to get their grades.

Then during that extra year he can work and save for Uni, and maybe join a drama group or apply to be a teaching assistant or volunteer - or look at outdoor groups cubs scouts etc - more experience more chance of getting a place

DD and three of her friends differed last year - one did an extra year in art, one did an extra ALevel and worked, one has joined a drama group and worked with children - all have places, where some weren’t accepted last year. That extra year can make a difference to them being accepted.

If he is interested in art could he do the second year of English Lit alongside an art foundation course?

In answer to a few questions, he has always been very good at Lit, read voraciously from an early age, writes fiction and non fiction, keeps a blog, reads constantly now, everything from classics to fan fiction.

He was very ill and missed Years 10 & 11 at secondary completely, and so just took film studies BTEC for 2 years of sixth form part time, getting a D. He's now a mature entrant at sixth form and took the staff members advice on enrolment (PE teacher it turns out) - but I can see their point as he'd been out of education for his GCSE years, but had still managed to get an 8 in GCSE Language and 7 in GCSE maths through having a tutor 4 hours a week and taking the exams with no expectations on the day. He's now predicted A star, A star, A at A Level.

I think his best option is to try for Cambridge, with no expectations again - nothing ventured and all that - and then if he's not successful, take Lit the following year and try again, with the other Uni's as options too.

I've just looked at the course requirements www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/education_subject_requirements.pdf and can only see two colleges which require English Lit. Most do not specify, and a few say either English Lit or English Lang is required.

I think if your DC can manage to do Eng Lit on top without harming her grades she should do that, even taking an extra year?

As a pp noted the list of 'facilitating subjects' has been dropped. Oxford say this on their admissions info:

"Providing that any specific subject requirements have been met, all A-levels are approved for admissions purposes, with the exception of:

General Studies - not accepted by any course
Critical Thinking and Thinking Skills - not accepted by Biomedical Sciences or Medicine"

One of my D1's friends at Oxford is doing an English degree and did A level Eng Lit, Eng Lang, Art.

Add an EPQ? Choose something lit based.

Get in touch with admissions too.

@MadameMinimes - I know they’re not the same subject, I’ve taught them both! I mean next year they’d be doing both the second year and the first year of the new course eg the same subject twice.

OP odes he have a Lit GCSE?

Sorry does !

Given his unusual education history and being a mature candidate you may be correct regarding potential funding issues. Would the film studies not mitigate the literature gap ? Probably best to discuss with Admissions before deciding to study further A levels.

Thank you. Yes @Piggywaspushed he did took Lit GCSE but completely off his own back, reading the books and found workbooks, and got a 5. Which is also probably why they pushed him down the language route.

I think the best thing is to talk to Admissions. They have a Foundation year now for students in his kind of circumstances, if he were fortunate enough to be offered a place on that maybe that would mitigate not having Lit A Level....

From workbooks, not found

Given his background the college needs to flag this on the reference - if they're a bit rubbish they may well just write a standard reference. You need to make sure Cam know he was off school for 2 years.

I hope he's better w

@Pinkflask My apologies, I obviously need to brush up my reading comprehension. I’d totally misunderstood what you were suggesting.

@Piggywaspushed we obviously have different experiences with our subject and that's fine.

Considering OP's DC is hoping for Cambridge, and his academic background, I would think the best route would be to take a gap year anyway and be applying with firm grades in the bag. His academic circumstances definitely need to be highlighted regardless. Students are competing across the world for places at Oxbridge and places tend to go to those with top grades across the board at GCSE & A Level studying traditional academic subjects, regardless of facilitating subjects not formally existing anymore.

Hi OP - my DS1 is in circumstances not wholly dissimilar to yours, but he crashed out of his 6th form, not GCSEs. He self-taught himself a lot, and I'd just like to let you know that, with his unconventional education and less than perfect grades, he just this year got as far as the Oxford interview stage at the age of 20. He ultimately got rejected, but that's just life!! So I got the impression that Oxford at least DO consider an application holistically and they like an autodidact. I was pleasantly surprised.
What's important I think is that the unconventional circumstances are mentioned both in the reference AND on the personal statement (only a line or two on the PS, though, so not to waste space, and give it a positive spin). My DS considered Cambridge at one point, and I'm PRETTY sure that C even have a mitigating circumstances form that you can fill in when you send in your application.

@mrkb Is there a particular reason why you think a gap year would be preferable? If he applies in year 13 with predicted grades he still has a chance of getting an offer and really nothing to lose by applying. There are plenty of colleges that do not require the Literature and judgements about “traditional academic subjects” can’t be made based on one subject. English Language, French and Art would be a fairly typical combination for people applying for these sorts of courses.

Very few of the kids that I’ve known go off to Cambridge for arts and social sciences courses have done three of what used to be called the “facilitating” subjects. More often they do one or two (most often from History, English Literature, Geography, an MFL) and then one or more from Drama, Music, Sociology, Psychology, Art etc. Cambridge and Oxford have been working really hard to dispel the myth that you should only expect to get in if you’re doing three very traditional subjects. The OPs son should not be discouraged from applying pre-results, especially not given his disrupted education history, which will definitely be treated as a mitigating factor. If the only reason he isn’t doing Literature is because his illness meant he hadn’t met the entry criteria then that will absolutely be taken into account.

Cambridge themselves say:
If you’d like to study an arts or social sciences course at university but you’re not sure which one, then English Literature1, History, languages and Mathematics are good core subjects: choosing one or more of these can provide a good foundation for your subject combination.
Other good choices to combine these subjects with include: an additional language, Ancient History, Classical Civilisation, Economics, English Language, Further Mathematics2, Geography, Politics, History of Art, Law, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Religious Studies, sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) and Sociology.

I fail to see how you can not know you're signing up for the wrong course? How did that even happen? Surely if the school put him in the wrong class, they should move him?

@bcc89

I fail to see how you can not know you're signing up for the wrong course? How did that even happen? Surely if the school put him in the wrong class, they should move him?

Maybe dc heard "English" and assumed it was a combination or literature? Or had not yet looked into which might be more desirable.