Anyone thinking of doing A level English Lit/Lang...

[Mojomummy]

..either at evening class or distance learning ?

I have done a level english lang as an evening course a few years ago, do you have any questions about it or were you just looking for someone else doing it now to compare notes and things?

thanks for replying. I am hoping someone else might be doing it for support ! I gather the format has changed since I was in college in 1987 - I got a rubbish grade, so have decided time to pull my socks up.

Did you enjoy it/find it easy/hard/time consuming? how did you get on with the books & did you go to college or distance learning ?
Thanks !

Well i was at college doing a childcare course and was doing this as well just 2 hr lesson a week i think but it was difficuly year for me think i moved about 4 times, relationship problems and all sorts so didnt put in as much work as i should have!

IIRC the books were othello which i really enjoyed (with the help of york notes!) and sense and sensibility which i hated, not my sort of thing at all i just couldnt get into it so i was actually watching the video on the morning of the exam cos i hadnt finished reading the book! Still managed to get a c though, just wish id worked a bit harder and could have done abit better

I would say i found it challenging but not hard but then it all depends on the quality of teaching and things doesnt it? I think doing english as an adult though can really give you an advantage, i think you have more ability to understand characters and more experience to relate to iyswim.

thanks - sounds good - perhaps I will do it...how did you find the language side of it & the essay writing ?
(I think I did othello when I was 16/18)

Um cant remember that so well, we had to write a travel thing which i didnt really enjoy but think it was ok and i can remember doing a big essay on vivisection which was bit of an embellishment on a speech id done for my english gcse! And think i did a few poems. Cant believe ive forgotten so much.

I remember the language origins stuff being quite interesting but dont remember what we had to do for that, i think quite alot of it was exam based. We had to have like a portfolio of work aswell but seem o remember the majority was exam based. Dont know if they've changed it though. Could ask my mum as shes an english teacher which was quite handy She didnt help me do my work of course but i would quite often run it past her for criticism and she was a good source of york notes and things!

I did English Lang/Lit on an evening when I was 19 (cause it was the only way to get it done in a year) and it was fantastic. Everyone else was much older than me lol, and some people even did it every year! We had 6 set books and a few weeks were devoted to the language bit.

There were three exams - 2 literature and one language. The language one I had to write a short story (can't remember what on) and an essay on mass media (there were other choices though) and whether the royal family should be abolished, modified or retained as it is.

The books were - Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, James Joyce's Dubliners and a Shakespeare and two others I can't remember.

But then it's probably changed since I did it in 2000... hope you enjoy it!

I rang the college today - I think I'll do the literature, rather than the language - not sure I've got it in me to write creatively!

Good luck with it mojomummy, let us know how you get on.

Ive been really wanting to do some more part time courses at college but got to wait another year til ds is at playschool cos i just dont have any1 who can look after him for me every week and i cant afford the distance learning courses cos its more expensive that way. But next year definately going to do something, need to get my brain working again!

I did A level English Language one evening a week night class a fair few years ago, and really enjoyed it. It was purely Language (no literature, which suited me just fine. At the time, approximately 10 years ago now, half of the marks were made up of course work and the other half exam. The course was a year long - however, things may have changed now and different exam boards have different criteria. Check with your local colleges/schools etc... to see what is on offer. I personally prefer the nightclass option as you get to meet fellow students on the same mission, and I also feel that it motivates me more to work.

I got a "c" grade in A level English Literature and loved every moment of doing it-had fantastic books to read,(although hated Chaucer),First World war poets-I learnt alot from doing that exam!

I did A level Eng Lang 10yrs ago. Be warned, there is a BIG difference between that and Eng Lit if you have to choose - reading, analysing and crit'ing fiction or analysing styles of language in different contexts, accents and dialects. Eng Lang is much more scientific iyswim, less essay-writing, more bitesized learning.
I always hated Eng Lit personally, was never happy deconstructing a book I'd fallen in love with. Same with film studies (got an E for that LOL).

Well I rang the college & there are 4 books to read, Margaret Atwood -Handmaids Tale, Shakespeare - Taming of the Shrew, Ursula Fanthorpe- Safe as houses & the dreaded Chaucer, if any one is interested/thinking of doing it. I actually feel quite excited about it !

I'm pretty sure distance learning with the college is £150 - so not a great deal more than the evening class.

I know what you mean about going to the class, but I'm usually deadbeat in the evening & the thought of getting out of my comfy sofa.....mind you, maybe I should go out.

I did A-level English Lit in 1982 (can't believe how long ago that was!) & so enjoyed it, even the Chaucer (Pardoner's Prologue & Tale). We did Othello, poetry of the '30s (Spender et al), Mansfield Park, A Passage to India (my favourite) & (more favourites) John Donne & T.S. Eliott. My dh hated English lit because of all the writing & analysation involved so be warned.