English Literature

Assessment

A-level English Literature is assessed over three units: two exams (each worth 40% of the overall A-level) and one non-exam assessment (worth 20%). Paper 1: Love Through the Ages Paper 1 is comprised of three sections: A, B, and C. Section A will require students to answer an extract-based question on Othello. Students will be asked to closely analyze the extract before making links to elsewhere in the play. Section B will require students to compare two unseen poems. Section C will require students to make links between poems from the pre-1900 anthology and Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Students will only have access to the core texts in Section C as Section A is a closed book. Paper 2: Texts in Shared Contexts Option B – Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the present day Paper 2 is an open-book exam comprised of two sections. Section A will require students to answer one question on Feminine Gospels. Section B is split into two parts. The first part will require students to analyze an unseen prose extract. The second part will require students to make links between two texts: one prose (The Handmaid’s Tale) and one drama (A Streetcar Named Desire). Non-Exam Assessment: Independent Critical Study: Texts Across Time Students will independently write a comparative critical study of two texts – one of which must have been written pre-1900. All students will study The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde as well as a selection of Gothic extracts in preparation for writing a 2500-word extended essay.