Time to get serious

Ready for action

The summer term has started, and hopefully all the long AS /A2 Lit. assignments are safely handed in and out of the way. The weather has cheered up and everyone should be refreshed by the Easter break and ready for the intensity of the coming weeks.

For A Level English Lit. students now is the season of going back over texts studied earlier in the year. It is the time when you start to look at your notes and get a sight of how all the pieces fit together into a bigger picture…

Let down by your notes?

Unless, of course, you find yourself faced with pages of skimpy headings, half caught sentences or missing conclusions (but amazing doodles!) and you can’t actually make head nor tail of what they are referring to. We all have days when brain function isn’t sharp (obviously nothing to do with an active social life..) but now is not the time to panic.

Solutions

Ask nicely

Generally teachers really go the extra mile at this time of the year to help students. If you ask very nicely they are often willing to run additional revision sessions based on tricky texts or areas of concern. They know what the syllabus is asking for and are your first port of call.

Check out the web

Revision resources on the web are another useful tool, but do check that they actually cover the kind of areas that will be expected in your exam answers. Many sites (e.g. Sparknotes) are written for the American market, which covers a broader range of literature but in much less depth. Chapter synopses and one paragraph per character can only get you so far..

In greater depth are e-notes and York notes Advanced online – but you have to pay to access most of the material. The S-cool revision site asks some really helpful questions, and is free, but doesn’t provide detail on the texts.

Free, detailed, with helpful questions

Examiners know what students need to address as they get ready for external assessment, so there is logic in looking at a free access site they have had a hand in developing. Many of you already know that Crossref-it.info material is peppered with ‘Investigate’ boxes. If you are now needing to go back and plug the gaps in you’re A Level notes, why not use the questions posed as ‘prompts’ about what you need to cover?

Are A-Levels getting easier?

You are unlikely to agree if you are in the middle of taking them! However, the problem for employers and universities is that, as more students come out with a raft of A grades, they don’t know how to select who is the best when places are restricted.

Two recent solutions are:

• Reducing the coursework component - partly a bid to return exams to clearer tests of an individual’s ability under pressure, as well as trying to cut the impact of ever pervasive plagiarism (aka cheating).
• Introducing A* grades and ‘high powered’ courses like the CIE Pre U

Faced with this, what can help you make it to the top of the pile?

• Prioritising study, rather than squeezing it around your social life, will mean you have a greater sense of how each subject fits together
• Making time to read around the central texts / information will give you a wider perspective and impress the examiner
• Using web resources designed to help at A Level can give you the breadth of info your teacher may be too pressured to cover. That’s certainly the idea behind Crossref-it.info which aims to give Eng. Lit students the edge over their peers.

Unfortunately, as jobs become more scarce, so more students will opt for higher education places, and the need to differentiate students becomes even more pressing…

How are you going to get yourself noticed?