A-levels English Lang & Lit

BigBouncyBall

lol - given that by doing double maths you were doing at least 2 hours of maths a day in school, and then perhaps another 1-2 hours at home - anyone doing 3+ hours of maths a day over 2 years should be able to get at least 75% in all the exams. It just becomes routine - thats all A level maths is: Routines.

But then i went on to do a maths degree so i suppose i would say it was easy. I just wish the degree was as easy - Biiiiiig jump in difficulty there.

dmg24

Singer_Of_Flames wrote: »

From the amount of complaining my two physics buddies did about it! They had a debate about it and decided that whilst they had a distinct advantage over people that didn't have a good maths knowledge (my GCSE was A* so I had about the same maths nous as them) it was more difficult than maths but easier than further maths. If that makes sense!?

Ah, so because your two mates say it is easier, then it must be!

Am assuming you didn't learn about logic at school? :rolleyes:

melancholly

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

lol - given that by doing double maths you were doing at least 2 hours of maths a day in school, and then perhaps another 1-2 hours at home - anyone doing 3+ hours of maths a day over 2 years should be able to get at least 75% in all the exams. It just becomes routine - thats all A level maths is: Routines.

But then i went on to do a maths degree so i suppose i would say it was easy. I just wish the degree was as easy - Biiiiiig jump in difficulty there.

well, i didn't go on to do a full maths degree, only one year as part of a combined course, but i didaverage a lot more like 95% in my A level modules with a fair few full marks - doesn't mean i can't appreciate that it was difficult subject though i was good at it, found it a lot easier than, say chemistry, but it's not an easy A level - that's just not true!

Oldernotwiser

I invigilated an A level English Language paper once and was shocked at the content and standard. I took it back to my staff room and all my colleagues agreed that it was identical to the papers that we had sat for O level.

Gemmzie

English Language alone is an incredibly dumbed down subject unfortunately, it's all about basic grammar and rambling off words like lexis which are of no use outside the field.

bandraoi

Ring the relevant departments at the colleges that you're interested in and ask them. All our ponderings mean nothing when compared with their verdict.

kazwookie

Ring the enrollment office and ask them.

Good luck

celyn90

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I invigilated an A level English Language paper once and was shocked at the content and standard. I took it back to my staff room and all my colleagues agreed that it was identical to the papers that we had sat for O level.

Two of the set texts I read for GCSE were also the set texts I had to study for English lit at A-level. A little worrying, but it did mean I didn't have to read them again. I struggled with the amount of content that was modern literature though - the modern women writers section (this was 10 years ago now) was so dreadful I didn't even bother reading two of the texts as it was just such shallow tripe. So I didn't read 70 % of what I was supposed to read and still got an A - that shouldn't be possible. (I only did English in the first place on top of my school work because my Mum wanted to go back to do her A-levels at evening school and wouldn't go on her own)

I found physics a walk in the park compared to maths, so I think it's very personal thing if you find one harder than the other. My brain doesn't really cope well with the abstract principles as well as it does with a ball rolling down a slope. I admire the people that dared to take further maths, it looks impossible to me even now

I'd definiatly ring up any specific institution you are considering and ask if they count them seperatly - I think it would depend very much on what you want to do in the future and where you want to study. They might also be able to offer you alternative suggestions if they think it isn't a good idea. It might also be worth seeing if you can hunt down copies of the syllabus for each and compare them - if you think they are very similar, then you might want to consider something else so it isn't repetative best of luck, cel x

robnye

bandraoi wrote: »

Ring the relevant departments at the colleges that you're interested in and ask them. All our ponderings mean nothing when compared with their verdict.

at the end of the day it will depend on the course and university as to what requirements are acceptable... so as mentioned, contact a coupl eof the universities and see what they say

Fuchsia_a

melancholly wrote: »

well maths and further maths are quite different in that they guarentee a student has done statistics and mechanics, rather than just one.

Are you sure about that? It's been a little while now since I took it, but when I did I'm sure it was all modular and the only requirements were that you had to take level 2 and 3 in one area of maths and had to take some pure maths. We didn't take statistics as standard as part of maths and further maths; we only took pure maths and mechanics modules! The normal maths students did more statistics and decision maths than we did as they were viewed as easier and less useful subjects by our teachers.

Physics, I found, overlapped a bit with mechanics but not so much with pure maths.