Exam Board: AQA
Course Outline
Students will begin by reading a range of crime literature so that they become acquainted with some of the conventions and characteristics of the genre and can practise analysing texts in a deeper and more rewarding way than they may have done for their GCSE. The set texts will be introduced within a few weeks and students soon start to feel confident enough to use their developing knowledge to help them approach actual A-level style tasks. Once all the crime literature has been covered, students will begin to choose the first area of critical theory which will form the basis of their own non-examined assessment (NEA). They will be helped to select a text which matches their literary tastes and interests and also seems to lend itself to the approach they have chosen.
In the second year, students need to complete the second NEA essay. They will also study tragedy. Again, the initial lessons will introduce this major topic before the set texts are tackled. Possible titles are Othello, King Lear, The Death of a Salesman, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and The Great Gatsby. There are regular assessment points throughout both years so that students hone the skills they will need to exhibit in the final exams and become comfortable and familiar with the A-level question formats and success criteria.
Assessment and Examinations
The 2 A-level exams contribute 80% of the final marks (divided equally between the papers), whilst the non- examined assessment accounts for the remaining 20%.
- Paper 1 Section A requires students to analyse an extract from a Shakespeare play; in Section B there is a broader question on the same play; Section C asks students to consider two texts (one drama and one pre-1900) through the lens of the genre they have studied.
- Paper 2 includes analysis of an unseen passage, a single- text essay question and another genre-based essay with close reference to two crime or political/social protest texts including one written post-2000.
- The NEA comprises two essays of 1250–1500 words, each responding to a different text and linking to a different aspect of the AQA Critical Anthology. One of the texts needs to be poetry and the other will be prose.
Future Prospects
The variety of assessment styles used, such as passage based questions, unseen material, single text questions, multiple text questions, open and closed-book approaches, allows students to develop a wide range of skills, such as the ability to read critically, analyse, evaluate and undertake independent research, which are valuable for both further study and future employment. Recent students have gone on to study History, Sociology, Economics, Anthropology and Philosophy, as well as English.