In Year one, you will study ‘Pepper Seed’, a collection of poetry by Malika Booker; ‘Things Fall Apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe and a collection of diverse non-fiction texts from an anthology. You will also produce some creative narrative writing.
In the second year, you will study ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, a play by Tennessee Williams and complete your coursework.
The coursework is a comparative essay of ‘Stuart: A Life Backwards’, by Alexander Masters and a text of your choice (any genre). You will also write a non-fiction piece of writing for a real-life purpose and audience, such as the text for a podcast or a piece of travel writing.
Exam Information
The exam board is OCR and the course components are as follows.
Component |
Timing, Marks, Assessment Type |
Percentage of total A Level |
1. Exploring non-fiction and spoken texts |
1 hour (32 marks), Closed text exam |
16% |
2. The language of poetry and plays |
2 hours (64 marks), Closed text exam |
32% |
3. Reading as a writer, writing as a reader |
2 hours (64 marks), Open text exam |
32% |
4. Independent study: analysing and producing texts |
(40 marks), Non-exam assessment |
20% |