Article: IB English A1

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English A1 - the predecessor of “English A Literature”

- Kenneth Chan

Last updated January 28, 2012

I am always thankful that I am able to appreciate literature, for I feel that the study of literary works allows me a glimpse of the essence of human nature and the nuances of society. Yet, what I love most is that, as much as it is human, literature is composed of time, place and culture, transcending the limits of ‘here’ and ‘now’.

What’s studied in the course?

English A1 is a literature course. That means it’s focused on textual analysis, not language. In HL, 15 texts are studied. Yes. 15. SL does 11. (evil smirk)

There are 4 parts.

Part 1: World Literature - 3 translated texts that are related in some aspect. You will do your written 1500-word World Lit pieces on these texts.

Part 2: Detailed Study - 2 (SL) or 4 (HL) texts chosen from the “prescribed book list”, studied in detail. These are the texts your Individual Oral Commentary (IOC) will be on. (More on IOCs later)

Part 3: Groups of Works - 1 translated text freely chosen, and another 2 (SL) or 3 (HL) chosen from the “prescribed book list”, all of the same genre. These are the EXAM TEXTS.

Part 4: School’s Free Choice - 1 translated text freely chosen, and another 2 (SL) or 3 (HL) freely chosen, and related by some aspect, not necessarily genre. These are the texts you will study for your Individual Oral Presentation (IOP). (More on IOPs later)

Difference between SL and HL

HL studies more texts, as you can see above. HL also does one more 1500-word World Lit internal assessment piece than SL. The SL paper 1 exam may also be easier due to there being guiding questions for the commentary; personally, I just find guiding questions distracting, but they may be useful if you run out of ideas.

However, many people go in thinking that breadth of the course is the only difference; that’s a mistake. HL also has stricter marking criteria plus higher mark bands. What that means is that it’s harder to get marks in HL, AND you need more marks to get the same grade. For example, it’s harder to get 25/30 in HL than in SL, and you might need only 24/30 to be level 7 in SL, but need 26/30 to get 7 in HL.

Coursework?

In a word: Abundant.

IOP at the end of year 12 term 1. 15-minute presentation; 10-12 minutes speech + the rest of the time answering a couple of questions. Basically, you have you think up a topic independently, such as “How is love portrayed in A Valediction Forbidding Mourning?” and, well, analyse and present. Assessed Internally. 15% of grade.

World Lit. 1 piece for SL, 2 pieces for HL. 1500 words. That first piece that both HL and SL students do must be a comparative study of at least 2 of the World Lit texts. Assessed Externally. 20% of grade (HL, 10% each for WL1 and WL2)

IOC at the end of year 13 Term 1. 15-minute presentation; 10-12 minutes speech + the rest of the time answering a couple of questions. Basically, you have to do a commentary on an extract, fully analysing it. The difference from the IOP is that you’re given a list of... 30? extracts and you don’t know what extract you’ll get until 20 minutes before you present. Assessed Internally. 15% of grade.

Workload...

In Year 12, most of the time quite a substantial amount. Unfortunately, unavoidable. For me, reading the texts and analysing them is enjoyable. Writing the essays (and, frankly, writing down the analyses) is not.

In Year 13, not very much homework at all. Or maybe I’ve just been desensitised to it?

Future University Courses and Careers

I know there are some people who choose HL over SL because they feel that 1.) the difference in ‘difficulty’, as such, is very slight, and 2.) you actually get a more time to do the stuff in HL, especially in year 13. I don’t agree with that at all. It’s far easier to get a high grade in English SL than English HL.

My advice is that if you’re not going to be doing anything directly relating to English, or some sort of humanities subject, like Law, Philosophy, etc, don’t take HL; leave that precious HL place for something more important.