Edexcel AS Level English Literature Tutors Online

Edexcel AS Level English Literature is code 8ET0, and its full title is the Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced Subsidiary GCE in English Literature. First teaching was September 2015 and first certification was 2016. This page works from Issue 8, dated September 2023.

The qualification consists of two externally examined papers, and it requires the study of four literary texts. Students must complete all assessment in May and June in any single year, so the two papers are sat in the same summer rather than banked separately.

Both papers are open book. Clean copies of the texts can be taken into the examination. That changes what the qualification rewards: a student is not being asked to carry quotations in memory, but to find the right evidence quickly and use it well. Annotated copies are not what the specification describes, so the habit to build is a clean text and a mind that knows where things are.

Paper 1 is Poetry and Drama, code 8ET0/01. It is externally assessed, worth 60% of the total qualification, and it is a written examination lasting 2 hours. It carries 72 marks, of which 24 belong to Section A and 48 to Section B.

Section A is poetry. Students answer one comparative essay question on a named poem from the studied text, plus a free choice of a second poem from the selected list. The poetry is a selection of specified modern poetry from Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002 to 2011. Section A draws on knowledge of poetic form, language and conventions, and assesses AO1, AO2 and AO4.

Section B is drama, one essay question worth 48 marks, and it assesses AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO5. Section B is the only place in the qualification where AO5, which is about exploring texts informed by different interpretations, is examined.

In both sections of Paper 1 students answer one question from a choice of two. So there is a real choice, and it is a choice made in the exam room under time rather than prepared in advance.

Paper 2 is Prose, code 8ET0/02. It is externally assessed, worth 40% of the total qualification, and it is a written examination lasting 1 hour 15 minutes. It carries 44 marks, and students answer one comparative essay question from a choice of two on their studied theme. It assesses AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4.

The four texts break down by paper. Paper 1 needs one poetry text and one drama text. Paper 2 needs two prose texts from a chosen theme, and at least one of those two must be pre-1900. Across the qualification one text must be pre-1900, and the specification sets that out as one pre-1900 prose text and one other prose text.

The drama is chosen from eight plays: Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, The Rover by Aphra Behn, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

The prose is chosen by theme, from six: Childhood, Colonisation and its Aftermath, Crime and Detection, Science and Society, The Supernatural, and Women and Society. Each theme offers two pre-1900 and two post-1900 texts, so a school picks a theme and then picks its pair from within it. The topics a student actually studies therefore depend on decisions the school makes, not on a single fixed list.

A practical note on the texts: the specification says they will be reviewed throughout the lifetime of the qualification, and if a change of set texts is required centres will be notified and alternatives provided on Pearson's website. It also covers what happens if a named edition goes out of print. So a student inheriting an older reading list should check it rather than assume it.

The assessment objectives are five. AO1, articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts using associated concepts and terminology and coherent, accurate written expression, is 27.6 per cent. AO2, analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts, is 27.6 per cent. AO3, demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received, is 21 per cent. AO4, explore connections across literary texts, is 14 per cent. AO5, explore literary texts informed by different interpretations, is 10 per cent.

The per-paper split is not even. Paper 1 carries 16.8% AO1, 16.8% AO2, 10% AO3, 6.6% AO4 and 10% AO5. Paper 2 carries 10.8% AO1, 10.8% AO2, 11% AO3, 7.2% AO4 and no AO5. The specification notes that some totals have been rounded either up or down.

Two things follow from that. AO3, which is context, is worth slightly more of the qualification on the prose paper than on the poetry and drama paper, because the drama essay and the prose essay both call on it. And AO5, interpretations, is worth 10 per cent and is only available on Paper 1, in the drama section. A student who has not been taught to weigh different readings of a play leaves those 10% untouched.

The qualification is graded on a five-grade scale from A to E using the total subject mark, and individual components are not graded. The first certification opportunity was 2016. Students below the minimum judged by Pearson to be of sufficient standard receive an unclassified U result. The qualification number is 601/5047/6.

Two closing notes. The specification states plainly that there are no forbidden combinations with this qualification, which is unusual and worth knowing when a student is choosing a wider programme. And it does not print a discount code: it states that every qualification eligible for performance tables is assigned one published by the Department for Education, and directs centres to the GOV.UK website.