English Literature has always been my favourite subject, but the enthusiasm that my A-level teachers brought to the lessons made me love it even more. The texts that we study are really interesting, and I loved how we had the freedom to discuss our personal interpretations and reactions to them in class. What made English stand out the most from my other subjects was the sense of teamwork in our classes; we often did group tasks and we all got on very well, which made it easy to make friends and have engaging class discussions about the work.
My favourite part of the A level was the coursework essay because we had the liberty of choosing our own texts to research and write about. I wrote mine on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and went on to do an Extended Project Qualification based on the latter. ‘Higher English’ was really helpful in introducing me to more sophisticated literary concepts such as narratology and postmodernism, which I explored in my EPQ.
Later this year, I will be studying English at the University of Oxford (thanks to the amazing support of the department with my application!) and I feel that the passion and interest for the subject that my teachers encouraged were key in this achievement.