International A Level English Literature Pearson Edexcel

English Literature supports progression onto university in degrees such as Creative Writing and Journalism. You will receive up to 56 UCAS points and expert guidance applying to Universities worldwide including the UK.

Enrolment Fee £395

Overview

The International A Level English Literature Online course with Learn Now follows the Pearson Edexcel (XET01) specification and is equivalent to the qualification you would achieve if attending mainstream college. Once completed, you will obtain UCAS points which will support progression to university in degrees such as Literature, Creative Writing, Journalism and Publishing.

This course would suit adult learners returning to education, students resitting exams or studying alongside other commitments, and learners looking to be accepted into University.

Please note that the Pearson Edexcel specification is 100% exam based. You will not be required to find a centre who will submit a non-examined assessment (NEA) as the course will be assessed solely through written examination at your chosen exam centre.

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Syllabus

On this A’ Level English Literature course, you will explore the relationships that exist between texts and contexts within which they are written, received and understood. You will be encouraged to debate and challenge other readers interpretations, developing your own informed personal responses together with a variety of reading strategies.

The aims and objectives of these qualifications are to enable students to: 

  • Read widely and independently set texts and others that they have selected for themselves 
  • Engage critically and creatively with a substantial body of texts and ways of responding to them 
  • Develop and effectively apply their knowledge of literary analysis and evaluation 
  • Explore the contexts of the texts they are reading and others’ interpretations of them 
  • Undertake independent and sustained studies to deepen their appreciation and understanding of English literature, including its changing traditions. 

IAS Modules

Section A: Post-2000 Poetry

Learners answer one essay question from a choice of two on the prescribed poems.

Section B: Post-2000 Prose

Learners answer one essay question from a choice of two on their chosen prose fiction text. 

2 hours

Externally Assessed

25% of the total A Level

Section A: Pre-1900 Drama

Learners answer one essay question from a choice of two on their chosen drama text.

Section B: Post-1900 Drama

Learners answer one essay question from a choice of two on their chosen text.

2 hours

Externally Assessed

25% of the total A Level

IA2 Modules

Section A: Poetry

Learners answer one essay question on a post-1900 unseen poem.

Section B: Prose

Learners answer one comparative essay question, from a choice of two, on their two chosen texts from their chosen theme.

2 hours

Externally Assessed

25% of the total A Level

Section A: Shakespeare

Learners answer one essay question from a choice of two on their chosen text.

Section B: Pre-1900 Poetry

Learners answer one essay question from a choice of two on their chosen movement.

2 hours

Externally Assessed

25% of the total A Level

Set Texts

Paper 1

Section A: Post -2000 Poetry 

Students study the following poems: 

  • Eat Me – Patience Agbabi  
  • Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass – Simon Armitage  
  • Material -Ros Barber  
  • History – John Burnside  
  • An Easy Passage – Julia Copus  
  • The Deliverer – Tishani Doshi  
  • The Map Woman – Carol Ann Duffy  
  • The Lammas Hireling – Ian Duhig  
  • To My Nine-Year-Old Self – Helen Dunmore  
  • A Minor Role – U A Fanthorpe  
  • The Gun – Vicki Feaver  
  • The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled – Leontia Flynn 
  • Giuseppe – Roderick Ford 
  • Out of the – Seamus Heaney 
  • Effects -Alan Jenkins 
  • Genetics – Sinéad Morrissey  
  • From the Journal of a Disappointed Man – Andrew Motion 
  • Look We Have Coming to Dover – Daljit Nagra 
  • Please Hold – Ciaran O’Driscoll  
  • On Her Blindness – Adam Thorpe  
  • Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn – Tim Turnbull 

Section B: Post -2000 Prose 

Students choose one of the following: 

  • Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín 
  • The Kite Runner -Khaled 
  • The Life of Pi – Yann Martel 
  • Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
  • The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga 

Paper 2 

Section A: Pre- 1900 Drama  

Students choose one of the following: 

  • Doctor Faustus – Christopher
  • Othello – William Shakespeare
  • The Rover – Aphra Behn
  • She Stoops to Conquer – Oliver Goldsmith
  • Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare

Section B: Post-2000 Drama 

Students choose one of the following: 

  • A Streetcar Named Desire- Tennessee Williams
  • Top Girls -Caryl Churchill
  • Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

Paper 3 

Section A: Post – 1900 Unseen Poetry

Unseen Post-1900 Poetry text

Section B: Prose

Two prose fiction texts chosen from one of the following four themes:

Theme 1: Growing Up

  • The Color Purple – Alice Walker
  • Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Theme 2: Colonisation and After

  • Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad The
  • Lonely Londoners – Samuel Selvon
  • A Passage to India – E. M. Forster

Theme 3: Science and Society

  • Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  • The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
  • Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

Theme 4: Women and Society

  • Beloved – Toni Morrison
  • Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
  • Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

Paper 4 

Section A: Shakespeare

Students choose one of the following:

  • Hamlet – William Shakespeare
  • King Lear – William Shakespeare
  • Measure for Measure – William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew – William Shakespeare

Section B: Pre-1900 Poetry

Students study a choice of poems from Metaphysical Poets: prescribed poems from Metaphysical Poetry, Editor Colin Burrow, (Penguin, 2006)

John Donne
The Flea
The Good Morrow
Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’)
Woman’s Constancy
The Sun Rising
A Valediction of Weeping
A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day
The Apparition
Elegy: To his Mistress Going to Bed
‘At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners’
‘Death be not Proud’
‘Batter My Heart’
A Hymn to God the Father

George Herbert
Redemption
The Collar
The Pulley
Love III

Thomas Carew
To My Mistress Sitting by a River’s Side: An Eddy
To a Lady that Desired I Would Love Her
A Song (‘Ask me no more where Jove bestows’)

Anne Bradstreet
A Letter to her Husband, Absent upon Public Engagement

Richard Lovelace
Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars

Andrew Marvell
The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn
To His Coy Mistress
The Definition of Love

Henry Vaughan
Unprofitableness
The World

Katherine Phillips
A Dialogue of Friendship Multiplied
Orinda to Lucasia

What can I do with an A Level in English Literature?

Students in the past have progressed onto the following degrees:

•English Studies •Psychology •Training Teachers •Business Studies •History •Sociology •Law

Studying A’ Level Advanced English at University gives you all sorts of exciting career options, including:

•Teaching and Education •Functional Managers and Directors •Artistic, Literary and Media Occupations •Media Professionals •Public
Services •Writer •Journalism

Previous Knowledge Required

There are no previous entry requirements for this course, however students are expected to have a reasonable standard of literacy. 

You have the freedom to start the course at any time and continue your studies at your own pace for a period of up to 24 months from initial registration with the full support of your Tutor.

Enrolment Fees

Our Enrolment fee for this course is noted at the top of this page where you can enrol directly onto the course.  This fee includes access to your course including tutor support for 2 years.

Our enrolment fee includes:

  • All study materials covering the full specification.
  • Full support where you can also message your tutor as many times as you need to.
  • Access to our online Library with a full range of eBooks.
  • Help completing university applications including UCAS and The Common Application.
  • Reference and predicted grade for University.
  • Assignment marking and feedback
  • Marked and graded practise examination papers
  • Eligibility for a Totum Card if you reside within the UK
  • Fast Track A Level if required and flexible learning from home 24/7.

The only other fee you will need to pay is for your exams which is due approximately six months prior and this will be paid directly to the exam centre.

Assessments

Students will be required to arrange and pay for their examinations at a Edexcel approved centre. We can provide an extensive list of these centres for you.

A Level Exams
There are four exams for the full A Level qualification. The length of each exam is as follows:

  • Paper 1 – 2 hours
  • Paper 2 – 2 hours
  • Paper 3 – 2 hours
  • Paper 4 – 2 hours

Paper 1 Paper 1 Paper 1 Exam Paper 4 A Level Qualification

AS Level Exams
There are two exams for the AS Level qualification. The length of each exam is as follows:

  • Paper 1 – 2 hours
  • Paper 2 – 2 hours

Paper 1 Paper 1 IAS Exams

For Edexcel International AS & A Level English Literature, learners can:

take Papers 1 and 2 only (for the Edexcel AS Level qualification) or

follow a staged assessment route by taking Papers 1 and 2 (for the Edexcel International AS Level qualification) in one series, then Papers 3 and 4 (for the Edexcel International A Level qualification) in a later series or

take Papers 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the same examination series, leading to the full Edexcel International A Level.

A Level English Literature Online Course Outcome

On successful completion of all your exams for the A Level English Literature Online Course, you will be awarded one of the following qualifications:

International A Level in English Literature with Edexcel | International AS Level in English Literature with Edexcel

Click here for more information about Pearson Edexcel and to be taken to their official website

Still unsure? Look through our FAQs

Most learners who enrol onto English Literature have an interest in reading but you will also be required to produce essays under pressure, understand context and think independently.  The English Literature course will test these skills through assignments and practise exam papers.

You will not be required to purchase any books with this course.  We automatically include logins to our online e-Library.  Please note that Edexcel haven’t published a book for Law, however we can recommend other books within our eBook Library to refer to for each topic.

Not see the book you are looking for? Ask us and we will let you know if we have it!

Literature can be paired with many subjects but the most popular choice includes English Language and History.

The Pearson Edexcel English Literature course can be taken worldwide except for the UK.  Content within the specification is adapted for international learners and the qualification is comparable to UK A Level standards.

There may be a few centres within the UK allowing you to take this specification but it is best to check with us beforehand. 

AS and A levels are standalone qualifications, however the Full A Level carries more UCAS points than the AS Level.  It also requires more study hours as follows:

  • AS Level = 180 hours
  • A Level = 360 hours

You will see the difference in the content above under ‘syllabus’ but you can also refer to our article on ‘what is as level’ for more information.

You will receive access and support for two years, however you can complete it much sooner if you want to.  Exams for this subject fall in January and June each year and therefore you are able to choose which exam sitting you want to apply for.  We have more information on exam timetables here.

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