A Level English Literature Tutoring, for Every Board
A Level English Literature asks for an argued interpretation, not a reading list: students must analyse how a writer’s choices of language, form and structure create meaning, place the text in its contexts and weigh other readings against their own. The boards test this under different conditions, with or without the text in the room, on set texts and on passages never seen before.
Short answer
A Level English Literature is offered online, one-to-one.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 95 per lesson; lessons are booked singly or in packages.
No group class runs for this exam.
From USD 95 per lesson
- Structure shown for AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel, Cambridge International
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How A Level English Literature is assessed, board by board
4 awarding bodies examine this subject, and they do not examine it the same way: different papers, different weightings, different practical arrangements. Find your board — it is printed on your school's timetable and on past papers — and read that block. Nothing on this page describes one board's paper as though it applied to all of them.
AQA
AQA A-level English Literature A (7712)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: Love through the ages | 40% | 3 hours | 75 marks | unseen material and essay |
| Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts — Option A: WW1 and its aftermath, or Option B: Modern times, literature from 1945 to the present | 40% | 2 hours 30 min | 75 marks | unseen material and essay |
| Non-exam assessment: Independent critical study — texts across time — A comparative critical study of two texts, roughly 2,500 words | 20% | Assessed in school | 50 marks | coursework |
- The same board also awards English Literature B (7717), which is examined differently. Check the specification code on your syllabus before assuming the structure above applies.
Checked on 22 September 2026
OCR
OCR A Level English Literature (H472)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama and poetry pre-1900 (01) — Shakespeare, plus drama and poetry pre-1900 | 40% | 2 hours 30 min | 60 marks | closed text and essay |
| Comparative and contextual study (02) — Close reading and a comparative study within one topic area | 40% | 2 hours 30 min | 60 marks | closed text, unseen material and essay |
| Literature post-1900 (03) | 20% | Assessed in school | 40 marks | coursework |
- Both examined papers are closed text: no copies in the exam room. Quotation has to be memorised, which is a different revision task from AQA’s and Cambridge’s open-book components.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Pearson Edexcel
Pearson Edexcel International A Level English Literature (YET01)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1: Post-2000 Poetry and Prose | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
| Unit 2: Drama | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
| Unit 3: Poetry and Prose | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
| Unit 4: Shakespeare and Pre-1900 Poetry | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
- This is a modular qualification: units are sat in January, June and October, can be taken in stages, and can be re-sat, with the best result counting. That changes how a two-year plan is built — and it is the main reason a Pearson student and a Cambridge student in the same class need different revision schedules.
- No coursework in the International A Level: all four units are examined. A student transferring from a UK specification mid-course loses the coursework component entirely.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Cambridge International
Cambridge International AS & A Level Literature in English (9695)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: Drama and Poetry | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
| Paper 2: Prose and Unseen | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | unseen material and essay |
| Paper 3: Shakespeare and Drama | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
| Paper 4: Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose | 25% | 2 hours | 50 marks | essay |
Checked on 22 September 2026
Specifications are revised periodically. Each block links to the specification it was read from and gives the date it was checked; if your school has moved to a newer specification, that document takes precedence.
What A Level English Literature covers
The syllabus areas most boards share. Which ones appear, in what order and on which paper differs by board and by specification code — your own specification is the final word. Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper.
Drama
Shakespearean tragedy: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear · Modern drama: Williams, Miller, Stoppard · Genre conventions and dramatic structure
Prose
19th-century novel: Austen, Dickens, the Brontës · 20th-century novel: Woolf, Atwood, Achebe, Ishiguro · Comparative thematic analysis
Poetry
Studied poetry: Donne, Heaney, Duffy, the Romantics · Form and meter: sonnet, villanelle, blank verse · Unseen poem analysis under time pressure
Where A Level English Literature marks are usually lost
Context bolted on to the essay
Students learn biographical and historical background and then drop a paragraph of it into the essay. Context earns credit only when it explains something in the text: why a speech is phrased as it is, or why an ending would have read differently to its first audience. Context that could be pasted into any essay on the same author is not analysis.
Quotations that stayed in the annotated copy
OCR’s examined components and every Cambridge International paper are closed text, and AQA’s first paper is closed book except for its final section. Students who have relied on annotated copies all year arrive with general impressions instead of short, precise quotations. At Pearson Edexcel, where every International A Level unit is open book, the risk reverses: time goes on searching the text instead of arguing.
Unseen texts read for theme alone
Every board sets unseen material: poetry and prose at AQA, a prose extract for close reading at OCR, a post-1900 poem at Pearson Edexcel and an unseen text at Cambridge International. Students who summarise what the passage is about and then list devices lose the marks for how form and structure shape meaning. A practised routine for a first reading matters more than memorised terminology.
A Level English Literature coursework
AQA and OCR include non-exam assessment; Pearson Edexcel’s International A Level and Cambridge International are assessed entirely by examination. AQA’s independent critical study is a comparative essay on two texts, at least one written before 1900, with a bibliography. OCR’s Literature post-1900 component asks for a close reading, or re-creative writing with a commentary, on one text and a comparative essay on two others, the three covering prose, poetry and drama; texts and tasks go to OCR for approval. A tutor can discuss text choices, explain the criteria and question an argument in draft.
A tutor can explain the criteria, question a draft and point to what is weak. The research, the writing and every decision in it stay the student’s own, as the awarding body’s rules require.
How we teach A Level English Literature
A tutor teaches literature through close reading and argument. Each set text is studied passage by passage, with the student writing short analytical paragraphs that link a specific choice of language, form or structure to an effect and a reading, then building these into full essays under timed conditions. Critical views and context are introduced as evidence for or against the student’s own interpretation rather than as material to memorise. Unseen poems and prose extracts are practised every week, so the student develops a reliable routine for a first reading. Whether the board’s papers are open or closed text decides how quotation is revised, and lessons are planned around that.
Your starting point is reviewed before the study plan is finalised. The exact method depends on the programme and is agreed on the intro call — for some students that means a timed section, for others it means reading a recent score report or a piece of marked work. We will tell you which applies to you before you book anything, rather than describing a process here that may not be the one you get.
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A Level Tutoring
Board-aware A Level tutoring online: AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel (UK and International A Level) and Cambridge International, subject by subject.
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