Is literature difficult to grasp??

[haydencooper]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to inquire about your opinions on whether comprehending the concept and techniques involved in English Literature (in its entirety) is hard?
I'm currently in year 10 and am stuck between going with regular English or literature. I'm in the advanced english class for year 10 and my teacher had classified lit as quite hard and thought I was crazy for wanting to originally select literature over regular english. I'm willing to put in as much effort as possible to get a study score of high 30's to low 40's given the impression I know what I'm doing. Any advice you's could provide would be excellent.

Thanks

[walkec]

It's not necessarily that Literature is hard to grasp, it's more that I think you need to be willing to work at getting your mind around the differences between VCE Literature and VCE English. I didn't really do much in 1/2 Lit, so I found 3/4 Lit was a steep learning curve for me and caused me a great deal of anxiety in first term.

But I think persistence really helped me out, because now it is one of my favourite subjects. It can be considered more difficult to score well in Literature because you are against the top writers in the state, compared to those in mainstream English. But like any subject, the more practice and time you put into the subject will help you to achieve your best, so I'd say if you want to take a challenging but highly regarding subject, then take Lit.

Understanding how to go about writing a passage analysis for Lit can be difficult at first, but once you understand this and work out a way that works best for you, it's not really that bad. As I've said on this forum before, English is more theme based but Lit is more language based. I've also found that the skills I've developed in Lit have immensely helped my English skills. Would taking both Lit and English be an option?

[meganrobyn]

I endorse the above 100%.

Lit is more about analysing the small, then building those detail-oriented blocks up into a larger picture. English is more about having overall themes, purposes, arguments, then using small details to illustrate them. Lit you really just need to jump straight into picking things apart, whereas English you spend more time setting the big picture up.

Different skills, different foci. Less of a weak tail-end in Lit to be better than, but that could also buoy you up a bit. There's no one 'right' choice

[haydencooper]

It's not necessarily that Literature is hard to grasp, it's more that I think you need to be willing to work at getting your mind around the differences between VCE Literature and VCE English. I didn't really do much in 1/2 Lit, so I found 3/4 Lit was a steep learning curve for me and caused me a great deal of anxiety in first term.

But I think persistence really helped me out, because now it is one of my favourite subjects. It can be considered more difficult to score well in Literature because you are against the top writers in the state, compared to those in mainstream English. But like any subject, the more practice and time you put into the subject will help you to achieve your best, so I'd say if you want to take a challenging but highly regarding subject, then take Lit.

Understanding how to go about writing a passage analysis for Lit can be difficult at first, but once you understand this and work out a way that works best for you, it's not really that bad. As I've said on this forum before, English is more theme based but Lit is more language based. I've also found that the skills I've developed in Lit have immensely helped my English skills. Would taking both Lit and English be an option?

Well I was intending to drop one of the two subjects and do general maths in replacement, albeit my course counselling teacher originally substituted by 6th position for VCE English (as he's my teacher this year and thought I forgot to add it in).

Currently my subject selections for next year are: VCE Literature, Psychology 3&4, Biology, Chemistry, Math Methods and VCE English.

I was really intent on doing general maths as well but I've got this weekend to decide whether I want to keep both English subjects or substitute one for General Maths. I'm only considering the English subjects for altering as the other 4 are out of the question. Literature interests me somewhat more as I'm enticed by new challenges and improving myself but going off my capability for text responses and overall mainstream English, it's a tough decision (I received 50/50 for my text response semester 1 exam, and my advanced class are reportedly nearing high year 11 standard in it).

I've done a fair extent of research into the differences but still cannot conclude what I should do and if literature would be harder to gain marks in as I've been told  I'm more cautioned about this since I want to aim for the best ATAR I can achieve haha

[JackSonSmith]

I assume general maths is further maths? My teacher says that if you are good at methods, you can smash further provided you put the work in.

[haydencooper]

I assume general maths is further maths? My teacher says that if you are good at methods, you can smash further provided you put the work in.

Yeah it is sorry haha I should've mentioned for our school at least general maths is the equivalent of year 12 further maths

And I'm hoping I'm good at methods as I want to get high 30's to 40 if possible. I kinda thought that general maths is also a bit more easy going (my current math teacher said I will have no worries as I'm the most efficient at working in my class) so that's another thing, if general/further maths isn't as hard then it'll be easier to comprehend and "smash" than two English subjetcs

[JackSonSmith]

I would say English requires quite a large effort to do well in. (Reading texts, thinking of themes/ideas, practice essays, remembering quotes etc.) I do find English to be rewarding though. If you are good at Methods I don't know if you would enjoy Further (I hear it's ridiculously easy, but you can't afford to drop marks if you want a high score)

[walkec]

You could always take Lit 1/2, see what you think and pick up English 3/4 if you want. My brother picked up English 3/4 without 1/2 and ended up doing really well (45+ if I remember correctly)

[haydencooper]

I would say English requires quite a large effort to do well in. (Reading texts, thinking of themes/ideas, practice essays, remembering quotes etc.) I do find English to be rewarding though. If you are good at Methods I don't know if you would enjoy Further (I hear it's ridiculously easy, but you can't afford to drop marks if you want a high score)

Yeah I recall hearing that somewhere else too, but in all honesty I'm kinda more inclined to still do general maths plus one of the two english subjects opposed to both english that seem like more work effort (that I could be putting into the other subjects, especially methods)
And that's true. I would have to really be sure to avoid dropping marks

[haydencooper]

You could always take Lit 1/2, see what you think and pick up English 3/4 if you want. My brother picked up English 3/4 without 1/2 and ended up doing really well (45+ if I remember correctly)

Wow good job for him! I had thought of that so good point indeed. Do Lit 1/2 and if I don't like it pick up mainstream English 3/4 the year after. And I suppose it wouldn't be that difficult either since my English class this year are said to be at year 11 standard already.
Going to strongly take that idea into account, thanks heaps!!

[DJA]

I would also advise you to take into account teachers/quality of teaching. If Literature is not taught well at your school and/or very few students take it then I would consider this as weighing on a choice between English and lit. I’ve found increasingly so that quality of teachers actually DOES impact quite a lot on how well you do in humanities subjects – because in class the quality of the analysis/feedback on essays will depend on how good and how dedicated your teacher is.

If you know for sure Lit and Eng have the same standard of teachers and you know you can score similarly for both given the teaching, disregard this

[walkec]

I would also advise you to take into account teachers/quality of teaching. If Literature is not taught well at your school and/or very few students take it then I would consider this as weighing on a choice between English and lit. I’ve found increasingly so that quality of teachers actually DOES impact quite a lot on how well you do in humanities subjects – because in class the quality of the analysis/feedback on essays will depend on how good and how dedicated your teacher is.

If you know for sure Lit and Eng have the same standard of teachers and you know you can score similarly for both given the teaching, disregard this

I second this advice - one of my friends has a horrible English teacher but our Lit teacher is actually good. She feels more stressed by English than Lit and has consequently gone to our Lit teacher for help with English and she will probably end up getting a higher study score in Literature than English as a result

[haydencooper]

I would also advise you to take into account teachers/quality of teaching. If Literature is not taught well at your school and/or very few students take it then I would consider this as weighing on a choice between English and lit. I’ve found increasingly so that quality of teachers actually DOES impact quite a lot on how well you do in humanities subjects – because in class the quality of the analysis/feedback on essays will depend on how good and how dedicated your teacher is.

If you know for sure Lit and Eng have the same standard of teachers and you know you can score similarly for both given the teaching, disregard this

Yeah I'd already taken that into account, the teachers all vary and there's no definite say in who the teacher will be, but they're all roughly the same. Appreciate the advice tho!

[georgiartemis]

As a student who went from year 10 straight into 3/4 Lit I can say it is difficult. I'm currently doing General and it is ridiculously easy compared to Lit. English is also easier and less stressful, I may only be doing year 11 English but I can guarantee Lit is the harder class. Lit takes a lot of effort and time in understanding the text or poems and formulating good quality responses, my first Lit essay took around 20 hours in total of writing and editing. I achieved a 39/40 but like I said time consuming. However it is much more rewarding then General and even English. If you want a challenge then go Lit however easy marks are in General. Remember with General and English though you are competing with either the entire state or most of the state and both those subjects are scaled down while Lit is scaled up. Hope that is helpful and good luck!