Secondary English/English Lit whats the difference

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It's been a couple of years since I've tutored either, but basically English is the mainstream subject, and Lit is more for those with a genuine interest in text analysis. The key difference is that a large chunk of English is media analysis, which is formulaic and tedious.

English Lit usually has stronger students, so if the teacher is decent you'll have a more interesting subject, but by the same token it'll be far more difficult to get a good score.

No-one should be doing English Lit ahead of English if you care about your ENTER. If you genuinely enjoy reading and analysing books, do both.
 

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Hey MDC, does Eng Lit get scaled up?

Very marginally. The problem is this;
- Kids that are good at maths, also tend to be very good/driven at other subjects. Thus specialist gets scaled up a ton.
- Meanwhile, there are heaps of kids that love to read and can write, but don't really take VCE all that seriously, or just struggle with non-humanities subjects. So Lit only gets a small boost.

From memory, my Spec. maths mark got bumped up by 11-12, and my Lit mark got bumped up by like 1.5. I think the two subjects are comparable in difficulty.
 
Just sat through a 4 hour PD on the difference between English and English lit. As mdc said, Lit is more text based (whether written or visual) and English is more widely focused.

Lit is basically the Specialist Maths of the English domain.

In your Lit, expect to study a couple of books, a play, a film, short stories and some visual texts (cartoons or paintings probably)
 
I'm currently doing unit 2 english lit (completed unit one earlier this year) and I would say that everyone is pretty spot on. We do a lot more text reviews than just look at persuasive language and media issues.
 
Very marginally. The problem is this;
- Kids that are good at maths, also tend to be very good/driven at other subjects. Thus specialist gets scaled up a ton.
- Meanwhile, there are heaps of kids that love to read and can write, but don't really take VCE all that seriously, or just struggle with non-humanities subjects. So Lit only gets a small boost.

From memory, my Spec. maths mark got bumped up by 11-12, and my Lit mark got bumped up by like 1.5. I think the two subjects are comparable in difficulty.

Snot fair. My daughter is trying to choose her subjects. She hates maths, but tends to get A+ so the teachers want her to do Spec or at least Methods. She doesn't want to do it at all, but might agree to Further, but when we played with the calculator that seemed to bring her hypothetical score down. So confusing......
 
I wish they'd had Lit at my school. :( Or Spec Maths, for that matter. All had to be done by correspondence :(

The advantages of going to a private school I suppose. One year our school ran Music with one student, and a certain LOTE with a total of two students, basically by request. Probably didn't hurt that the Music student was a lock to get 50 (and she did) and one of the LOTE students was fresh off the boat, so to speak.

Our lit class was 6 or 7 people iirc, and Spec was about 10. Physics was 7. Good times.
 
The advantages of going to a private school I suppose. One year our school ran Music with one student, and a certain LOTE with a total of two students, basically by request. Probably didn't hurt that the Music student was a lock to get 50 (and she did) and one of the LOTE students was fresh off the boat, so to speak.

Our lit class was 6 or 7 people iirc, and Spec was about 10. Physics was 7. Good times.

I dunno about it being a private vs public school thing. The local private school wouldn't always run them either. The thing is just that my school (and the local private/Catholic school) was so small that it literally did not have the numbers or resources. We did get psychology introduced by request, for three people. My chemistry class was two people, but that ran even with one person. My biggest class was 8 people anyway, which was English. Because that's just all there was!
 

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I'm currently struggling to decide which to study next year for my year twelve. The lit course outline appeals to me more than normal english and has the bonus of a smaller and more focussed class, but at the same time I can't help but think (as mdc said) that for the added difficulty and marginal scaling, it's just not worth it.

My other subjects will be spesh, chem, physics and history, so I'll have quite a solid workload already.
 
My other subjects will be spesh, chem, physics and history, so I'll have quite a solid workload already.

Have you considered doing both and taking out History? Or possibly Physics if it's not a pre-req for your desired course? Neither get scaled much either.
 
Have you considered doing both and taking out History? Or possibly Physics if it's not a pre-req for your desired course? Neither get scaled much either.

What are the rules for getting full credit for both? I mean you can only get a certain number of maths 'points' in your aggregate. Is there a similar thing for English?

Mushda, if you appreciate good writing, do Literature. I wouldn't recommend dropping History - firstly I don't think it's worth considering the scaling, and secondly, well, I love history. What history would you do?
 
What are the rules for getting full credit for both? I mean you can only get a certain number of maths 'points' in your aggregate. Is there a similar thing for English?

I'm sure you can get full credit for both, just like you can get full credit for methods/spec. At least you could when I did it.

I don't think it's worth considering the scaling

Given the subjects mushda's listed, I'd guess he/she is looking for a strong ENTER, in which case it's necessary to consider scaling.
 
Given the subjects mushda's listed, I'd guess he/she is looking for a strong ENTER, in which case it's necessary to consider scaling.

Well IIRC English was either barely scaled up or was scaled down? In which case it would be better to do History.

At any rate I still don't think you should consider scaling. If you want to do well, you need to work hard, not look for subjects that will be scaled up. I would never give up doing a subject I was interested in, in favour of something that could be 'harder' just to get (possible) extra points.
 
Well IIRC English was either barely scaled up or was scaled down? In which case it would be better to do History.

English is barely scaled at all, usually half a point or so down. But it's easier to get a raw 40 in English than it is to get a raw 35 in Lit...thus my original comment that no-one should be doing Lit only if you need to maximise your ENTER.

At any rate I still don't think you should consider scaling. If you want to do well, you need to work hard, not look for subjects that will be scaled up. I would never give up doing a subject I was interested in, in favour of something that could be 'harder' just to get (possible) extra points.

Surely you would if it were the difference between getting into your course or not?

Fwiw, I've always hated chemistry. Still do. But I did it in Yr 12 due to the scaling, and it ended up in my top 4 scaled marks, which was likely the difference between me getting my no.1 choice or missing out.

For someone who's aiming to get 80s or below, scaling's probably shouldn't be a big consideration. For someone who needs 95+, it absolutely should.
 
I dunno about it being a private vs public school thing. The local private school wouldn't always run them either. The thing is just that my school (and the local private/Catholic school) was so small that it literally did not have the numbers or resources. We did get psychology introduced by request, for three people. My chemistry class was two people, but that ran even with one person. My biggest class was 8 people anyway, which was English. Because that's just all there was!

Exactly the same as mine but I'm going to some fancy private school for 11 and 12, really worried that I'll be too far behind to do well :(.
 
I've pretty much just chosen my subjects based on interest and ability, and luckily none of them ended up scaling badly. As far as history, I'll be doing revolutions (only one the school offers) and that's something I've got a keen interst in. At this stage I'm probably heading for science at uni so physics and chemistry are certainties, and having done methods 3/4 this year and being strong enough at maths, I'd be pretty mad not to do spesh.

So that just leaves english or lit... It would have been nice if the school had offered lit 1/2 to get a feel for it, now it feels like a bit of a risk to jump straight into it for year twelve.
 
Lit>>>English

Doing both ATM and once you've done Lit for a semester you realise how shite English is.

Lit you actually have to properly analyse, critique and look for symbolism whereas in English you can just come up with any random statement as long as you use a correct quote to support it.

Sitting on about an A in English and a B+ in Lit but just because it is exceptionally tedious and nobody in the class seems to care, I'm only doing Lit next year.
 
Lit you actually have to properly analyse, critique and look for symbolism whereas in English you can just come up with any random statement as long as you use a correct quote to support it.

That's not necessarily true. The better English students will 'analyse, critique and look for symbolism'. I most certainly remember looking at themes, motifs, patterns, everything, in my English novels.

Those who 'come up with any random statement' won't do as well on the exam.
 
That's not necessarily true. The better English students will 'analyse, critique and look for symbolism'. I most certainly remember looking at themes, motifs, patterns, everything, in my English novels.

Those who 'come up with any random statement' won't do as well on the exam.

Well obviously but the depth required for English is very low in contrast with that of Lit.
 

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