Advanced Higher English: Transition and Expectations
Moving from Higher to Advanced Higher English requires a deeper level of literary knowledge and independent critical reading and writing skills. The Advanced Higher English course involves creating a portfolio with creative and discursive writing pieces, as well as a dissertation focusing on literature analysis and research. The language expectations and complexity increase significantly at the Advanced Higher level, challenging students to engage with more sophisticated ideas and structures.
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Department of English and Literacy Welcome to Advanced Higher English
Moving from Higher to Advanced Higher The work at Advanced Higher draws on much of the literary knowledge and skill built up over the course of your school career and in particular, the critical reading and writing skills developed at Higher. However, as you would expect, Advanced Higher requires you to read and write far more complex texts, and it also demands a much greater degree of independence from pupils.
The Portfolio The folio is worked on independently, although teachers do give advice and support. Both first drafts are usually handed in before the prelims and the final drafts are submitted by the March of your exam year (to be passed on to the invigilator on the day of the exam). Each piece is marked out of 15, meaning your whole Portfolio is worth up to 30 marks. What s Expected at Advanced Higher What s Expected at Higher The Increased Challenge Your Portfolio contains two pieces of writing: One is broadly creative , usually either a piece of fictional writing, or a personal reflective essay. The other is broadly discursive , such as a persuasive or argumentative essay. Your Portfolio contains two pieces of writing from two different genres: persuasive informative argumentative reflective poetry prose fiction drama There is no requirement to write both creatively and discursively and there is no formal word count pieces should be appropriate to purpose . You should write longer pieces. You should use more sophisticated ideas and overall structures. The language you are expected to use goes from detailed and complex at Higher to skilful and sustained at Advanced Higher. This means using: longer and more sophisticated sentences more varied sentence types wider and richer vocabulary Each piece can be no more than 1300 words long. The degree of independent work is much greater at Advanced Higher.
The Dissertation This dissertation gives pupils the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of an aspect or aspects of literature through planning, research and presentation. It is worked on independently, although teachers do give advice and support. Plans and early drafts are usually handed in in advance of the prelim and the the final draft is submitted by the March of your exam year. The dissertation is worth up to 30 marks. What s Expected at Advanced Higher What s Expected at Higher The Increased Challenge Not covered on the Higher course. Pupils should select texts, devise a suitable task and then analyse and evaluate literary techniques in extensive detail. The dissertation should be between 2,500 and 3,000 words long and will be produced as part of a series of planned deadlines. The text(s) chosen must not be the same as those used in the Literary Study question paper. This is a large-scale project, which you are unlikely to have encountered before. It involves a significant amount of independent reading, followed by reflection and research, and then a substantial writing project. Again, the language used for the Dissertation will be expected to be skilful and sustained .
Literary Study This is the first of the two exam papers and it assesses your application of critical reading skills and your knowledge and understanding of previously-studied literary texts. This task is worth up to 20 marks, and must be done in 1 hour and 30 minutes. What s Expected at Advanced Higher What s Expected at Higher The Increased Challenge This paper requires you to make connections and/or comparisons across multiple texts. The required number of texts is specified in each question: poetry: three poems prose fiction: two novels or three short stories prose non-fiction: at least two non- fiction texts drama: two plays As you have longer for this exam than in Higher, you are expected to write a full and relevant essay with extensive textual reference. In each of the possible genres that you can write about, you will have 3 essay questions to choose from. You will then write one detailed and complex critical essay. Pupils will choose one question from a range and write one critical essay in response to it. There will be a choice of poetry, prose, prose non-fiction or drama. Pupils are free to select the same genre in each question paper. Note: the texts and/or writers chosen for the Literary study cannot be used for the Dissertation.
Textual Analysis This is the second of the two exam papers and it assesses your application of critical reading skills to an unseen literary text. This task is worth up to 20 marks, and must be done in 1 hour 30 minutes. What s Expected at Advanced Higher What s Expected at Higher The Increased Challenge In each of the possible genres that you can write about, you will have 3 essay questions to choose from. You will then write one detailed and complex critical essay. Pupils will choose one question on an unseen literary text and write an extended critical analysis of it. You will select from poetry, prose, prose non-fiction or drama. As this is not something you can prepare an answer in advance for, it very much tests your ability to recall and transfer those analytical and evaluative skills you have been building up. You are free to select the same genre in each of the two exam question papers. As with the Literary Study, you have longer for this exam than in Higher, so are expected to write a full and relevant essay with extensive textual reference.
