Syllabus
Two years is long enough to read everything twice and write two dozen essays. It is not long enough to leave either until the final term.
This is Subject 73
G.C.E. Advanced Level English Literature is Subject 73. The National Institute of Education labels the subject simply English in its own documents, which is why some official papers and guides appear under that name.
Subject 73 has two papers. Paper I carries the literature questions on the prescribed texts. Paper II is the language component, covering composition, comprehension and precis. Both belong to Subject 73 and both are examined as part of this subject.
Subject 13 is a different subject — G.C.E. A/L General English, taken alongside your main subjects. Its papers are on the General English pages, not here.
The official syllabus
The current syllabus is the English Language Syllabus, Grades 12 and 13, issued by the Department of English, National Institute of Education, Maharagama, for implementation from 2017. Despite its title, its objectives are entirely literary.
It sets out 13 competencies broken into 51 competency levels, and divides the teaching into Part 1 and Part 2.
How the teaching time is divided
| Part | Periods | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | 220 | The main body of the course: the prescribed poetry, drama, fiction and prose, and the competencies built on them. |
| Part 2 | 80 | The remaining competencies, taken alongside and after Part 1. |
| Total | 300 | The full two-year allocation across Grades 12 and 13. |
On editions, and on the term plan
The syllabus instructs that students use Penguin Classics for the drama and the novels, and refers teachers to the Oxford edition for Fugard. There is no single official anthology for A/L, unlike O/L.
The syllabus gives period allocations, not a termwise breakdown. Any term-by-term sequence on this site is therefore labelled an RCF suggested teaching plan and is not official.
Check the official syllabus for your year
Prescribed texts, the structure of the papers and the choices offered are set by the examination authority and are revised from time to time.
Confirm the prescribed texts and the format for your own examination year against the current official syllabus. This page explains what the examination is testing and how to prepare; it is not an official statement of the requirements.
What the examination is testing
Whatever the exact format, an Advanced Level Literature paper tests these things, and it is worth knowing which of them you are weak at.
- Knowledge of the prescribed texts — accurate, detailed and available under pressure.
- Close reading — the ability to say what a particular passage is doing, at the level of the sentence and the word.
- Critical appreciation of an unseen passage or poem — the same skill, applied without preparation.
- Argument — taking a position on a question and sustaining it with evidence.
- Context and awareness of interpretation — knowing that a text has been read in different ways, and being able to weigh those readings rather than merely list them.
Official Subject 73 documents
G.C.E. A/L 2019 English Literature (Subject 73), Paper I
Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka
Department of Examinations paper, linked not rehosted
G.C.E. A/L 2019 English Literature (Subject 73), Paper II
Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka
Department of Examinations paper, linked not rehosted
G.C.E. A/L 2019 English Literature (Subject 73), Marking Scheme
Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka
Department of Examinations document, linked not rehosted
A/L English Literature Resource Book
National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka
NIE publication, linked not rehosted
A two-year plan
First term: read everything once
Every prescribed text, straight through, without notes. You cannot analyse a book whose ending you do not know. Reading everything early also tells you which texts you will find hard.
First year: second readings and notes
Reread with a pencil. Build your own notes for each text — not copied notes. Twelve to fifteen quotations per text, each chosen because it serves more than one question.
First year: begin unseen practice
One unseen poem or passage a fortnight, written in forty minutes. Unseen appreciation improves only with repetition and cannot be crammed.
Second year: essays
One full essay a fortnight, timed, on a real question. Correct each one properly and rewrite one paragraph. Twenty well-corrected essays are worth more than a hundred read study guides.
Second year: comparison and criticism
Start putting texts beside one another, and start reading what critics have said. Note where you disagree — a disagreement you can defend is worth more in an essay than a critic's name.
Final term: your own work
Revise your own corrected essays and your own notes. Do not begin new study guides in the last month; they cause anxiety and teach nothing you can use in time.
How to make notes that survive two years
- One page per text, and everything else subordinate to it: the shape of the work, its main figures, three or four themes as full sentences.
- A quotation page, with the use of each quotation written beside it, not the meaning.
- A structure page — how the work is divided, and why. Structural comments are highly rewarded and rarely made.
- A disagreement page — where you disagree with the standard reading, and what evidence supports you. This is where original essays come from.
- Notes copied from a guide are forgotten within a term. Notes you made yourself are not.