Course Description
This course is designed to help students hone the three skills that are assessed by the English Literature Admissions Test at Oxford and Cambridge: close reading, comparative analysis, and critical essay writing. Each week students will have the chance to write an essay on unseen extracts from literary texts and get detailed feedback on their work. The course will cover poetry analysis, essay structure, critical prose style, and exam technique.
This course is for students applying to study English Literature at the University of Cambridge or University of Oxford. No knowledge of the ELAT format is assumed or required to take this course. All that is required is a love of literature and some curiosity about how to refine your appreciation of literary texts.
Week 1:
An introduction to ELAT and to ‘practical criticism’.
Week 2:
A group discussion of unseen ELAT-style extracts.
Week 3:
Foundational essay structure and thesis statement writing.
Week 4:
Advanced essay structure.
Week 5:
A group discussion of unseen ELAT-style extracts.
Week 6:
Poetry analysis (metre, form, rhyme).
Week 7:
Exam technique for the ELAT.
Week 8:
Final group discussion on critical prose style.
Detailed feedback: An end of course report is sent on completion detailing the student’s achievements and areas for further work.
Dr Andy Wimbush AFHEA holds a BA and a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge. He has helped many students with successful applications to read English at Oxbridge and has previously taught the ‘Practical Criticism’ course at Cambridge on which the ELAT is based.
- Maximum Class Size: 7
- Platform: Lessons will take place on Zoom, which is free and straightforward for students to use. A link will be sent out ahead of the course start date. Take a look at this video to see our online teaching in action.
- Age group: Year 13 in September 2022
NB: If you are already being tutored individually through in preparation for the ELAT with Andy please do not sign up for one of these course as content may be repeated.
The same course is running on both Tuesdays and Thursdays - please do not enrol to both courses as these will be the same content, taught on different days.
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