IB English HL Lit or Lang/Lit ?

[kimberlytanchay]

Hi I'm currently in Year 11 and I'm not sure whether to take English HL Lit or Lang/Lit for IB. 

Right now, I get A* for my literature essays and only A/B for Language.

I thought I was pretty set on Lit HL but then I heard that Lit HL is actually really hard and only the top 3% are able to get a 7 whilst Lang/Lit would much easier even though I'm not that good at Language or don't really enjoy it.  I'm wondering if Lit HL would just be extra unnecessary work especially since I'm not planning to do English-related career in the future or as a college major. 

Some advice would be really appreciated. Thanks. 

Edited April 23, 2016 by kimberlytanchay

[lollieluvers]

I would say that if you don't really enjoy Language now you would be much better off taking Literature. I take Literature and I love it, yes, it is hard but if you really enjoy it you will be willing to put in the work and effort and I know plenty of people who have taken the Lang. Lit. course in hopes that it would be easier who really don't enjoy it (which means their grades suffer...). I was unsure of which one to pick but realised that Literature is much better suited to me and I have a predicted 7 so I couldn't be happier.

[ibstudent321]

I do SL LangLit and think that LangLit is the easier way out if English isn't really your cup of tea. The reason being that your FOA and Written task (worth 15% and 20% respectively) can be done multiple times with the best one(s) contributing towards your final grade. FOA is textual analysis and written task is creative writing. 

Paper 1 for HL is two unseen texts which you have to write a comparative essay about (lang section), and Paper 2 involves answering a question using 2 out of the 3 texts which you have studied in class (lit section). 

In the IOC you select a text at random and have to talk about it for 10-15 mins (lit section). 

[thecsstudent]

English Lit HL would be too much work. I was also hesitant to take lang and lit instead of lit because I don't like language but I am so glad I chose lang and lit because I realized it is a lot easier than lit classes. I would only recommend that you choose english lit if you are very interested in literature.

[Erin.L]

I'm currently in both Literature HL and Lang/Lit HL. I honestly wouldn't say that either class is more difficult than the other, it really does rely on your interests or what you want to do. Lang/Lit focuses on both fiction and nonfiction writing, and there is heavy focus on actual writing. In my experience Lang/lit is really the class to take if you want to become a better writer, or are more comfortable focusing on analysis of language, rhetoric, why the  writer did what they did. You do an IOC in both classes (Lit HL is 20 minutes vs the 10 minutes required for Lang/lit), and you will do several written tasks  (which depending on if you take it SL or HL will be different, you'll definitely do creative writing, and if you take HL more analytical essays- which I'm procrastinating on right now) and an FOA (more room for creativity). In Lit Hl you do a lot of reading. If you really love literature, you'll love this class (I really do). The actual work of the class is a focus on analyzing the content of literature, and the big essays are a written assessment with a topic of choice, and your final papers which are an analysis of an unfamiliar text and a comparison of two of the novels you read in your final semester. Both classes are going to be hard, if you really work your program and enjoy the class you take, you'll be alright. Best of luck to you!