IB English A: Literature Tutoring for Students in the UAE
English A is assessed four separate ways, and students usually discover they are strong at two of them and have never practised the others.
- 3 examined components, weighted as shown below
- 6 syllabus areas mapped to your scheme of work
- Taught by a specialist in this subject, not a generalist
- 90-minute online lessons, scheduled in UAE time
How it is examined
The components, what each one is worth, and what it asks for. Planning revision without this in front of you is how students spend weeks on the part that carries the fewest marks.
| Component | Weight | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 · SL: 75 min / HL: 135 min | SL: 35% / HL: 35% | Guided textual analysis (unseen text) |
| Paper 2 · SL: 105 min / HL: 105 min | SL: 35% / HL: 25% | Comparative essay (studied works) |
| HL Essay · Coursework | HL: 20% | 1200–1500 word essay (HL only) |
What the syllabus covers
Unit by unit, in the awarding body’s own terms so you can match it against your school’s scheme of work.
Core and SL content
Readers, Writers and Texts · Time and Space · Intertextuality
Additional HL content
Advanced Literary Analysis · Comparative Essay Technique · HL Essay (Works in Translation)
Where marks are actually lost
Paper 1 is an unseen text with a guiding question, and it is the component most improved by pure repetition: twenty timed attempts with feedback will move it further than any amount of reading about literary technique. Paper 2 is comparative and fails in a predictable way — two texts discussed one after the other, with the comparison left implicit.
The Individual Oral is where the global issue does the work. A vague issue produces a rambling ten minutes; a precise one, genuinely present in both the literary and the non-literary extract, structures the whole thing. Students under-invest in choosing it because it happens months before the exams, and then it caps a component worth a fifth of the grade.
The internal assessment
The IA is marked by your teacher against published criteria and moderated by the IB. We supervise it — we do not write it, because English A: Literature coursework a student cannot defend is worth less than a weaker piece they can.
Selecting and defining a global issue
Selecting and defining a global issue
Pairing literary and non-literary extracts
Pairing literary and non-literary extracts
Developing a clear line of inquiry
Developing a clear line of inquiry
Structure and timing of the 15-minute oral
Structure and timing of the 15-minute oral
Use of literary terminology and textual evidence
Use of literary terminology and textual evidence
Frequently asked questions
The questions UAE students and parents ask us most often about this program.
Related programs
Other preparation tracks students often combine with this one.
IB Diploma Tutoring
Subject-specialist tutoring for IB Diploma students, at Higher and Standard Level, covering taught content, internal assessments and the core. Delivered online and planned around your school’s deadlines.
IB Pricing
The Diploma is not one thing to buy. Six subjects, an extended essay, internal assessments and TOK each need something different, and they are priced separately here so you can buy only what you need.
How it works
Every student starts with a free consultation and ends with a plan that has a date on it. What happens in between depends on which exam you are sitting.
Tell us where English A: Literature is going wrong
Send a recent piece of marked work or a test paper with the marks on it. That shows us more in five minutes than a description of the problem does in an hour.