What an A* in A Level English Literature Takes in the UAE

By Russell Greenhill

Founder & CEO @ Greenhill Academics

Oxford Master’s Graduate • 8+ Years Tutoring Experience

Your child is sitting A Level English Literature at one of the UAE’s British curriculum schools. Dubai College, GEMS Wellington, Brighton College Dubai, Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, Repton Dubai. The set texts are familiar names. Shakespeare, Marlowe, Williams, Fitzgerald, the Romantic poets, the Poems of the Decade anthology. School is covering the content. Yet the essays come back at a B or an A, sometimes within touching distance of an A* but never quite reaching it. An A* in A Level English Literature is harder to reach than parents in the UAE often realise, because it depends on a specific kind of conceptual argumentation that classroom teaching rarely has time to build. This guide walks through one real pupil’s full year of A Level English Literature with a tutor at Greenhill Academics, drawn from our own lesson records, to show what an A* actually takes.

What separates an A* from an A in A Level English Literature

An A in A Level English Literature means your child has solid knowledge of the set texts, can construct PEEL or PETER paragraphs, and writes with critical awareness. An A* means something more specific. It means the analysis is conceptual rather than descriptive, the comparisons are sustained rather than implied, and critical voices are integrated as part of a debate rather than dropped in as decoration. Examiners reward what mark schemes call “perceptive,” “evaluative,” and “original” responses. So an A* essay reads differently from an A essay even when both are written competently.

In practice, this means three things. First, an A* essay builds layered argument across paragraphs, returning to and complicating the central thesis rather than restating it. Second, it uses precise textual evidence chosen for argument-fit rather than safety, with quotations analysed in real depth. Third, it positions critics as voices in conversation rather than authorities to cite. The A* lives in this conceptual control. It cannot be acquired by reading more or memorising more. It is built through repeated practice with detailed feedback, week after week.

A real A Level English Literature year, text by text

What follows is the genuine year-long arc of an A Level English Literature pupil we worked with at Greenhill Academics. Her name and a few identifying details have been changed for privacy, so we will call her Hana. The aim, set at the start, was an A*. Every text, struggle, and breakthrough below is real, drawn from our lesson records across fourteen sessions. We covered Romantic poetry, two plays, a comparative coursework essay, and unseen poetry technique. This is what reaching toward an A* looks like, and it is the same year a UAE family would walk with us.

Romantic poetry: form, structure, and contextual fluency

Hana’s early sessions covered Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, situating them as second-generation Romantics. Her tutor opened with Ode to the West Wind, exploring how Shelley’s use of terza rima mirrors the unstoppable energy of the wind he describes. Then on to Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale by Keats. The contextual layer was substantial. Romantic politics, revolutionary idealism, exile, the second-generation Romantic shift toward inwardness. Hana grasped the context quickly. The harder work was integrating it into her essays without bolting it on.

Subsequent sessions extended into Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, comparing Romantic ideas about memory, imagination, and the creative mind. Her tutor focused on topic sentences that staked an argument rather than restated themes. Vague openings like “Death is presented as Gothic” were rewritten into arguments: “Shelley’s persistent paradoxes and unanswered questions create a Gothic ambiguity that reflects the Romantic fascination with mortality and the unknown.” By the end of this block, Hana was writing comparative responses to Shelley and Keats on death and creativity that read as genuinely conceptual rather than descriptive.

The two plays: Othello and Doctor Faustus

Othello came next. Hana’s tutor focused on the question of Iago’s manipulation, exploring how language is used as a tool of control across the play. They engaged with critical interpretations including Leavis and Bradley, working on integrating these voices into the essay as part of a debate rather than as citations. Hana developed a sophisticated reading of the tension between public and private spheres, and how Shakespeare exposes the instability of identity when private emotions are brought into the public domain. Three exam-style essay plans followed, each pushing her to build clear thesis statements and layered arguments.

Doctor Faustus by Marlowe came in alongside. The challenge here was conceptual. Faustus as a tragic figure rather than a simple villain, the psychological dimensions of Hell, the tensions between free will and predestination, the morality play tradition that Marlowe was both using and departing from. Hana produced essay plans across themes of vanity, failure, Hell, language, and contrast in the play. Her tutor’s note from one session captured the shift. Hana was now integrating context fluently into argument rather than adding it separately. That is what an A* response in drama looks like.

The comparative coursework: where the A* is won or lost

Hana’s comparative coursework essay focused on obsession in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The first draft was sophisticated but dense. Her tutor led a line-by-line review, pushing back on sentences where the ideas were strong but the wording obscured the argument. The conceptual thread, that obsession shifts from tangible desire to abstract illusion across both texts, was clear. The execution needed sharpening.

Three areas needed work. First, the comparative transitions between Stanley and Tom, and between Blanche and Gatsby, were implied rather than explicit. Hana had to make the links deliberate. Second, critics had been embedded rather than evaluated. Her tutor pushed her to position critics in debate rather than presenting them passively. Third, the conclusion summarised rather than synthesised. The closing paragraph needed to return to her central argument and make a decisive comparative judgement rather than restate the points already made.

Across three sessions of focused editing, Hana redrafted the essay. The argument now had a sustained comparative thread from opening to closing line. Critics were in conversation, not citation. The conclusion synthesised. The final piece read as authoritative and evaluative. This is the work that turns an A coursework into an A* coursework, and it is the work that pupils almost never have time for in school where the teacher is reading thirty drafts at once.

Unseen poetry and the art of the conclusion

In the run-up to her exams, Hana focused on two areas where many capable A Level pupils underperform. Unseen poetry, where the marks reward skill rather than memorised content. And conclusions, where mark schemes reward synthesis over summary. Her tutor worked through a series of unseen poems including Stamping Grounds by Zaffar Kunial and Our Parents’ Chintz by Selina Nwulu, exploring themes of identity, heritage, and migration. The technique work focused on forming an initial interpretation before analysing in detail, and on developing implicit inference beyond what is directly stated.

Conclusions received their own dedicated session. The key shift was moving from summary-led endings to findings-oriented ones. A strong conclusion does not recap points. It synthesises ideas, returns to the central argument while broadening to larger thematic and contextual implications, and makes a final judgement. Hana practised redrafting closing paragraphs across her Othello and Doctor Faustus work, learning to emphasise the writer’s intentions rather than her own. The result was conclusions that articulated what the text ultimately suggests rather than what it simply shows. The grade at the end of it is between Hana and the exam board. The work that earned it is what an A Level English Literature tutor actually does, week after week, for any UAE family willing to commit to the writing work.

If your child is sitting A Level English Literature in the UAE and the essays are not landing the way they should, the right tutor can find the gap between knowing the texts and writing about them at A* level. Book a free consultation.

When to bring in an A Level English Literature tutor

The autumn of Year 12 is the most common starting point. It gives a tutor a full two-year arc to build conceptual writing across the AS content, integrate critical voices through Year 13, and develop coursework alongside the taught syllabus. For a pupil targeting an A* specifically, this is the timeline that compounds. The Romantic poetry contextualisation in Year 12 underpins every later essay, and the comparative thinking takes months of practice.

However, useful work happens at any stage. A Year 13 pupil with a coursework draft that needs lifting from A to A* can do exactly the editing work above in a focused block of three to four sessions. A pupil three months from the final exams can still gain significant ground on conceptual argument and conclusion technique. The earlier the start, the more the work compounds. The later the start, the more focused the work needs to be.

Three A Level English Literature tutors we’d recommend for UAE families

Laurie

Laurie read English Language and Literature at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, where she earned a Double First Class degree. She won the J.A. Scott Prize for the highest finals mark in English at her college. She holds A*AAA at A Level in English, French, History, and Latin. With over 500 hours of tutoring across a decade, Laurie’s previous pupils have gone on to Oxford, Cambridge, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford. She specialises in essay-writing skills and is exceptional with the conceptual argument and integrated criticism that A* responses demand.

Louis

Louis read Philosophy and French at Keble College, University of Oxford, where he achieved a First Class degree. He scored 40 out of 45 in the International Baccalaureate, including 7s at Higher Level in Philosophy, French, and Physics. Louis teaches I/GCSE and A Level English Literature, French, and Philosophy. His philosophical training gives him a particular strength in unpicking the conceptual frameworks behind A Level set texts, which is exactly what the top band rewards.

Lucy

Lucy read Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion at Clare College, University of Cambridge, with a 2:1. She holds A*, A, A at A Level in Psychology, English Literature, and Religious Studies, and an A* EPQ. Lucy teaches A Level English Language and English Literature alongside Psychology and Religious Studies, and currently tutors at Westminster School and other top UK schools. Her cross-subject background sharpens her work on the contextual frameworks that elevate an A response to an A*.

These are three of our A Level English Literature tutors. We match each family with a tutor based on the specific set texts, exam board, and writing style your child needs to develop, whether they are sitting AQA, Edexcel, OCR, or another board at their UAE school.

Ready to work toward an A* in English Literature?

If your child is putting in the work but the essays have not lifted into top-band conceptual argument, the right tutor can build that skill, week by week. Get in touch and we will match your UAE family with a specialist A Level English Literature tutor for a free consultation.

More English Literature resources from our blog

Questions UAE parents ask about A Level English Literature

About set texts and the A*

About working with a UK-based tutor in the UAE