Don't be surprised or dismayed by the feeling you will almost certainly have in the few weeks of your sixth-form course that the gap between GCSE and AS seems rather wide. A wider range of more demanding texts will make you feel that the subject has changed - some of the set books, genres and periods will be completely new to you, and some you may never even have heard of!
You may be ready for authors or genres you did not appreciate before, and you will continue to develop as a reader throughout the course. You may, for instance, enjoy poetry more at the end of the course than the beginning.
It may seem strange that you will be studying only six texts per year, but this does not mean that you can be leisurely in your work habits; enlightenment, expertise and reaching examination standard come from thorough study and extensive rereading.
You may be disappointed to learn that there isn't much scope for creative writing. You may use it to access a text or one of its ideas, but you won't be assessed on it. You must also be warned that there will not be any 'spoon feeding' - you will have to rely on your own responses and research skills. There is no place at AS for tkaing down dictation from the teacher, or copying notes from the whiteboard or textbook. You can, however, still expect some help with organising your thoughts and structuring essays and exam style responses.
Wider reading is less of an option and more of a necessity; its something you can do from the outset to become a more independent and better informed student. If you got way with bad habits at GCSE, such as not planning essays or not taking notes in class, or disregarding advice given on returned written work - you will now have to be prepared to acquire better practices.
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