Whether we are returning to education after a long break, changing to a course we have an interest in but no experience of, or are coming straight from school to college, studying literature is by no means straight-forward. Whether you are a student who picked English as a last-minute choice from the pool of arts subjects or selected it out of genuine love of the subject, regardless it has a long-standing reputation as “the easy choice”. This is understandable when we consider the ways in which the leaving certificate is set out. While our teachers may have been enthusiastic and innovative, this system itself outlines exactly what answers they are looking for and the students are guided towards these literary interpretations. Ultimately, in our school days, we likely had a lot of help.