In the third year of Swedish upper secondary school, students choose if they want to attend English 7; an optional course that incurs a credit increment which improves the chance of being admitted to university. The third-year course is the first that includes texts used in higher education and content of a scientific nature in the syllabus, yet the effects English 7 has on students’ language proficiency and level of preparedness for reading course literature in English remain unexplored. In this mixed methods study, descriptive and inferential statistics are combined with qualitative content analysis to analyse questionnaire and interview data from more than 300 upper secondary school and university students. The results suggest English 7 appears to act as a bridge between upper secondary school with students who attended English 7 significantly better prepared to read course literature in English at university. However, English 7 is also perceived as an elite course that is not for everyone, with students who need it the most to improve their English opting not to attend, leading to the conclusion there is a need to reevaluate the role of English 7.