AQA GCSE English
AQA is the most-sat English specification in England. Both subjects run across two papers, and the writing tasks carry more marks than most students give them time.
How the papers are built
Two papers in each subject, with reading and writing assessed together on the Language papers rather than split apart.
| Paper | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Language Paper 1 | One unseen fiction extract with a series of reading questions, followed by a single extended creative writing task. |
| Language Paper 2 | Two non-fiction texts from different periods, including a comparison question, plus a writing task presenting a viewpoint. |
| Literature Paper 1 | Shakespeare and the nineteenth-century novel, both answered from an extract and opening out to the whole text. |
| Literature Paper 2 | Modern prose or drama, the poetry anthology comparison, and unseen poetry including a comparison of two unseen poems. |
What to watch for on this board
The creative writing task on Language Paper 1 is the largest single item on either Language paper. It is also the one most often left unpractised, because it takes the longest to attempt and the longest to mark.
Both Literature Paper 1 questions start from a printed extract but expect you to range across the whole text. Answers that stay inside the extract cap themselves.
Unseen poetry is two questions, not one: a single poem, then a comparison with a second. The comparison carries fewer marks and is more often rushed than run out of ideas.
Marking against this board
Assessment objectives are not weighted identically across boards, or even across papers within one board. An answer marked against the wrong board's weightings gets a plausible-looking grade that means nothing.
You choose your board when you sign up, and it decides which weightings your answers are graded against. Where AQA publishes a level-descriptor grid, the band your response matches sets the mark range and your marks come from that band rather than a generic percentage. What the grade was built from is shown with every result, so you can check the reasoning instead of trusting the number.
How the grade is computed covers that in full, including the limits.
Question guides for this board
Each one covers a single question: what it asks for, the real tariff from our own ingested papers, and what reliably costs marks.
- AQA English Language Paper 1 Question 5: creative writingLanguage Paper 1, Section B · 40 marks
- AQA English Language Paper 1 Question 3: structureLanguage Paper 1, Section A · 8 marks
- AQA English Language Paper 1 Question 2: language analysisLanguage Paper 1, Section A · 8 marks
- AQA English Language Paper 1 Question 4: evaluationLanguage Paper 1, Section A · 20 marks
- AQA English Language Paper 2 Question 5: writing a viewpointLanguage Paper 2, Section B · 40 marks
- AQA English Literature unseen poetry: both questionsLiterature Paper 2, Section C · 24 and 8 marks
- AQA English Literature poetry anthology comparisonLiterature Paper 2, Section B · 30 marks
Other boards
Sitting a different board? Marked supports Edexcel, OCR and WJEC/Eduqas.
Subject overviews: GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature.
Put one answer through it
The free tier needs no card. Paste an answer you have already written and see the grade, the mark band and the reasoning behind both.