A complete guide to AQA GCSE English Literature

AQA GCSE English Literature (specification 8702) is sat alongside English Language by almost every GCSE student in England. Unlike English Language, this is a content-heavy qualification: You study specific set texts in depth across Years 10 and 11, and the exam tests how well you can analyse them.

This guide covers how the two papers are structured, what each section asks, the set texts commonly chosen by schools, the four assessment objectives, and the revision techniques that move the needle on an English Literature grade.

AQA GCSE English Literature is fully linear: Both papers are sat at the end of Year 11, usually in May or June. There is no coursework, no controlled assessment, and crucially no open book. You walk into both exams without your set texts and have to write from memory.

The two papers are weighted 40% (Paper 1) and 60% (Paper 2). Together they cover four areas of literature: A Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel, modern prose or drama, and a poetry anthology, plus unseen poetry.

Paper 1 is titled "Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel." It has two sections, each worth half the paper. You answer one question on Shakespeare and one on the 19th-century novel, with one extract printed in the paper to anchor each response.

Schools choose one play from the AQA list: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, or Julius Caesar. The question gives you a printed extract from the play and asks you to analyse it, then expand to discuss the whole play in relation to a given theme or idea. Macbeth is the most commonly taught choice.

The extract is given to help you anchor your essay, but the real marks come from the wider discussion. Examiners want to see you move between close analysis of the extract and references to other moments in the play.

Schools choose one novel from the AQA list: A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, or The Sign of Four. A Christmas Carol is the most commonly chosen because it is the shortest and most accessible. The format mirrors Section A: A printed extract plus a wider discussion question.

Paper 2 is the longer paper and is split into three sections: Modern texts, Poetry anthology, and Unseen poetry. It is worth 60% of the GCSE and is where most students need to manage their time most carefully.

Schools choose one text from a list that includes An Inspector Calls, Blood Brothers, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, Anita and Me, Pigeon English, and a handful of others. An Inspector Calls is by far the most commonly taught. You answer one essay question on a theme or character, with no printed extract – every quotation must come from memory.

Schools choose one of three anthology clusters: Power and Conflict, Love and Relationships, or Worlds and Lives. Power and Conflict is the most commonly studied. The question gives you one poem from the anthology and asks you to compare it to another of your choice on a shared theme. You need to know every poem in your cluster well enough to pair them quickly under exam conditions.

Two questions. The first (24 marks) asks you to analyse a single unseen poem. The second (8 marks) asks you to compare it briefly to a second unseen poem. You see both poems for the first time in the exam. Strong answers focus on language, structure, and tone rather than trying to guess what the poet meant.

The set texts vary from school to school. AQA publishes a prescribed list for each category and your school chooses one text from each. The most commonly taught combination is Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls, and the Power and Conflict poetry anthology, often referred to informally as the "AQA standard combo."

Other frequently chosen texts include Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Lord of the Flies, and Animal Farm. If you are revising independently and your school has chosen something else, do not panic – the assessment criteria are identical across every text on the list.

Every question is marked against the four assessment objectives. Knowing how they are weighted helps you target your answer.

English Literature rewards a different kind of revision from any other GCSE. You are not memorising facts and you are not practising procedures – you are building a flexible toolkit of textual knowledge and critical thinking that you can deploy on any question the exam throws at you.

Closed-book exams demand strong recall. The most efficient way to memorise quotations is to group them by theme rather than by act or chapter. For Macbeth, learn six quotes on ambition, six on guilt, six on the supernatural, and so on. When a theme-based question comes up, you have a ready stock to draw from.

Essay writing under timed conditions is a separate skill from knowing a text. Practise writing one essay per week to the time you will have in the exam: Roughly 45 minutes for Shakespeare and modern texts, 35-40 minutes for the 19th-century novel and poetry anthology. Time pressure exposes weaknesses that quiet revision will not.

AO3 (context) is worth real marks but easy to overdo. The trick is to weave context into your analysis rather than tacking on a paragraph about Jacobean England or Victorian poverty. One or two precise contextual points per paragraph, linked directly to a quotation, scores higher than a standalone context paragraph.

Unseen poetry is the section students most often neglect because there is no fixed content to revise. But the technique is very trainable. Pick a poem you have never seen, annotate it for five minutes, and write a structured paragraph on language, structure, and tone. Doing this once a week is more than enough to build confidence.

Before you submit any practice essay, run it past the AOs. Did you respond to the question with textual references (AO1)? Did you analyse language and structure with terminology (AO2)? Did you weave in context (AO3)? Self-assessing against the AOs is what marks examiners look for, and doing it yourself tightens your writing fast.