AQA A-Level English Literature A Component 3: Independent critical study overview quiz quiz

A non-exam assessment comparing two texts, marked by the school and moderated by AQA

A multiple-choice exam sat under timed conditions and marked externally by AQA examiners

A spoken presentation delivered to the class only

A single timed essay sat in the exam hall

10%

20%

40%

50%

A very broad question that tries to cover absolutely everything in both of the texts

A simple yes or no question

A focused question that drives argument rather than summary

A question solely about the two authors' biographies

Identical to each other in every possible way

Completely unrelated in theme and form

Written by exactly the same author and published together in the very same single calendar year

Genuinely comparable but not identical, with both common ground and productive difference

Whether the lens is anchored in close analysis of the text

Simply naming the relevant school of theory

How much space is given to explaining the theory itself in the abstract

How many different named critics are quoted

How do class, money and economic power shape the values that the text ultimately endorses?

How does the text construct gender, and whose voice or desire is privileged or silenced?

How does the text represent the natural world and a sense of place?

What hidden unconscious anxieties seem to drive the narration?

Only the elements that stay the same

Only the two publication dates

What stays constant and what shifts in theme and method across periods, explained by context

The total number of printed pages contained within each of the two separate texts being studied

By simply listing the noted difference between the two texts without offering any further comment or analysis

By quietly ignoring the difference

By summarising each historical period entirely separately

By explaining why the later text diverges from the earlier one through changed values, conventions or laws

You drive the choices: the texts, question, structure and critical framing are yours, developed with guidance

Working entirely on your own with absolutely no teacher input, guidance or feedback of any kind at any stage of the process

Copying out the class notes

Studying exactly the same texts as the written exams

To save on the overall word count

Because integrated, idea-led comparison earns higher AO4 credit

Because writing two entirely separate studies is simply not allowed by the board

To avoid having to use any context

Postcolonial

Ecocritical

Marxist

Psychoanalytic

Just two of them

Three of the objectives

Four of the assessment objectives

All five (AO1 to AO5)