Eduqas A-Level English Language and Literature: Component 1 Poetry and Prose overview quiz quiz

A single closed-book essay on one anthology poem, worth the whole of the component on its own

A coursework folder of creative writing marked by the centre and moderated by the board each year

A 2 hour paper worth 30 percent, in two sections: a poetry comparison and a prose fiction essay

An unseen-only analysis paper, with every text met cold and no studied set works examined at all

Because Section A is by far the longest section and so carries the heaviest weighting of marks

Because the anthology is studied closely in advance, which is what AO4 specifically rewards each year

Because Section A is sat under strict closed-book conditions, which is the precise focus of the AO4 strand

Because the task compares a pre-1914 anthology poem with an unseen post-1914 text

One anthology poem (or extract) is the known anchor of a comparison with an unseen post-1914 text

It is read for the very first time in the exam room itself, with no prior study of the poems at all

It is the chosen basis of the Section B prose fiction essay rather than the Section A poetry task

It is not examined directly in either section and is only suggested as background wider reading

To memorise every single poem in the anthology word for word, ready to write any one of them out in full

So you can select the anthology poem whose theme and method best match the unseen text and analyse from memory

Because Eduqas formally requires every candidate to submit a written theme-and-method map with the exam script

To avoid having to read the unseen post-1914 text closely at all and instead rely only on the studied poems

Because the unseen post-1914 text set in the exam is in fact always exactly the same text each year

Because the unseen section is marked far more leniently than any other part of the whole paper is

You cannot study the text, so confidence comes from a reading routine drilled to fire automatically on any text

Because context (AO3) is never assessed at all on the unseen text, only ever on the studied anthology poem beside it

By recalling the writer's biography and life story in detail and using that to explain the unseen text

By ignoring context entirely and writing about nothing but the text's form, language and structure alone

By simply assuming the unseen text must share exactly the same historical context as the studied anthology poem

By inferring it from internal evidence: the idiom, references, attitudes and mode that place the text in time

Each point exists only as comparison; you could not split it into a poem half and an unseen half

It simply mentions both of the texts together once somewhere in the essay's opening introduction

It analyses the anthology poem fully first and then turns to the unseen text fully second, in turn

It draws the two texts together and compares them only in the closing paragraph of the conclusion

Simply noting that both of the texts happen to share a broad theme and then leaving the point there

Finding a precise hinge, a contrast in tense, form or voice, and reading similarity and difference in method

Quoting at great length from both of the texts in turn without analysing the chosen quotations closely

Writing mainly about the two poets' lives and personal backgrounds rather than the methods of the texts themselves

A straightforward retelling of the novel's plot from beginning to end in sequence

A character study that treats the characters as real people rather than constructions

An integrated reading of how the novel is told (narrative method), not what happens

A direct comparison of the prose novel with one of the pre-1914 anthology poems

From close analysis of the text to a plain summary of its events and content

From considering the whole novel to focusing tightly on just one single scene

From attending to the historical context across to retelling the plot of the whole story

From analysing what happens (the tale) to analysing how it is narrated (the telling)

Through an unattributed question, a character's colloquial or evaluative word, and a deixis oriented to the character, inside a third-person frame

By simply noting that the narrator explicitly writes 'she thought' or 'he wondered' as a clear attributive tag before reporting the character's inner mind

By counting up the lines of direct speech and the dialogue tags that appear across the chosen passage of prose

By identifying the poem's rhyme scheme and metre, which is what really signals the blending of the two voices

The rhyme scheme and metrical pattern that shape the rhythm of the passage of prose under analysis

The distribution of agency and power: whether a character is the subject of active verbs or the object of others' verbs

The total number of chapters in the novel and how the events are divided up evenly between them all

The author's private intentions and what they personally meant the whole novel to say to its very first readers at the time