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

A single 120-mark essay on one prescribed poet, written under timed conditions with no choice of question and no second section at all

One unseen poem analysed in the exam, plus a coursework essay marked separately by the centre

Two 60-mark sections: a two-part question on a pre-1900 text (Section A) and a comparison of post-1900 poets (Section B)

Three equally weighted sections of 40 marks each, covering one prescribed poet per section

AO1

AO3

AO4

AO2

A wider response across the whole text from memory, in the light of a stated view

Simply more quotations drawn from the same printed extract used in part (i)

A direct comparison with another named poet from the post-1900 Section B list

A detailed technical analysis of the metre and the scansion of the printed extract alone

Closed book, with no copies of the post-1900 texts allowed in the exam room

Open book: a clean copy of the post-1900 texts is permitted

Open book for one of the two post-1900 poets only, not for both texts

It varies from year to year, depending on which texts have been set

AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4 only

AO1, AO2, AO4 and AO5

AO2, AO3, AO4 and AO5

AO1, AO3, AO4 and AO5

It is the only structure the mark scheme will permit for the Section B answer

It saves time in the exam, letting you write less and still reach the top band

Examiners dislike long paragraphs and the idea-led structure keeps every paragraph short

Idea-led structure makes comparison (AO4) continuous, with both poets in every paragraph

Lightly, where it changes the reading of a specific moment and serves the comparison

As a separate biography paragraph on each poet, kept well apart from the analysis itself

It is not assessed at all in Section B, so it can safely be left out of the answer

Only in the introduction, as background scene-setting before the comparison begins

Shakespeare's complete sonnet sequence only, with no other pre-1900 poet ever set for Section A

Chaucer's The Merchant's Prologue and Tale, Donne's Selected Poems, Milton's Paradise Lost Book IX

The Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge only, set as the single fixed pre-1900 text

Only twentieth-century anthologies, since Section A is said to draw entirely on modern post-1900 poetry

It genuinely has no form at all, so you analyse only its content and never its shape

It always rhymes secretly underneath, so the task is to uncover the hidden rhyme scheme

Form relocates to the line break, the stanza shape and the rhythm of the syntax

Form is irrelevant in all modern poetry, so it earns no marks and can be ignored

A short snatch of rhyme, read mainly for the pleasant sound it makes in the line

A particular fixed type of stanza, read chiefly for its length and number of lines

An old-fashioned spelling error in early texts, to be noted and then quietly corrected

An extended comparison that carries the poem's argument, read for what it reasons

Moving from feature to effect: naming a method, then reading what it does to meaning

Naming as many separate poetic devices as possible, to show the breadth of your knowledge

Quoting whole stanzas at length and letting the chosen quotations speak for themselves

Summarising the poem accurately and in full before offering any analytical comment on it

Writing too neatly, with handwriting so careful that it slows the candidate down badly

Writing the same kind of answer for both parts instead of close analysis then a whole-text argument

Using far too many quotations, so that the whole answer becomes a long list of quotes with little comment

Answering the two parts in the wrong order, tackling part (ii) before part (i) on the page