Eduqas A-Level English Literature: the five assessment objectives overview quiz quiz

The recall of historical context and the biography of the writer

The connections and comparisons a candidate draws across the set texts

The analysis of how meanings are shaped in texts (close reading)

Accurate spelling, punctuation and grammatical control

AO1

AO4

AO5

AO2

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

Listing as many named devices as possible without explaining their effect on the reader

Quoting long passages to demonstrate familiarity with the text

Summarising the plot of the text accurately and in order

They are the same objective under two different names in the specification

AO2 is the analysis of method; AO1 is the argued, well-written response that organises and expresses it

AO1 rewards historical context while AO2 rewards the continuous comparison drawn between the two set texts

AO1 is only spelling and accuracy, whereas AO2 is only the use of quotation

Cramming in as much historical detail about the period as the answer can possibly hold

A separate, self-contained paragraph of the writer's biography near the start

Context that changes how a moment reads, not background recited for its own sake

Naming the exact date and place the text was first written or published

They both reward the candidate's grasp of historical and cultural context

AO3 rewards continuous comparison between texts; AO5 rewards close textual analysis

AO5 is the contexts of production and reception; AO3 is the play of different, equally defensible interpretations of a text

AO3 is context (when and how a text was written and received); AO5 is interpretation (different defensible readings)

Idea-led structure: organising by aspects of the question with both texts in each paragraph

Writing about each text in a wholly separate half of the essay, then comparing the two at the very end

Writing the longest essay possible and covering every device in both of the set texts

Comparing only the plots and the sequence of events in the two texts

Critics and their published readings are never relevant to an A-Level literature answer, so they should be left out entirely

AO5 rewards deploying and evaluating an interpretation against a moment, not citing a name without using the idea

The specification expressly forbids candidates from naming any published critic by name anywhere in their answer

The names of well-known critics are notoriously difficult to spell correctly under timed conditions in the exam

The drama comparison component and the non-examined assessment coursework folder submitted for the NEA

Every task on the qualification assesses AO3 to exactly the same degree

The pure close-analysis tasks: the Shakespeare extract part (i) and the unseen prose and poetry

Only the non-examined assessment, where context is not credited at all

Only the view of a published academic critic counts as an interpretation

A straightforward retelling of the plot and main events of the text

A verified historical fact about the period in which the text happened to be written and published

A critical reading, a performance choice, or a reading that weights one theme over another

The same objectives run through every component, so mastering the skills earns marks across all tasks

Subject content and detailed knowledge of the set texts is never tested or rewarded anywhere in the examination

Each separate component tests one single objective in isolation and ignores all four of the others entirely

Memorising quotations from the set texts is forbidden under the assessment rules and will be penalised

It does not matter at all, since every objective always carries exactly equal marks in every single task right across the whole qualification

It tells you where the marks are, so you spend effort on the dominant objectives and avoid writing on objectives the task does not assess

It changes the amount of reading and planning time the examiner formally allows you to spend on each paper

It fixes a strict minimum and maximum word count that the finished answer must fall between to gain credit