OCR A-Level English Literature: Drama and poetry pre-1900 comparison (Component 01 Section 2) overview quiz quiz

A single comparative essay on one pre-1900 drama text and one pre-1900 poetry text

An unseen poem set alongside a Shakespeare play that is chosen from a prescribed list

Two pre-1900 prose texts compared in a single closed-book comparative essay

A multiple-choice paper testing factual recall of plots, characters and dates

AO2 (methods)

AO3 (context)

AO5 (readings)

AO1 (argument)

AO5 (creative readings)

AO2 (close analysis of methods)

AO4 (connections across texts)

AO1 (informed argument)

Because the drama question is always set at a noticeably easier standard than the poetry question

Because you are free to choose absolutely any play you like, including a Shakespeare play, on the day

Because context is not assessed at all on the drama text, so only the poetry needs careful preparation

Because it is examined without an extract under closed-book conditions, so you answer from memory

At the level of idea and method (how each shapes meaning toward the theme)

At the level of plot events, matching what happens in the play to what happens in the poems

By counting how many lines each text devotes to the shared theme and comparing the totals

By their publication dates only, comparing which of the two texts was written first

Paraphrasing what the poem says, line by line, into clear and plain modern prose

Analysing poetic method (form, structure, imagery, voice, metre) and its effect

Summarising the poet's biography and the events of the period in which they wrote

Counting the syllables in each line to work out the metre before any analysis begins

Simply labelling the genre of each text and then moving on to the analysis

Listing every single convention of the genre that you can recall from your notes

Analysing how each text confirms, adapts or subverts its genre's conventions

Ignoring genre altogether and treating each text purely on its own isolated terms

They are not assessed at all and are simply useful background reading

They count only towards AO1 and have no bearing on any other objective

They entirely replace AO2, so no analysis of method is needed once used

They count as context (AO3) and connect the two texts (AO4)

AO3 context is used to read a specific moment and change its interpretation; a history paragraph parks background beside the text

There is no real difference between the two, since any relevant historical information will earn the AO3 marks wherever it sits

A history paragraph is always considerably longer than a piece of genuine AO3 context, which is what distinguishes the two clearly

AO3 context must always be about the author's own life and personal circumstances rather than the wider social or literary period

It has no distinctive resource of its own that the drama text does not also share

Often interiority: a voiced rendering of feeling that drama stages externally

It is always shorter than the drama text and so quicker to revise and quote from

It uses no imagery at all, relying instead purely on the literal meaning of words

It is too short to reach the upper mark bands within the time allowed for the essay

It uses far too much historical context and so crowds out the analysis of method

It loses AO4, which rewards integrated comparison with both texts live within paragraphs

It is explicitly against the rubric rules and is treated by examiners as an infringement