Overview of the January 2025 Series

The January 2025 examinations for Oxford AQA International English Literature (9675) across Units 1, 2, 3, and 4A show a consistent focus on authorial craft and thematic depth. Across both dramatic tragedy and place-based elements, the papers reward candidates who successfully move beyond simple plot recount to robust, conceptual analysis of literary texts.

Where the Marks are Won

A central pillar of the mark scheme across all units is AO2 (Authorial Methods). High-scoring answers consistently analyzed structural choices, such as the use of dramatic dialogue and the staging of extracts in Unit 1. For instance, in the Othello extract, top answers did not just describe Iago's villainy; they explored his use of prose versus verse and how the closing soliloquy builds dramatic irony. Conversely, weaker responses struggled with unseen literary representations in Unit 4A, often summarizing the events of Jane Smiley’s Some Luck rather than investigating how the third-person narrative mimics a child's cognitive realities.

Key Examiner Pitfalls

  • The "Real Person" Fallacy: Many students write about characters (like Willy Loman or Hedda Gabler) as if they are real individuals with psychological issues, rather than literary constructs designed by the writer to explore specific tragic paradigms.
  • Ineffective Extract Integration: In Section A of Unit 1, candidates often analyzed the extract in isolation without tracing how those specific linguistic or dramatic motifs reverberate through the wider play.
  • Imbalanced Comparison: In the Unit 4A comparison of Sylvia Plath and Ruth Stone, students sometimes spent disproportionate time on one poem while treating the second as a brief footnote.

Preparation Strategies & Predictions

For future series, place-based and tragedy questions will continue to demand precise textual references. Because this is a closed-book exam for several units, candidates should memorize key short quotations and practice tracking a character's structural trajectory over the course of the text. Looking ahead, future iterations of unseen prose are highly predicted to move towards representations of class conflict and aging, which are frequent thematic counterparts to the childhood focus seen in this series.