Difficulty verdict

This is a demanding but predictable pair of papers. Every question is an open, level-of-response essay or writing task, so marks depend on how well you control the assessment objectives rather than on recall. Time is the main pressure: roughly 50 minutes for the 30-mark comparison, 40 for the writing and 45 per literature essay.

Where the marks are

The biggest single prize is Paper 1 Section A (30 marks). It rewards integrated comparison (AO4) together with linguistic terminology (AO1), analysis (AO2) and context (AO3). The mark scheme expects you to move across language levels, such as grammar, discourse, lexis, pragmatics and imagery, rather than only naming word-level features. Paper 2 is worth 50 marks across two 25-mark essays, one on prose narrative technique and one on comparing two poems. Section B writing is only 20 marks but is the most controllable: the audience, purpose and form are given to you.

Pitfalls to avoid

  • Treating the two texts one after the other instead of comparing them point by point (spoken, spontaneous and interactive versus scripted and uninterrupted).
  • Listing devices without explaining their effect, or staying at word level only.
  • In prose, retelling the extract rather than analysing narrative voice, structure, tense, syntax and symbolism, and forgetting to place it in the whole novel and its genre.
  • In poetry, discussing each poem separately and leaving out context.
  • In the writing task, ignoring genre conventions or having no clear interaction with the audience.

Strategy

  • Plan a comparison grid for Paper 1 Section A: context, mode, purpose, audience, then lexis, grammar and imagery.
  • Use a consistent routine for prose: voice, structure, sentence types, lexis, figurative language, then where the extract sits in the novel and its genre.
  • For poems, build a short list of similarities and differences before you write, and link each to context.
  • Practise one form each of a blog, a speech and a review, so that any of the three tasks feels familiar.

Looking ahead

The structure is stable: a 30-mark anthology comparison, a 20-mark writing task from three forms, a 25-mark prose extract and a 25-mark poetry comparison. Expect the same shapes next series. The anthology pairing of a spoken text with a written or scripted text is a high-probability repeat, so prepare for mode contrasts. The prior-set history tracks the older specification, so use it as a guide to stability and not as an overdue signal.