Where the marks actually sit
The two exam papers here carry 300 marks between them, both running at roughly 1.4 marks per minute: Unit 1, Writing for Purpose and Audience and Reading to Access Non-fiction and Media Texts (150 marks, 105 minutes), and Unit 4, Personal or Creative Writing and Reading Literary and Non-fiction Texts (150 marks, 105 minutes). Each unit splits into a Section A writing task, worth 87 or 88 marks in 55 minutes, and a Section B set of reading tasks, worth around 62 or 63 marks in 50 minutes. Speaking and listening is assessed separately through Units 2 and 3, controlled assessment rather than a written exam, so these two papers test only your reading and your writing.
Paper by paper timing
Section A in both units is worth more than half the paper and runs fastest: 87 to 88 marks in 55 minutes leaves little room for a slow start. Spend around 10 minutes planning, 35 minutes writing, and 10 minutes checking for punctuation and spelling, since the technical accuracy strand alone is worth 30 of those marks. Section B has multiple shorter reading tasks worth 50 minutes in total; do not let one task run long at the expense of the next, especially the final task, which is where rushed, thin answers show up most often.
Feature-spotting earns almost nothing on its own
The single most repeated pattern across both units is naming a device, alliteration, a rule of three, an emotive word choice, without saying what it does to the reader. A list of technique labels earns very little. What the mark scheme rewards is the effect: how the device shapes tone, builds persuasion, or steers the reader's reaction, tied to the specific words on the page. Every device you name needs a sentence explaining its effect, not just its label.
Retrieval tasks want your own words, not the text's
Unit 1 Task 3 and similar retrieval questions instruct you to answer 'in your own words'. Quoting the text directly, or copying a sentence with one word changed, does not meet that instruction even when the content is correct. Read the relevant section, close it in your mind, and restate the point using your own vocabulary and sentence structure.
A myth worth losing: SPaG is not marked in the reading sections
Spelling, punctuation and grammar are not assessed in Section B reading tasks. The mark grids for these tasks are built entirely on AO3, reading comprehension and analysis, and examiners are instructed to ignore SPaG errors when marking them. Do not waste exam time proofreading a reading answer for commas. Put that checking time into Section A instead, where technical accuracy carries 30 marks on its own.
Comparison tasks need one argument, not two
The comparative reading task in Unit 4, and similar paired-text questions, are marked down when they read as two separate mini-essays placed one after the other. Build the comparison into your paragraphs: make a point about Text A, then say directly how Text B handles the same idea, whether it agrees, contrasts, or shifts register. Give both texts equal depth. A response that analyses one text closely and deals with the second in a couple of lines loses marks even when the first half is strong.
Section A: control beats length
Writing more does not secure a higher Competence Level. Long, rambling responses with weak sentence control score lower than a shorter, precisely structured piece that matches the audience and purpose named in the question. Comma splicing and inconsistent sentence boundaries are the single biggest reason a technically able piece of writing gets pulled down a Competence Level, so vary your sentence structures deliberately and use full stops with confidence rather than stringing clauses together with commas.
CCEA conventions to know
Extended reading and writing tasks are marked against Competence Level grids: an examiner places your response in a level first, based on how well it matches that level's descriptors for analysis or for writing craft, then fixes a specific mark within it. In writing, content and organisation are marked separately from technical accuracy, spelling, punctuation and grammar, so a vivid, well-organised piece with weak SPaG control still loses marks on the technical strand even though the ideas are strong.
Exam day plan
In Section A of both units, spend the first 10 minutes planning your structure and matching your tone to the named audience and purpose before you write a single paragraph. In Section B, work through the reading tasks in order, keep your comparison genuinely balanced across both texts, and remember that no time needs to go into proofreading these answers for SPaG. Save your last few minutes for a technical check of Section A only, looking specifically for comma splices and sentence boundaries.