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Cambridge IGCSEPaper 2 Section B40 marks

Composition

Cambridge IGCSE Language Paper 2 Section B asks you to write a descriptive or narrative composition of 350-450 words. It is worth 40 marks - 16 for content and structure, 24 for style and accuracy. This hub breaks the task into techniques you can learn and rehearse.

Descriptive writing Narrative writing

Descriptive writing

5 guides

Description is not about plot. It is about holding a single moment still long enough for the reader to feel, smell and hear it. Cambridge rewards specificity, control and sustained imagery.

Sensory language

Use all five senses to anchor your reader inside the scene. Move beyond sight to sound, smell, touch and taste.

Extended metaphors

Sustain a single controlling image through paragraphs for a unified, mature descriptive voice.

Structure (cinematic zoom)

Shape a scene with a wide, mid, close and inner progression so your piece feels crafted, not listed.

Grade 9 model answers

Three annotated top-band descriptions with examiner commentary on vocabulary, imagery and control.

30 practice prompts

A busy market, an empty beach, a childhood home and 27 more Cambridge-style descriptive titles.

Narrative writing

6 guides

A Cambridge short story is not a novel in miniature. It is a single scene, a single turn, a single change. These guides show you how to compress character, tension and structure into 450 words.

Story structure

Freytag’s triangle, the five-part arc and in medias res openings for a 600-900 word short story.

Character creation

Build rounded characters fast with show-don’t-tell, interior monologue and the iceberg principle.

Dialogue

Punctuation rules, pacing, subtext and the four jobs every line of speech should do.

Tension and pacing

Slow the camera, withhold information and deploy cliffhangers without veering into melodrama.

Grade 9 model answers

Three annotated top-band stories with examiner commentary on voice, structure and control.

30 practice prompts

Cambridge-style narrative titles from “The Visitor” to “Too Late”, graded by difficulty.

Craft and assessment

3 guides

The 24-mark style and accuracy pillar rewards range and control. These guides target the specific moves that push compositions from the middle band into the top band.

Vocabulary upgrade

Replace tired verbs and adjectives with precise alternatives: said → murmured, big → colossal.

Sentence variety

Simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences plus rhetorical patterning.

Mark scheme breakdown

The 16 + 24 split: content and structure vs style and accuracy, with band descriptors.