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Resources are mapped to AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, WJEC Eduqas and Cambridge IGCSE specifications. Pick your board and the materials are filtered to your specification, assessment objectives and set texts.
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Cambridge IGCSE English Literature
1 hour 30 minutes · 50 marks · Two sections: poetry (Songs of Ourselves) and prose (set text).
Set-text notice
This cluster is based on the Cambridge IGCSE 0475 syllabus Songs of Ourselves Vol 1 Part 4 plus the Ted Hughes cluster (The Thought-Fox, Hawk Roosting, Wind). Cambridge International rotates set texts every two years — always confirm via cambridgeinternational.org/syllabus before relying on this list for the current exam window. Prose options: Things Fall Apart (Achebe) / To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee). The poem and prose lists below are legacy reference selections — cross-check against the syllabus PDF for your exam window.
Cluster rights: Four poems in the verified Vol 1 Part 4 + Hughes clusters are in copyright (Atwood, Auden, Hughes ×3). Quotations are short fair-dealing extracts. Anthology publisher: Cambridge University Press (cambridge.org/permissions).
25 marks
25 marks
The Cambridge anthology contains a wide selection of poems. Below are poems commonly studied for the IGCSE examination, with their key themes. For full analysis of each poem, visit our Poetry Analysis page.
Themes: Love, immortality through art, the power of poetry over time.
Themes: Transience of power, hubris, art outlasting empires.
Themes: Community, superstition versus reason, maternal love.
Themes: Nostalgia, childhood memory, the emotional power of music.
Themes: Childhood, isolation, growing up, abandonment.
Themes: Power, control, nature, arrogance.
Themes: Poverty, water as life, community, spirituality. Set in a Mumbai (Bombay) slum, India. © Bloodaxe Books - fair-dealing extract.
Themes: Childhood perception, time, authority, imagination.
Themes: Identity, place and belonging, nature versus city.
Themes: Childhood awe, nature's power, memory.
Themes: Writer's block, creativity, self and identity.
Cambridge offers a choice of prose texts. Your school will have chosen one. Below is an overview of commonly studied texts with guidance on what Cambridge looks for.
The Cambridge anthology of short stories. Students study a selection of stories and must be prepared to answer on any of them. Key skills include character analysis, narrative voice, and understanding cultural context.
Set in 1930s Alabama, the novel explores racial injustice, moral growth, and the loss of innocence through the eyes of Scout Finch. Key themes: prejudice, justice, courage, empathy. Cambridge questions often focus on how Lee presents Atticus as a moral figure, or the significance of the trial.
A novella about two displaced ranch workers during the Great Depression. Key themes: the American Dream, loneliness, companionship, power and powerlessness. Cambridge questions may ask about the significance of Curley's wife, or how Steinbeck presents the theme of dreams.
Set during the British Raj, the novel examines the relationship between coloniser and colonised. Key themes: cultural misunderstanding, friendship across racial boundaries, the nature of India itself. Cambridge values analysis of Forster's ironic narrative voice.
Nick Carraway narrates the story of Jay Gatsby's obsessive pursuit of Daisy Buchanan in 1920s New York. Key themes: the corruption of the American Dream, wealth and class, illusion versus reality. The unreliable narrator and symbolic imagery (the green light, the Valley of Ashes) are central to Cambridge responses.
Point — Make a clear analytical point that directly addresses the question.
Evidence — Support with a short, embedded quotation from the text.
Analysis — Analyse the language: what specific words suggest, what techniques the writer uses, what effects are created.
Link — Link back to the question and, where possible, to wider themes, context, or the writer’s overall purpose.
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