Eduqas English Literature Component 1

What it asks

Read the printed extract and answer the question on it, for example what the characters say and do there and how an audience might react.

What earns marks

• A clear focus on the question, kept up to the end.
• Close reference to the extract, with short quotations from across it.
• Analysis of Shakespeare’s language and dramatic methods (for example imagery, verse or prose, stage directions) and their effect on an audience, with subject terms used accurately where they help.
• One mark out of 15 for the whole answer: your understanding (AO1) and your analysis (AO2) are judged together on one grid and count equally.

What each level looks like

Top level first.

What to avoid

• Retelling the scene instead of analysing it.
• Writing about events elsewhere in the play: a sentence placing the extract is enough.
• Spending time on context: it is not assessed here, so it helps only where it explains the extract.
• Answering on more than one play.

What it asks

Write an essay about a character, relationship or theme across the whole play and how Shakespeare presents it. There is no extract, so you use what you know and remember of the play.

What earns marks

• Knowledge of the whole play: moments from its beginning, middle and end, with remembered quotations or close references, each linked to the question.
• Comment on how Shakespeare presents the idea through language and dramatic methods, in a clear line of argument that answers the question.
• One mark out of 20 for understanding (AO1) and analysis (AO2), judged together on one grid and counting equally. The bands below are for these 20 marks.
• A separate mark out of 5 for accuracy (AO4): threshold (1 mark) where errors never block meaning, intermediate (2-3) for mostly accurate work with a good range, high (4-5) for accuracy and control throughout.

What each level looks like

Top level first.

What to avoid

• Writing about only one or two scenes.
• Retelling the plot instead of answering the question.
• Misspelt character names and missing capital letters, which cost accuracy marks.

What it asks

Write about how the poet presents a theme or idea in the named anthology poem, which is printed on the paper, including its contexts.

What earns marks

• A personal, focused answer to the question about the poem.
• Short quotations from across the poem, with what each shows.
• Analysis of the poet’s language, form and structure and their effects.
• Relevant context, such as when and why the poem was written, linked to what the poem means.
• One mark out of 15 for the whole answer: understanding (AO1), analysis (AO2) and context (AO3) are judged together on one grid and count equally.

What each level looks like

Top level first.

What to avoid

• Leaving out context: it is assessed here alongside AO1 and AO2.
• Context as separate facts that are never linked to the poem.
• Spending much more than 20 minutes: the comparison that follows is worth more.

What it asks

Choose another anthology poem on the same theme and compare it with the named poem: what each poem is about and how it is built, how the poets create effects, and the contexts of both. Only the named poem is printed, so you write about your choice from memory.

What earns marks

• A comparison kept up throughout, covering similarities and differences.
• Balance: real detail on both poems.
• Remembered quotations from your chosen poem, analysed for their effects.
• The contexts of both poems and how they may shape the ideas in them.
• One mark out of 25 for the whole answer: understanding (AO1), analysis (AO2) and context (AO3) count equally and are judged together on one grid, with comparison expected in all three.

What each level looks like

Top level first.

What to avoid

• Writing about the two poems separately, with no links.
• Choosing a poem that does not fit the theme, or one you cannot quote from.
• Spending most of the answer on the printed poem: an unbalanced answer cannot reach the higher bands.