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State a clear, arguable thesis that directly answers the question and signals the writer’s overarching method or purpose. Avoid retelling the plot or listing devices - one or two focused sentences that set up a line of argument is enough.
Roughly 15 minutes reading and annotating, around 45 minutes on the four reading questions (weighted by marks), and about 45 minutes planning and writing Section B. Leave a few minutes to check. Adjust the proportions for other boards.
Treat skills as the content: practise unseen extracts, essay planning and timed writing; mark your work against the assessment objectives; and drill model paragraphs. Spaced, active practice beats passive re-reading.
Around 10-15 short, flexible quotations that each cover multiple themes or characters is more useful than dozens of long ones. Examiners reward precise, well-analysed references, not quantity.
Yes - the toolkit builds board-specific revision and study plans, and analytics highlight weaker areas so you can focus your time where it raises your grade most.
Begin light, regular review around six months out - quotation banks and technique recall benefit most from spacing. Step up timed essay practice in the final two to three months. Cramming works poorly for English because the marks come from practised analytical skill, not memorised facts.
AO1 is answering the question with a clear argument and embedded evidence. AO2 is analysing how the writer’s methods create meaning and effect. AO3 is linking ideas to context only where it deepens interpretation. A strong paragraph usually weaves AO1 and AO2 together, with AO3 added where it earns marks.
Group short quotations by theme and character, test yourself with active recall rather than re-reading, and practise applying each quotation to different exam questions. Flexible quotations that serve multiple themes are worth far more than long passages memorised verbatim.
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Carol Ann Duffy · Power and Conflict Anthology
AQA10 questions available at this level
by Carol Ann Duffy
Both explore the psychological aftermath of witnessing death and violence. The soldier in Remains is haunted by guilt over a killing; the photographer is haunted by the suffering he has documented. Both use a first/third-person perspective to show how traumatic memories persist long after the event.
Both poems present civilian perspectives on conflict rather than the battlefield itself. The mother in Poppies experiences war through loss and memory; the photographer experiences it through his lens. Both explore the emotional distance between those at home in England and those affected by war.
Both poems consider how recording and documentation shape our understanding of human experience. In Tissue, paper records control lives; in War Photographer, photographs attempt to capture and communicate suffering. Both question whether such records can truly convey the reality they represent.
Rights notice: © Picador / Pan Macmillan and Rogers Coleridge & White on behalf of Carol Ann Duffy (b. 1955). Quotations from “War Photographer” are short fair-dealing extracts under CDPA 1988 §30 (criticism, review, quotation). For full text, students should consult the board-licensed AQA Power & Conflict anthology or Duffy’s collection Standing Female Nude (1985).