Cambridge AS Level English Literature Tutors Online

Cambridge AS Level Literature in English is syllabus 9695. This page works from the syllabus for exams in 2027 and 2028. Exams are available in the June and November series, and unlike most Cambridge subjects there is no March series for this one.

An AS Level candidate sits two papers in the same exam series, and candidates following an AS Level route are eligible for grades a to e. Candidates following an A Level route are eligible for grades A* to E. The AS grade scale stops at e and uses lower case letters.

Paper 1 is Drama and Poetry. It lasts 2 hours, carries 50 marks and is worth 50% of the AS Level and 25% of the A Level. Candidates answer two questions, one from Section A: Drama and one from Section B: Poetry.

Paper 2 is Prose and Unseen. It lasts 2 hours, carries 50 marks and is worth 50% of the AS Level and 25% of the A Level. Candidates answer two questions, one from Section A: Prose and one from Section B: Unseen.

The two papers are equally weighted. Neither is the minor paper, and neither can be carried by the other.

At AS Level a candidate studies three set texts and prepares for one unseen text. The three set texts are a drama, a poetry selection and a prose text, one per section of the two papers. At A Level a candidate studies four further set texts.

The set texts are the part of this qualification that families most need to see, because they rotate and they are not the same for every exam year. The syllabus states plainly that set texts regularly rotate and may change from one year of examination to the next, and advises teachers to check the list for the year in which their candidates will sit before beginning to teach.

For examination in 2027, Paper 1 Section A: Drama offers Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Aphra Behn's The Rover, Inua Ellams's Barber Shop Chronicles, and William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

For examination in 2027, Paper 1 Section B: Poetry draws on Songs of Ourselves, Volume 2, with selections from Zafar Kunial's England's Green, Sylvia Plath's Ariel of 1965, and Christina Rossetti's Selected Poems, that last being a new selection for 2026, 2027 and 2028.

For examination in 2027, Paper 2 Section A: Prose offers a new selection from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 3, Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, and Tara June Winch's The Yield. Paper 2 Section B is an unseen text, which may be poetry, prose or drama.

The 2028 lists are not identical, and this is the detail a family planning ahead should check. The Paper 1 drama and poetry lists for 2028 are the same as for 2027, but the Paper 2 prose list changes: the 2028 options are Chris Abani's Graceland, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the same new selection from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 3, and Tara June Winch's The Yield.

So two of the 2027 prose choices, A Handful of Dust and The Underground Railroad, do not appear in the 2028 list, and two new ones, Graceland and The Grapes of Wrath, replace them. A student who begins a 2028 course using a 2027 reading list could study a text that is not examined.

The A Level lists rotate as well. For 2027, Paper 3 Section A: Shakespeare offers Henry IV, Part 1 and The Taming of the Shrew, and Section B: Drama offers Lynn Nottage's Sweat, Wole Soyinka's Kongi's Harvest and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good. For 2028, Shakespeare is Henry IV, Part 1 and The Winter's Tale, and the drama list becomes David Greig's Dunsinane, Tracy Letts's August: Osage County and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good.

Notice that Our Country's Good appears in both years while the other two drama texts change, and Henry IV, Part 1 appears in both while the second Shakespeare play changes. That is how the rotation works in practice: some texts hold for two years and the rest of the list moves around them.

Every paper is closed book. The syllabus repeats the same sentence for each paper: set texts are not allowed in the examination room. A candidate cannot rely on bringing a copy in, and quotations have to be learned rather than looked up.

The assessment objectives are five, and their weighting is the tidiest of any subject in this block. AO1 is knowledge and understanding, which means responding with understanding to literary texts in a variety of forms and from different cultures, with an appreciation of relevant contexts that illuminate readings of the texts.

AO2 is analysis, which means analysing ways in which writers choices of language, form and structure shape meanings and effects. AO3 is personal response, which means producing informed independent opinions and interpretations of literary texts. AO4 is communication, which means communicating a relevant, structured and supported response appropriate to literary study. AO5 is evaluation of opinion, which means discussing and evaluating varying opinions and interpretations of literary texts.

At AS Level the four examined objectives are weighted exactly equally: AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4 at 25 per cent each, and AO5 at zero. At A Level all five are weighted exactly equally at 20 per cent each.

That equal split is unusual and it changes how a student should think about preparation. There is no single dominant skill to lean on. A candidate who analyses brilliantly but writes an unstructured answer loses a quarter of the marks to AO4 communication, and a candidate who knows the text inside out but never offers an independent interpretation loses a quarter to AO3 personal response.

It also explains why AO5 being worth nothing at AS matters. Evaluation of varying opinions and interpretations is an A Level skill in this syllabus, so the AS candidate is being asked for a personal reading rather than a survey of critical debate.

The per paper weightings are identical to each other. Paper 1 is 25 per cent on each of the four examined objectives and nothing on AO5, and Paper 2 is exactly the same. Neither paper favours a different skill.

A Level candidates go on to Paper 3, Shakespeare and Drama, and Paper 4, Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose. Paper 4 has a rule worth knowing: candidates must study one poetry text and one prose text, and they respond to both a poetry question and a prose question, so neither can be avoided.

On the staged route, candidates carry forward their AS Level marks rather than a grade, subject to the rules and time limits described in the Cambridge Handbook.

The qualification is graded a, b, c, d or e for an AS Level candidate.