OxfordAQA International GCSE English Language Tutors Online

OxfordAQA International GCSE English Language is specification 9270. This page works from the current specification, version 5.1, which covers exams from May/June 2018 onwards.

The most important thing to understand about this qualification is that equal marks do not mean equal weight.

Paper 1 is Literary non-fiction and composition. It is a written exam of 2 hours carrying 80 marks.

Paper 2 is Source-based reading and directed writing. It is also a written exam of 2 hours carrying 80 marks.

Both papers look identical in size. They are not. OxfordAQA scales the raw marks, and the scaling factors differ.

Paper 1 has a scaling factor of 1.5, so its 80 raw marks become 120 scaled marks. Paper 2 has a scaling factor of 1, so its 80 raw marks stay at 80. The total scaled mark is 200.

That is why Paper 1 is 60 per cent of the qualification and Paper 2 is 40 per cent. Not because it carries more marks, and not because it takes longer. Both papers are 2 hours and both carry 80 marks. Paper 1 counts for more because of the multiplier.

A family should sit with that for a moment, because it has consequences. A student who divides revision time evenly between two equal looking papers has underprepared for the one that decides more of the grade.

There is a third route through the second half of the qualification. Paper 2 can be replaced by a non-exam assessment project.

The non-exam assessment is teacher assessed and moderated by AQA. It carries 60 raw marks, and it is also 40 per cent of the qualification, with a scaling factor of 1.33 so that its 60 raw marks become 80 scaled marks.

So the shape of the qualification is Paper 1 plus either Paper 2 or the project. Paper 1 is compulsory and is always 60 per cent.

Paper 1 has two sections. Section A is Literary non-fiction and carries 40 marks. Section B is Composition and carries 40 marks. Students answer all questions from Section A and one question from Section B.

In Section A students are given a single text for close study. The text is divided into sections with questions, and at least one question relates to the whole text.

The passages for that reading section are literary non-fiction, and the specification names the kinds: autobiography, biography, letters, memoir, and travel or adventure writing.

In Section B there are three tasks and students choose one. The specification describes them as descriptive, imaginative, argumentative and or discursive.

The specification points out that students have the opportunity to produce planned, developed and sustained responses, with a choice of writing tasks in both examination papers. Choice is a real feature of this specification rather than an accident.

Paper 2 also has two sections of 40 marks each. Section A is Reading and Section B is Writing.

Section A uses stimulus material consisting of five or six texts. Questions are asked on individual texts and on pairs of texts, and at least one question requires students to consider two texts.

Section B is writing linked to the reading sources from Section A. The focus is writing for audience and purpose, and there is a choice from two tasks.

The specification describes the two papers as deliberately different kinds of reading. Paper 1 uses a stepped approach to reading a single text, and Paper 2 asks students to compare and synthesise across several.

There are three assessment objectives, and the third one carries no marks towards the grade.

AO1 is Reading, and it has four parts. R1 is reading and understanding texts, selecting and using material appropriate to purpose. R2 is collating and synthesising detail from one or more sources, making cross-references and comparisons. R3 is developing and sustaining interpretations of writers' ideas and perspectives. R4 is explaining and evaluating how writers use linguistic grammatical structural and presentational features to achieve effects and engage and influence the reader.

AO2 is Writing, and it also has four parts. W1 is communicating clearly effectively and imaginatively, using and adapting forms and selecting vocabulary appropriate to task and purpose. W2 is using a range of sentence structures for clarity purpose and effect. W3 is organising information and ideas into sentences paragraphs and whole texts, with cohesion and coherence. W4 is technical accuracy in grammar punctuation and spelling.

AO3 is Speaking and Listening, with three parts covering communicating clearly and purposefully, preparing and developing ideas and responding to questions, and interacting with others.

AO3 is weighted at zero on both Paper 1 and Paper 2 and zero overall. Speaking and listening does not count towards the grade at all.

The weighting that does count is AO1 and AO2. On Paper 1 each is 30 per cent. On Paper 2 or the project each is 20 per cent. Overall each is 50 per cent, so reading and writing are worth exactly the same across the qualification.

Speaking and listening is offered as an optional endorsement instead. It carries a separate statement on the student's certificate, which is how a student shows an employer or a university that they have a proficiency in spoken English.

The endorsement requirements are specific. A student must give a prepared spoken presentation on a specific topic, and the presentation plus questions should take no more than ten minutes. The specification notes that the average is usually somewhere between 5 and 8 minutes.

Presentations must be formal but may take a variety of forms including talks, debates, speeches and dialogues. Students must identify their subject in advance and agree it with their teacher. They may use pre-prepared notes or a presentation but this is not required, and they must listen and respond appropriately to questions and feedback.

The specification is blunt about preparation. Students should be advised that lack of preparation is likely to prevent access to the criteria for the higher grades.

The non-exam assessment project is a different kind of task and it has its own rules. Students carry out independent research and use their findings for a written task in which audience purpose and form are specified, and the work is assessed alongside a commentary written by the student.

The research standard is explicit. Students should use at least five different sources. Those sources may include traditional research texts such as an encyclopaedia or textbook, literary texts such as a novel or poem, non-fiction texts such as a review or autobiography, media texts such as a film or documentary, and other sources deemed valid to the purpose of the research.

Clear details of research resources and processes, such as note taking or highlighting, must be retained for later entry on the Candidate record form. The Candidate record form is where the student gives details of those resources and processes and writes the commentary on the completed assignment.

The task is centre set and may vary from student to student. The specification gives worked examples: a letter to conference organisers on the causes and consequences of global warming, an article for a business magazine on designing and maintaining an effective website, and an opening speech for a radio debate on whether Bill Gates is a true hero of our times.

Relevant diagrams or illustrations may be included, and where appropriate a word limit may be set.

One administrative fact makes the project a genuinely different proposition from a paper. The specification states that individual components cannot be re-sat, because this is a traditional linear specification, but that non-exam assessment marks can be carried forward for the lifetime of the specification.

So a student who banked a good project mark keeps it. That is not true of a mark earned on Paper 2.

The grading scale is the nine point one. The qualification is graded 1 to 9, where 9 is the best grade, and a student who does not reach the minimum standard for grade 1 is recorded as U and does not receive a certificate.

Exams are available in May/June and in November.

The specification overlaps with AQA UK GCSE English Language 8700.

The overall aim, as the specification puts it, is to give students the skills in speaking listening reading and writing necessary to communicate confidently effectively precisely and appropriately, and to express themselves creatively and imaginatively. The assessment is built to reward both halves of that.