OxfordAQA International GCSE English Literature Tutors Online

OxfordAQA International GCSE English Literature is specification 9275. This page works from the current specification, version 5.1, which covers exams from May/June 2018 onwards.

This qualification offers two routes, and the route changes what a student is examined on. Both routes are worth a total scaled mark of 150 and both lead to the same qualification, but the shape of the assessment is different.

Route A is two examination papers. Paper 1 is Prose and drama and Paper 2a is Poetry and unseen texts.

Route B is two examination papers and a piece of non-exam assessment. Paper 1 is Prose and drama, Paper 2b is Poetry, and the third component is an extended response to a prose fiction text of the student's own choice.

Paper 1 is shared by both routes and is identical on each. It is a written exam of 1 hour 30 minutes carrying 60 marks, and it is 40 per cent of the qualification on both routes.

The thing to know about Paper 1 is that it is closed book. A student cannot take the text into the examination. Whatever is needed from the novel and the play has to be carried in memory.

Paper 1 has two sections of 30 marks each. Section A is Prose fiction and Section B is Drama. In each section students answer one question on a set text of their choice.

In each section there is a choice between an essay style question and a passage-based question. That choice is worth understanding early, because the two kinds of question reward different preparation.

On Route A, Paper 2a is Poetry and unseen texts. It is a written exam of 2 hours 15 minutes carrying 90 marks, and it is 60 per cent of the qualification.

Paper 2a is open book, and it has three sections of 30 marks each.

Section A is Poetry. Students answer one question from a choice of two on the OxfordAQA Exams poetry anthology, People and Places.

Section B is Unseen poetry. Students answer one question on a previously unseen poem.

Section C is Unseen prose. Students answer one question on a previously unseen prose passage. This section exists on Route A and does not exist on Route B.

So Route A puts 60 per cent of the qualification into a single open book paper that includes two unseen sections. A student on Route A is examined on poetry they have studied, a poem they have never seen, and a prose passage they have never seen.

On Route B, Paper 2b is Poetry. It is a written exam of 1 hour 30 minutes carrying 60 marks, and it is 40 per cent of the qualification.

Paper 2b is open book and has two sections of 30 marks each. Section A is Poetry, one question from a choice of two on the anthology. Section B is Unseen poetry, one question on a previously unseen poem.

The third Route B component is the non-exam assessment. It carries 30 marks and is 20 per cent of the qualification. Students complete one extended response to a prose fiction text of their own choice, and the specification adds an important restriction: this text must not come from the prescribed list of set texts.

So the choice of route is really a choice about where the marks sit. Route A loads 60 per cent into one long exam with two unseen sections. Route B shares the weight across two shorter exams plus a coursework piece on a book the student chose themselves.

A student who reads confidently and thinks quickly under time pressure is well suited to Route A. A student who works well over extended time on a text they love is well suited to Route B.

The set texts are prescribed and they are the heart of the course. Students must study a range of high quality and substantial whole texts, and these must include at least one whole prose fiction text, at least one whole drama text, and a selection of poetry.

For prose fiction, students study one novel from the list and should study the whole text. The list offers Charles Dickens: Great Expectations; Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Purple Hibiscus; Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go; Markus Zusak: The Book Thief; and the OxfordAQA Exams Short Stories Anthology.

That list rewards a comment. It runs from a Victorian novel through a mid twentieth century American classic to a Nigerian novel published in the twenty first century, a dystopian novel, and a story collection set in Nazi Germany. A school can build a genuinely varied course from it.

For drama, students study one play from the list and should study the whole text. The list offers William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar; William Shakespeare: Macbeth; J B Priestley: An Inspector Calls; Arthur Miller: The Crucible; and Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun.

So a student meets one of two Shakespeare tragedies or a Roman play, one twentieth century British play, one American play about the Salem witch trials, and one American play about a Black family in Chicago.

For poetry, students study the OxfordAQA Exams Poetry Anthology People and Places. It contains 20 poems, thematically linked in a variety of ways, from poets and poetry from different times and contexts.

There are only three assessment objectives on this qualification, and they are easier to remember than most.

AO1 is understanding of, and engagement with, themes ideas and contexts.

AO2 is analysis of how writers create meanings and effects.

AO3 is expressing informed personal responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology, and coherent accurate writing.

The overall weighting is AO1 at 40 per cent, AO2 at 40 per cent and AO3 at 20 per cent. So understanding and analysis are equal and dominate, and quality of written response is worth half of either of them.

The pattern inside every component is the same. Each component divides its share in the same proportion, so a component worth 40 per cent of the qualification carries AO1 at 16 per cent, AO2 at 16 per cent and AO3 at 8 per cent.

The one exception is Paper 2a on Route A, which is worth 60 per cent of the qualification and therefore carries AO1 at 24 per cent, AO2 at 24 per cent and AO3 at 12 per cent.

On Route B the non-exam assessment carries AO1 at 8 per cent, AO2 at 8 per cent and AO3 at 4 per cent.

The practical meaning of that is simple. AO1 and AO2 are always worth the same as each other, in every component. A student who can retell a plot but cannot analyse how the writer creates an effect is only doing half the job, and the mark scheme will say so.

Every scaling factor on both routes is 1, so raw marks and scaled marks are the same numbers. Route A: 60 plus 90 gives 150. Route B: 60 plus 60 plus 30 gives 150. There is no hidden multiplier here, unlike the English Language specification.

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 November. Resits are whole qualification only, because this is a traditional linear specification, and individual components cannot be re-sat.

The specification overlaps with AQA UK GCSE English Literature 8702.

The specification's stated purpose is to have students read a wide range of literature fluently, critically and with good understanding, so that they can discuss and explain their understanding and ideas in detail and appreciate the depth and power of literary texts. The assessment is built around whole texts rather than extracts, and that is the habit worth building from the first week.