I find a lot of students who come to me for English tuition are really confused when it comes to Language and Literature, with many not knowing which is which or what will appear on the exam papers.
This is a brief description of what will appear on each of the language exam papers, and as most of my students are studying for AQA this is the exam board I’ll detail here.
The exam is made up of two papers and you do both of them.
Paper 1
| Name of paper | Length of exam | Percentage of total marks | Total marks available |
| Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing | 1hr45 | 50% | 80 marks |
The paper is divided into two sections (A and B)
Section A examines your reading skills. It is worth 40 marks and is 25% of the overall marks.
You will be given a piece of fiction to read, and there are four questions to asnswer.
Q1 will ask you to find 4 pieces of information from a section odf the text.
Q2 will ask you to write about how the writer uses language
Q3 will ask you about how the writer uses structure
Q4 will ask you to evaluate a text.
Section B examines your writing skills. You will be given a choice of two questions (usually the choice of a story or a description, and one of the choices will usually include a picture for inspiration). This question is worth 40 marks and is 25% of the overall marks.
Paper 2
| Exam board | Name of paper | Length of exam | Percentage of total marks | Total marks available |
| AQA | Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives | 1hr45 | 50% | 80 marks |
The paper is divided into two sections (A and B)
Section A examines your reading skills. It is worth 40 marks and is 25% of the overall marks.
You will be given two non-fiction texts to read, and there are four questions to asnswer.
Q1 will give you 8 statements about a section of one of the texts ask you to find the 4 that are true.
Q2 will ask you to write a summary and will involve both of thetexts.
Q3 will ask you to write about how the writer uses language
Q4 will ask you to write a comparison of the two texts
Section B examines your writing skills. You will be given one task, such as writing a letter or a magazine article on a given topic. This question is worth 40 marks and is 25% of the overall marks.
SPOKEN endorsement
This will be conducted by your teacher. Your grade for this (Pass, Merit, Distinction or Not Classified) will appear on your certificate, but will not affect your exam grade from 1-9.