English Literature Papers Overview
Paper 1 focuses on classic texts - you'll tackle Shakespeare and a 19th-century novel in 1 hour 45 minutes. Paper 2 covers modern texts and poetry in 2 hours 15 minutes, giving you time to really develop your ideas.
Here's what makes Literature exams manageable: you'll always get extract-based questions that provide text on the page, plus you'll write about the whole work. For Shakespeare and novels, you'll choose from two questions per text, so you can play to your strengths.
The poetry section asks you to compare poems - one will be printed for you, and you'll choose another from your studied cluster. This means you're in control of which poem you know best to use for comparison.
Quick Tip: You won't have your books in the exam, but the extracts provided will trigger your memory of key themes and characters.
Remember, you're being assessed on different skills (AO1, AO2, AO3) which basically mean: knowing the text, analysing techniques, and understanding context. Your teachers will explain these properly, but don't get hung up on the labels.