AQA GCSE English Literature at a glance

AQA’s GCSE English Literature (8702) is two written papers, both sat at the end of the course, worth 160 marks between them. Students take no texts into either exam. The specification puts it plainly: “All assessments are closed book: any stimulus materials required will be provided as part of the assessment.” The extracts, the named anthology poem and the unseen poems are printed on the paper. Everything else comes from memory, which means every quotation in the modern text essay.

Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel

The paper lasts 1 hour 45 minutes and is worth 64 marks, 40% of the GCSE.

Section A, Shakespeare: one question on the play. Students write about a printed extract, then about the play as a whole. 30 marks, plus 4 for AO4.
Section B, the 19th-century novel: the same shape, the extract first and then the whole novel. 30 marks, with no AO4.

The two halves of each question matter. AQA’s mark scheme lists the extract and the whole text as defining parts of both tasks. An answer that leaves one of them out counts as a rubric infringement and can be capped at the top of Level 2.

Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry

The paper lasts 2 hours 15 minutes and is worth 96 marks, 60% of the GCSE.

Section A, modern prose or drama: one essay, chosen from two questions on the studied text. There is no extract. 30 marks, plus 4 for AO4.
Section B, the poetry anthology: the question names one poem from the student’s cluster and prints it. Students compare it with one other poem from the same cluster, quoted from memory. 30 marks.
Section C, unseen poetry: one question on a poem students have not seen before (24 marks), then a question comparing the poets’ methods in that poem and a second unseen poem (8 marks).

Question numbers move when AQA adds options. The two unseen questions were 27.1 and 27.2 in the June 2023 mark scheme, and 28.1 and 28.2 in the June 2025 examiners’ report, the first year the Worlds and Lives cluster was examined. Check the numbering on the latest paper before you print practice booklets.

How long for each section

AQA’s question papers give no suggested time per section, so the split is yours to teach. The marks are close to equal, so an even split works: about 50 minutes on each section of Paper 1, with five minutes spare, and about 45 minutes on each section of Paper 2. In Section C that means roughly 30 minutes for the 24-mark question and 15 for the comparison.

The assessment objectives

In plain terms, with each one’s share of the GCSE from the scheme of assessment:

AO1, 37.5%: an informed, critical personal response, backed by references and quotations.
AO2, 42.5%: analysis of how the writer uses language, form and structure, with subject terminology where it helps.
AO3, 15%: understanding of the links between texts and the contexts they were written in.
AO4, 5%: vocabulary and sentence structures, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

Every 30-mark question splits its marks the same way: 12 for AO1, 12 for AO2 and 6 for AO3. Unseen poetry is different. The 24-mark question tests AO1 and AO2 only, 12 marks each, and the 8-mark comparison tests AO2 alone, so context earns nothing in Section C.

AO4 appears in two places only, the Shakespeare question and the modern text question, with 4 marks each. Those 8 marks are the whole 5%. The guide to the AO4 marks covers how they are judged, and the six levels explains how the essays themselves are marked.

The set texts for 2027

Schools choose a Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel, a modern text and one poetry cluster. AQA’s subject content pages for Paper 1 and Paper 2, checked on 5 October 2026, list these choices.

Shakespeare

Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
The Tempest
The Merchant of Venice
Much Ado About Nothing
Julius Caesar

The 19th-century novel

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

Modern texts

Drama: JB Priestley, An Inspector Calls; Willy Russell, Blood Brothers (the musical version); Dennis Kelly, DNA; Shelagh Delaney, A Taste of Honey; Chinonyerem Odimba, Princess & The Hustler; Winsome Pinnock, Leave Taking.
Prose: William Golding, Lord of the Flies; Telling Tales, AQA’s own anthology; George Orwell, Animal Farm; Meera Syal, Anita and Me; Stephen Kelman, Pigeon English; Kit de Waal, My Name is Leon.

The poetry anthology

One cluster of 15 poems from AQA’s anthology, Poems Past and Present: Love and Relationships, Power and Conflict, or Worlds and Lives.

The last change to the list took effect for exams in 2025. The History Boys, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Never Let Me Go were last examined in 2024. Princess & The Hustler, Leave Taking, My Name is Leon and the Worlds and Lives cluster were first examined in 2025. AQA’s pages show no further change for 2027.

Our schemes of learning cover Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls and unseen poetry.

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