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Free GCSE English revision resources worth using

AQA’s past papers and mark schemes, the set texts themselves, recordings and filmed productions, and our own free sheets. Everything on this page is free and legal.

Quick guide for parents and carers · 3 minute read

AQA publishes its past papers, mark schemes and examiners’ reports on its website for anyone to download, about a year after each exam. The June 2026 GCSE papers go up on Friday 9 July 2027. Teachers can get the question papers ten days after each exam, and the mark schemes by results day, through AQA’s secure site for schools, so your child may meet the most recent papers in class first.

Past papers and mark schemes from AQA

AQA’s revision resources page links to its past paper finder. Your child needs GCSE English Language (8700) and GCSE English Literature (8702). AQA says most papers, mark schemes and examiners’ reports stay on its website for three years, and only papers for the current specification are available.

  • Question papers show the kinds of question your child will meet. AQA reworded some English Language questions from the summer 2026 exams, so older Language papers word a few questions differently: Paper 1 Question 1, for example, is now multiple choice. From summer 2027 AQA is also changing the layout slightly, for example by setting source texts in a single column. One timed answer a week, in the real time and with no notes, is a good use of them.
  • Mark schemes, in AQA’s words, “are tools for examiners to make sure they all mark consistently.” They are dense reading. Our page on what a grade 4, 6 and 8 answer looks like shows what the levels mean in practice.
  • Examiners’ reports describe what students did well and less well in that year’s exam.

The texts themselves

A Christmas Carol and Macbeth are out of copyright, so free copies are legal:

  • Project Gutenberg has both to read online or download as an ebook.
  • The Folger Shakespeare Library’s online Macbeth has act, scene and line numbers. Folger texts are free to read and download for any non-commercial use.

Any edition works for the exam, but in lessons your child will find page references easier in the school’s edition. An Inspector Calls and nine of the fifteen Power and Conflict poems are still in copyright, so your child needs a copy of the play and the AQA anthology. Ask the school which edition it uses and whether it lends them.

Recordings and filmed productions

  • LibriVox publishes free recordings of books that are out of copyright, read by volunteers. Its A Christmas Carol runs for about 3 hours 15 minutes, with a different reader for each stave. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a full-cast reading of about 2 hours 10 minutes.
  • The National Theatre Collection streams filmed productions, including a Macbeth. It is free for UK state schools and colleges, and students at UK state-funded schools can watch it at home. Access comes through the school, so ask whether it has signed up.

Our free resources

Everything on our free resources page is free to download, with no sign-up:

The student guides in this Knowledge hub are free too, from the story of each set text to each Language paper, question by question.

Sources

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