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GCSE English explained for parents and carers

With AQA, English is two separate GCSEs, each graded from 9 to 1 and each decided by two exams at the end of Year 11. This is what the four papers ask and how the answers are marked.

Quick guide for parents and carers · 4 minute read

English Language and English Literature are two separate GCSEs (General Certificates of Secondary Education), and each has its own grade from 9 to 1. With AQA, the exam board our resources are written for, each grade comes from two written exams at the end of Year 11 and nothing else. Your child’s school can tell you which board it uses. If it is not AQA, the papers will differ from the ones below.

The four exams

In summer 2027 the Literature papers come first.

  1. English Literature Paper 1, Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel: 1 hour 45 minutes, on Wednesday 12 May 2027. One question on the Shakespeare play and one on the novel. Each question prints an extract and asks your child to write about it and then about the text as a whole.
  2. English Literature Paper 2, Modern texts and poetry: 2 hours 15 minutes, on Wednesday 19 May. An essay on a modern play or novel, chosen from two questions, with no extract printed. Then a comparison of one poem from the AQA anthology, printed on the paper, with a second poem your child picks from the same group of 15. Last come two questions on poems your child has never seen.
  3. English Language Paper 1, Explorations in creative reading and writing: 1 hour 45 minutes, on Monday 24 May. Four reading questions on an extract from 20th or 21st-century fiction, then one piece of descriptive or narrative writing.
  4. English Language Paper 2, Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives: 1 hour 45 minutes, on Tuesday 8 June. Four reading questions on two non-fiction texts, one from the 19th century and one from the 20th or 21st, then one piece of writing that argues a point of view.

Literature Paper 1 is worth 40% of the Literature grade and Paper 2 is worth 60%. The two Language papers count for half each. Start times and the other dates that matter are in GCSE English exam dates for 2027.

Closed book

AQA’s Literature specification says: “All assessments are closed book”. Your child cannot take the play, the novel or the poems into the exam. Apart from the printed extract and the printed poem, every quotation has to come from memory, which is why learning quotations takes up so much revision time. Each extract question also moves on to the text as a whole, so your child needs to know the whole story.

The Language papers print every text your child needs, and none of the texts can be known in advance. AQA’s Language specification says: “All texts in the examination will be unseen.” Preparation means practice at each kind of question, and plenty of reading. Reading for pleasure at 14 to 16 explains why the reading matters.

How answers are marked

The first question on each Language paper is short and worth 4 marks. Longer answers are marked in levels. The examiner starts at the lowest level, works up to the one that describes the answer best, and then chooses a mark within that level. Literature essays have six levels, from “Simple, explicit comments” at Level 1 to “Convincing, critical analysis and exploration” at Level 6. The longer Language answers, including the writing, have four.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar earn marks too. In Literature, the Shakespeare essay and the modern text essay carry 4 extra marks each for them. In each Language paper, 16 of the 40 marks for the writing task are for technical accuracy.

The marks from a subject’s two papers are added together, out of 160, and turned into a grade. The Department for Education calls a grade 4 a “standard pass” and a grade 5 a “strong pass”. What GCSE grades 4, 5 and 7 mean explains the scale and how the grade boundaries are set each year.

The spoken language endorsement

Your child’s speaking is also assessed in school, by their teacher, for the spoken language endorsement. It is graded Pass, Merit, Distinction or Not Classified, and AQA’s specification says it “will not form part of the final mark and grade” for English Language. The spoken language endorsement, explained has the detail.

What helps at home

Sources

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