AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2: Modern Texts and Poetry

AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2, titled Modern texts and poetry, tests a studied modern prose or drama text, a comparison of two poems from an AQA poetry anthology cluster, and two unseen poems the student has never read before. Set within specification 8702, it runs for 2 hours 15 minutes, carries 96 marks and makes up 60% of the GCSE grade, against 40% for Paper 1. Both papers are closed book.

Preparing for it starts with knowing what the school has chosen: one prose or drama text from AQA's list, and one of three poetry clusters. From there, the practical work is learning how each of the paper's three sections is marked, how the 135 minutes divide between them, and how to use AQA's published past papers and mark schemes to practise against real, published criteria.

How does Paper 2 fit into the wider GCSE?

Two written papers make up the whole GCSE English Literature qualification, and both are compulsory, sat by every student regardless of the grade they are aiming for. Within Paper 2, marks are distributed across four assessment objectives: AO1, reading and responding to texts using textual references, worth 22.5% of the GCSE; AO2, analysing language, form and structure using subject terminology, worth 27.5%; AO3, relating texts to their contexts, worth 7.5%; and AO4, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary, worth 2.5%.

Which modern prose and drama texts can a school choose?

AQA sets six modern drama texts and six modern prose texts for Section A of Paper 2, and each school selects a single title from the twelve to teach across the course; students do not choose their own text. Confirming which one the school teaches, ideally early in Year 10, means revision resources, quotation banks and practice essays can be built around that specific text alone.

The prose list includes one AQA-published anthology, Telling Tales, alongside four novels and Kit de Waal's My Name is Leon; the drama list runs from JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls to more recent plays such as Princess & The Hustler and Leave Taking. Whichever text a school has chosen, Section A's essay question is set only on that single title, so effort concentrates on that title alone.

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

How does the Section A modern text question work?

Section A asks for one essay, chosen from two question options set on the school's studied prose or drama text, worth 30 marks for AO1, AO2 and AO3 combined, plus a further 4 marks for AO4: spelling, punctuation and the range of vocabulary and sentence structures used. Because there is a choice of two questions, part of preparation is practising essays on each of the text's main characters and themes, so that whichever question appears can be answered with a ready plan. Checking a finished essay directly against AQA's published mark scheme, line by assessment objective, shows exactly where marks are being lost.

How does the Section B poetry comparison work?

One poem is printed in full on the exam paper for Section B, which asks for a comparison with a second poem of the student's own choosing from the same studied anthology cluster, for 30 marks. The anthology, Poems Past and Present, is organised into three clusters of 15 poems each: Love and Relationships, Power and Conflict, and Worlds and Lives, and a school studies one cluster only. Preparation means knowing all 15 poems in that cluster confidently, since the strongest comparison poem for a given question may not be the one a student likes best, so practice should rotate through several possible pairings instead of settling on one fixed comparison.

How does the Section C unseen poetry question work?

The only part of Paper 2 set on poems a student has never studied comes in Section C, worth 24 marks for analysing a single unseen poem and a further 8 marks for comparing it with a second unseen poem. AQA's subject content asks students to experience a wide range of poetry so they can closely analyse an unseen poem's content, theme, structure and use of language without prior class discussion to draw on. Practice therefore has to come from poems outside the studied cluster, worked through cold and timed, so annotation and structural analysis become quick, practised habits before the exam itself.

Is Paper 2 closed book, including the anthology poems?

Yes, Paper 2 is closed book, and that includes the anthology poems studied for Section B, so no printed or annotated copies of any text are allowed into the exam room. AQA prints only the one named poem for the Section B comparison and the two unseen poems for Section C directly on the question paper; every other quotation, from the prose or drama text and from the second comparison poem a student selects, has to be recalled from memory. This makes learning short, precise quotations a core part of preparing for both Section A and Section B, since neither text nor anthology can be brought into the room.

How should the 2 hours 15 minutes be divided?

A common approach is to divide the 135 minutes roughly in line with the marks on offer, since Section A totals 34 marks with its AO4 allocation, Section B totals 30, and Section C totals 32 across its two questions. That works out at around 45 to 50 minutes on the modern text essay, 40 to 45 minutes on the poetry comparison, and the remaining time split across the two unseen poetry questions, with the smaller 8-mark comparison needing only a few minutes compared with the 24-mark first question. Building in a few minutes at the end of Section A to check spelling, punctuation and sentence variety directly protects the 4 AO4 marks available there.

How to use AQA's past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports

AQA publishes past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports for the 8702 specification, and working through them under timed conditions is the most direct way to prepare for Paper 2's format. Practising Section C questions on genuinely unseen poems is particularly useful, since no amount of studying the anthology replaces the specific skill of analysing a poem cold. After each timed attempt, comparing the answer directly against the published mark scheme, sentence by sentence, shows which assessment objective needs more work; examiner reports then add detail on the kinds of response AQA's examiners have seen gaining or losing marks, without needing to know which exact questions were set.

Related guides

• AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1 guide
• How to get a grade 9 in GCSE English Literature
• GCSE reading list
• GCSE English tutors

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