1. Paper structure
Both written papers have kept exactly the same layout in every session from 2022 to June 2026. Each one is 2 hours, 80 marks and comes with an insert of reading texts. The two papers carry equal weight (160 raw marks in total).
| Paper 1 Reading | Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition | |
|---|---|---|
| Time and marks | 2 h, 80 marks | 2 h, 80 marks |
| Texts | Insert with three texts: Text A (non-fiction, information), Text B (non-fiction, for the summary), Text C (narrative or memoir) | Insert with two short non-fiction texts (Text A and Text B) on one issue |
| What you do | Q1(a) to (e): short comprehension questions on Text A (15 marks). Q1(f): summary of Text B, no more than 120 words (15: 10 for reading, 5 for writing). Q2(a) to (c): word and phrase questions on Text C (10). Q2(d): language analysis of two paragraphs, about 200 to 300 words (15). Q3: an extended response in role, based on Text C, about 250 to 350 words (25: 15 for reading, 10 for writing). | Section A, Q1: directed writing. Evaluate the ideas in both texts and give your own view, in a set form, about 250 to 350 words (40: 15 for reading, 25 for writing). Section B, Q2 to Q5: composition. Choose one of four titles (two descriptive, two narrative), about 350 to 450 words (40: 16 for content and structure, 24 for style and accuracy). |
| Writing marks | 15 of 80 | 65 of 80 |
Paper 1 is mostly a reading test, but 15 of its marks are for the quality of your writing. Paper 2 is mostly a writing test, but 15 marks in Question 1 reward how well you have read and judged the two texts.
The mark pattern inside Paper 1 is fixed. Every session in the sample used this split:
| Part | Marks |
|---|---|
| 1(a) | 1 |
| 1(b)(i) and (ii), own-words phrases | 2 + 2 |
| 1(c) and 1(d)(i), give or identify two points | 2 + 2 |
| 1(d)(ii) and 1(e), explain | 3 + 3 |
| 1(f) summary | 15 |
| 2(a)(i) to (iv), find a word or phrase in the text | 4 × 1 |
| 2(b)(i) to (iii), explain a word in your own words | 3 × 1 |
| 2(c) one example, explained | 3 |
| 2(d) language analysis | 15 |
| 3 extended response | 25 |
Changes between 2022 and 2026 are cosmetic only: "Re-read" became "Reread", the 2025 to 2026 papers use the newer Cambridge layout, and a few directed writing tasks now tell you how to open your letter (for example "Dear Headteacher"). The coursework option (Component 03) and the speaking endorsement (Components 04 and 60) are not covered here.
2. Topic weights
The figures are marks in variant 2 of each session (18 papers, 1,440 marks). Each composition title counts a quarter of its 40 marks, because you answer one of four.
| Topic | Paper | Share of marks | Marks per session | Sessions examined (of 9) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directed writing | 2 | 25.0% | 40 / 160 | 9 |
| Composition (descriptive or narrative) | 2 | 25.0% | 40 / 160 | 9 |
| Writer's effects (language questions) | 1 | 15.6% | 25 / 160 | 9 |
| Extended response (Q3) | 1 | 15.6% | 25 / 160 | 9 |
| Comprehension (Q1a to e) | 1 | 9.4% | 15 / 160 | 9 |
| Summary (Q1f) | 1 | 9.4% | 15 / 160 | 9 |
Finer breakdown by task type:
| Topic | Subtopic | Marks per paper | How often (variant 2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writer's effects | Language analysis of two paragraphs, 2(d) | 15 | every session |
| Writer's effects | Find a word or phrase meaning the same, 2(a) | 4 | every session |
| Writer's effects | Own-words meaning of single words, 2(b) | 3 | every session |
| Writer's effects | Effect of one chosen example, 2(c) | 3 | every session |
| Comprehension | Retrieval of details, 1(a), (c), (d)(i) | 5 | every session |
| Comprehension | Own-words explanation of phrases, 1(b) | 4 | every session |
| Comprehension | Explaining ideas, 1(d)(ii) and (e) | 6 | every session |
| Summary | Benefits or positives | 15 | 3 sessions |
| Summary | Ways, strategies or requirements ("how", "what makes") | 15 | 3 sessions |
| Summary | Problems, barriers or dangers | 15 | 2 sessions |
| Summary | Advantages and disadvantages | 15 | 1 session |
| Extended response | Interview | 25 | 3 sessions |
| Extended response | Letter / article / speech or talk | 25 | 2 sessions each |
| Directed writing | Formal letter (to a boss, a city council, a headteacher) | 40 | 3 sessions |
| Directed writing | Informal letter giving advice to a friend | 40 | 2 sessions |
| Directed writing | Article / speech | 40 | 2 sessions each |
| Composition | Descriptive: titled description ("Write a description with the title...") | 10 weighted | 6 sessions |
| Composition | Descriptive: place or scene (often "before and after") | 10 weighted | 5 sessions |
| Composition | Descriptive: object or creature | 10 weighted | 3 sessions |
| Composition | Descriptive: people / a moment or experience | 10 weighted | 2 sessions each |
| Composition | Narrative: story with a given title | 10 weighted | 7 sessions |
| Composition | Narrative: story including given words | 10 weighted | 6 sessions |
| Composition | Narrative: story built on a situation ("a story that involves...") | 10 weighted | 5 sessions |
3. Bankers
All six tasks appear in every paper, because the layout never changes. Things you can count on:
- Q2(d) language analysis (15 marks) is the biggest single question on Paper 1. You always get two named paragraphs of Text C, must pick three words or phrases from each, and your choices should include imagery.
- Q3 in role (25 marks): you become a character from Text C (or a journalist writing about them) and answer three bullet points.
- The summary of Text B in under 120 words (15 marks), always in continuous prose and in your own words.
- Directed writing that evaluates two texts (40 marks). The task always asks you to judge the ideas in both texts and then give your own view.
- Two descriptive and two narrative titles in Section B, in that order (Q2 and Q3 descriptive, Q4 and Q5 narrative).
- A narrative title that is a single word or short phrase ("The lake", "Lost", "The island") turned up in 7 of 9 sessions, and a "story that includes the words..." task in 6.
- "Write a description with the title..." appeared in 6 of 9 sessions.
4. Rarely tested
Within the six fixed tasks, some versions come up less often in variant 2:
- A summary asking for both sides (advantages and disadvantages) appeared once (May/June 2023).
- Descriptions of people appeared twice (holiday-makers in 2022, a person in an unexpected place in 2026).
- Descriptions of a moment or physical experience (moving something heavy, a tense moment in a competition) appeared twice.
- A report or a journal entry for Q3 never appeared in variant 2, but both turned up in variants 1 and 3 (reports in 2024 and 2023, journal entries in Oct/Nov 2022, 2024 and 2025). Practise them anyway, because your school may sit a different variant.
- Speeches for directed writing are less common than letters and articles. Across all 27 Paper 2 variants, letters were set 15 times, articles 7 times and speeches 5 times, and a report was never set.
5. Trends
- No structural change at all in nine sessions. The same question numbers, the same mark values and the same word guidance appear every time. Practise on any paper from 2022 onwards and you are practising the real format.
- Interviews are popular for Q3. Three of the last six variant-2 sessions (Oct/Nov 2023, Oct/Nov 2024, June 2026) used an interview with three fixed questions. Speeches and talks appeared in 2024 and 2025, while the article (2022 and 2023) has not been used in variant 2 since.
- Directed writing is moving towards persuasive letters to people in authority (a boss, a city council, a headteacher) and speeches to a public meeting. Recent themes are about school, work, technology and the community: podcasts at work, AI art in a school competition, removing technology from classrooms.
- "Before and after" descriptions keep returning: a room before and after decorating (2023), a busy road before and after rain (2024), a shop before and after a day's trading (2025).
- Narrative prompts are shifting from titles to situations: in Oct/Nov 2025 and June 2026 one narrative task was "a story that involves..." or "a story where..." rather than a title.
- Summary questions increasingly ask "how" or "what makes" (how old buses are used, how to manage time when working from home, what judges want in a name) rather than a simple list of benefits.
6. Question styles
| Command word or format | Where | What it wants |
|---|---|---|
| "What...", "Give two...", "Identify two..." | Q1(a), (c), (d)(i) | Short, precise points from the named paragraph. Lifting from the text is fine here. |
| "Using your own words, explain what the text means by..." | Q1(b) | Rephrase both words of the phrase. Don't reuse either word. |
| "Explain..." (3 marks) | Q1(d)(ii), Q1(e) | Three separate points, normally in your own words. |
| "According to Text B, what...? ... not more than 120 words" | Q1(f) | Select only relevant points and rewrite them as fluent continuous prose, with no examples or padding. |
| "Identify a word or phrase which suggests the same idea as the words underlined" | Q2(a) | Quote the exact word or phrase from Text C. |
| "Using your own words, explain what the writer means by..." | Q2(b) | Give a one-word or short synonym that fits the context. |
| "Use one example ... to explain how the writer suggests..." | Q2(c) | One quotation, then its meaning and effect. |
| "Explain how the writer uses language to convey meaning and to create effect" | Q2(d) | Three choices from each of two paragraphs, with meaning, effect and imagery explained, and an overview. |
| "You are [character] ... Write the words of the letter/interview/speech" | Q3 | Stay in role, cover all three bullets, and develop the text's ideas without copying. |
| "Write a letter/article/speech ... evaluate the ideas, attitudes and opinions in both texts ... give your own views" | Paper 2 Q1 | Judge and challenge the texts' ideas, don't just report them, and use the right form and register. |
| "Describe...", "Write a description with the title..." | Paper 2 Q2, Q3 | Sensory, atmospheric description with no plot. |
| "Write a story with the title / that includes the words / that involves..." | Paper 2 Q4, Q5 | A shaped, credible narrative with a clear ending. |
7. Common mistakes
From the examiner reports for May/June 2022, Oct/Nov 2022, May/June 2023 and May/June 2025:
- Reusing words from the text when asked for your own words. A frequent example is explaining only one word of a two-word phrase in Q1(b) and copying the other.
- Giving too few points in the 3-mark "explain" questions (Q1(d)(ii) and Q1(e)).
- Copying chunks of Text B in the summary, writing too much (going past 120 words), or adding examples and names from the text instead of the key ideas.
- In Q2(c), choosing no clear example or more than one.
- In Q2(d), giving three choices in total rather than three from each paragraph, or writing about the wrong paragraphs. Vague comments like "it helps the reader imagine" earn little, so explain the precise meaning and effect in context.
- In Q3, copying or closely paraphrasing Text C instead of using its ideas, missing a bullet, or inventing material that moves too far from the text.
- In directed writing, summarising the two texts or comparing them as texts instead of evaluating their ideas, and focusing only on the first bullet so the second ("your own views") is thin. Wrong register (too casual in a formal letter) also costs marks.
- Descriptive compositions that turn into stories (or into arguments), and "inventory-like" lists of things seen.
- Clichéd narrative scenarios and characters who are not credible or rounded.
- Basic accuracy errors: switching tenses, missing articles ("a", "the"), agreement errors, sentences not separated properly, and inaccurate speech punctuation.
8. Grade thresholds
Minimum raw marks for the combination you sit with the written route (Paper 12 + Paper 22, out of 160), with the component thresholds for those two papers (each out of 80).
| Session | A* | A | B | C | D | E | P12 A / C | P22 A / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 May/June | 110 | 97 | 84 | 72 | 61 | 50 | 44 / 31 | 53 / 41 |
| 2022 Oct/Nov | 121 | 108 | 95 | 82 | 66 | 50 | 53 / 40 | 55 / 42 |
| 2023 May/June | 114 | 102 | 90 | 78 | 65 | 53 | 47 / 35 | 55 / 43 |
| 2023 Oct/Nov | 122 | 109 | 96 | 83 | 68 | 54 | 53 / 39 | 56 / 44 |
| 2024 May/June | 111 | 100 | 89 | 78 | 66 | 54 | 45 / 35 | 55 / 43 |
| 2024 Oct/Nov | 124 | 110 | 96 | 83 | 68 | 53 | 54 / 39 | 56 / 44 |
| 2025 May/June | 109 | 98 | 87 | 76 | 65 | 54 | 44 / 34 | 54 / 42 |
| 2025 Oct/Nov | 121 | 107 | 93 | 80 | 66 | 52 | 51 / 37 | 56 / 43 |
| 2026 May/June | 107 | 96 | 85 | 74 | 63 | 53 | 42 / 31 | 54 / 43 |
What this shows:
- Reading (Paper 1) is marked harder than writing. An A on Paper 12 needs only about 42 to 54 of 80, while Paper 22 needs about 53 to 56.
- Oct/Nov thresholds are 10 to 15 marks higher than May/June for A* and A. This is mostly because a different group of candidates sits that series.
- An A* usually needs about 107 to 124 of 160 (67% to 78%), and a C needs about 72 to 83.
9. Revision priorities for Oct/Nov 2026 and 2027
- Q2(d) language analysis (15 marks). Practise choosing six strong phrases (three per paragraph, including imagery) and explaining meaning plus effect, then add a short overview of the writer's purpose. This is the most valuable reading skill on the paper.
- Directed writing (40 marks). Practise evaluating and challenging ideas from two texts, in all four forms: formal letter, letter to a friend, article and speech. Plan the second bullet (your view) as carefully as the first.
- One descriptive and one narrative style that you can produce confidently (40 marks). Get ready for "before and after" scenes, titled descriptions and situation-based stories, and keep descriptions free of plot.
- Q3 in role (25 marks). Practise interviews (three set questions), letters, speeches, articles, reports and journal entries. Cover every bullet and build on details from the text.
- Summary technique (15 marks). Find every relevant point, group similar ones, and write under 120 words in your own words. Practise "how" and "what makes" questions as well as benefits and problems.
- Own-words precision (Q1(b), Q2(b)). Learn to replace every key word, and give three points in 3-mark answers.
- Accuracy. Leave 5 minutes on each paper to check tenses, articles, sentence boundaries and speech punctuation, because writing marks make up almost half of the qualification.