Exam guide

1. Paper structure

The syllabus changed in 2024. The two papers swapped numbers, Paper 1 and Paper 2 now carry the same weight, and both got longer.

Other changes in 2024:

• Composition lost its Argument titles. Old papers offered Description, Argument and Narrative. Current papers offer two Descriptive and two Narrative titles only.
• Directed writing now starts from texts. You have to evaluate the ideas and opinions in two texts and then give your own view. Before 2024 it was a free-standing task built around three bullet points.
• The old note-making step and the vocabulary multiple-choice questions have gone. The summary is now one continuous piece worth 20 marks.

2. Topic weights

The figures below are marks in variant 2 of each session, with optional composition titles weighted (see Method).

Writing makes up about half of the qualification, and summary writing is the biggest single reading task.

The finer subtopics in the current syllabus (2024 to 2026, five sessions) look like this:

3. Bankers

These tasks appear in every session in the sample:

• Directed writing (25 to 30 marks). The form changes: a formal letter in 3 sessions, a speech in 3, an email in 2 and a report in 1.
• A summary of a non-fiction text (20 to 22 marks). The task is always to pick out one or two kinds of points, such as problems and solutions, disadvantages, arguments against or benefits.
• A narrative composition, offered both as a story that must include a given sentence and as a story built on a situation prompt.
• A descriptive composition. Since 2024 there are always two descriptive titles. At least one is the scene at a place or event, often at two times or in two contrasting situations.
• Comprehension of a narrative passage: retrieval, own-words explanation and inference, in every paper.
• Language analysis, worth 4 marks before 2024 and 9 marks since.

Since 2024 the Reading paper has kept exactly the same template:

• Q1 has parts (a) to (h) worth 16 marks. It always includes one "how did X feel? Give two details" part (3 marks) and ends with a "different feelings … three details" part (3 marks).
• Q2 has parts (a) to (e) worth 9 marks: a word-choice part, an effect part, a two-impressions part, a suggestion part, and finally a 3-mark question asking for one example plus an explanation.
• Q3 is a 20-mark summary followed by a 5-mark in-role answer to the question "What is your opinion and why?"

4. Rarely tested

• Report as the directed writing form appeared only once (Oct/Nov 2022). It has not been set since the 2024 change.
• Descriptions of people or objects appeared in only 4 of 9 sessions. Most descriptive titles are about a scene.
• Argumentative composition was set every session up to 2023 and never since 2024. Its skills now feed into directed writing.
• Finding a word or phrase in the text, vocabulary multiple choice and the "identify advice" question are found only in old-syllabus papers.

5. Trends

• Evaluation is now central to Writing. Every directed writing task since 2024 gives you two opposing short texts (for example social-media posts, blogs or noticeboard opinions) and asks you to evaluate them and argue your own view. Topics are close to students' lives: zoos, phones in school, a gap year, university, volunteering.
• The forms rotate. In current papers: speech in June 2024 and Nov 2025, email in Nov 2024 and June 2025, and a formal letter in June 2026. Be ready for all three, plus an article or report.
• Language analysis has more than doubled, from 4 to 9 marks. The questions have become more specific: one word versus another, the effect of one word or simile, two impressions, and an extended example plus explanation.
• Feelings questions with evidence (6 marks per paper) are new since 2024 and now outweigh inference.
• Scores on the Writing paper are much higher than on the Reading paper. Since 2024 a grade C has needed about 29 to 31 out of 50 on Writing but only about 18 to 25 on Reading. Reading is where most marks are lost.

6. Question styles

• Reading comprehension:
  • "In paragraph N, what…", "identify two…", "give two reasons" (1 to 2 marks).
  • "Using your own words, explain what the text means by '…'" (2 marks).
  • "Explain what X was thinking when…", "suggest a reason…" (1 mark).
  • "How did X feel? Give two details from the text" (3 marks: one for the feeling, two for the evidence).
  • "Explain using your own words X's different feelings… three details from anywhere in the text" (3 marks).
• Writer's craft:
  • "Why does the writer use the word X rather than Y?" (1 mark).
  • "What effect does the writer suggest by using '…'?" (2 marks).
  • "What two impressions does the writer want to convey…?" (2 marks).
  • "What does the writer want to suggest to us…?" (1 mark).
  • "Identify one example… explain the impression the writer creates" (3 marks).
• Summary:
  • Current format: "Summarise… according to Text B". Use continuous writing, your own words as far as possible, and no more than 150 words.
  • Old format: notes first, then 150 to 180 words starting with given opening words.
• In-role answer: "Imagine you are…" (a campaigner, a trainer, a friend or a company director). You answer "What is your opinion and why?" using information from the text, sometimes from a viewpoint the question sets for you.
• Directed writing: "evaluate the ideas and opinions in both texts" and "give your own views". The required opening is given (for example a greeting or "Dear Principal"). Write 250 to 350 words.
• Composition: "Describe the scene at… both before and during…", "Describe two different…", "Write a story in which…", "Write a story which includes the sentence: '…'".

7. Common mistakes

There are no examiner reports. The pointers below come from the published mark schemes, which state what is not credited:

• Copying from the text where the question asks for your own words. Own-words parts, the summary and the language explanations all lose credit for lifted wording. The mark schemes allow copying only where a question asks you to identify or quote.
• Explaining a phrase with the text's own vocabulary. For "impressions" and "effect" questions, words reused from the extract are not credited.
• Answers that hedge or contradict themselves, or a list of every possible answer, score nothing.
• Summary:
  • Including points from the wrong category, such as advantages when the task asks for disadvantages.
  • Going over the 150-word limit.
  • Writing notes or bullet points instead of continuous prose.
• Directed writing:
  • Retelling the two texts instead of evaluating them, that is, weighing how convincing each point is.
  • Leaving out your own view.
  • Using the wrong register for the audience (for example a principal versus a cousin).
• Q3(b): stating an opinion without developing it from the text. Marks above 3 out of 5 need a consistent viewpoint whose ideas are supported and developed.

8. Grade thresholds

These are the minimum marks for each grade in the entry option that uses variant 2 papers (components 12 + 22). The total is out of 100: the old syllabus's 110 raw marks were scaled to 100.

Notes on the table:

• The first year of the new syllabus (June 2024) had the lowest thresholds in the sample. Since then thresholds have climbed back to a C at about 56 out of 100.
• The Reading column is component 22 up to 2023 and component 12 from 2024. The Writing column is component 12 up to 2023 and component 22 from 2024.

9. Revision priorities for Oct/Nov 2026 and 2027

1. Summary (20 marks). Practise selecting only the points the question asks for, then writing them in your own words in about 120 to 150 words of linked prose. This is the largest reading task.
2. Directed writing that evaluates two texts (25 marks). For each point in the texts, say whether it convinces you and why, then give a clear view of your own. Practise speech, email and formal-letter openings, endings and register. A report or article is possible but has not appeared since 2022.
3. Composition. Prepare one descriptive and one narrative approach well:
   • Description: scenes at two times or in two contrasting situations, with sensory detail, structured in time.
   • Narrative: a story that builds naturally to a given sentence, with a clear shape and a controlled ending.
   • Argumentative titles are no longer set.
4. Writer's craft (9 marks). Learn the five question types in Q2 and practise explaining effects in your own words, not with the text's words.
5. Feelings plus evidence (6 marks). Name the feeling precisely, then quote or point to two short details that prove it.
6. The in-role opinion answer (5 marks). Stay in role, take a clear stance, and develop two or three text-based reasons.
7. Keep the basics sharp: accurate retrieval from the right paragraph and two-mark own-words explanations.