GCSE English Literature

• Shakespearean drama: genre, methods and context

  ≈ 2%1 h

  Tragedy and comedy conventions, verse and prose, dramatic devices, the Elizabethan and Jacobean world, and the extract-to-whole method.

  • Explain the conventions of tragedy (tragic hero, hamartia, catharsis) and comedy (disguise, mistaken identity, festivity, marriage endings)
  • Analyse Shakespeare’s use of blank verse, prose, rhyming couplets, soliloquies, asides, dramatic irony and stagecraft
  • Relate the plays to Elizabethan and Jacobean contexts: the Great Chain of Being, the divine right of kings, patriarchy, religion, the supernatural and the Globe audience
  • Apply the extract-to-whole method: analyse the printed extract closely, then range across the play with remembered references

• Macbeth

  ≈ 6%3 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas onlyCCEA onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Ambition, guilt, the supernatural and kingship in Shakespeare’s Jacobean tragedy: characters, key scenes, methods and context.

  • Trace Macbeth’s transformation from “brave” warrior to “butcher” and tyrant, and Lady Macbeth’s movement from controlling ambition to guilt, madness and death
  • Analyse the themes of ambition, the supernatural, guilt and conscience, kingship versus tyranny, appearance and reality, and masculinity
  • Analyse the key scenes: the witches’ prophecies (1.3), “unsex me here” (1.5), the dagger soliloquy (2.1), Duncan’s murder (2.2), the banquet (3.4), sleepwalking (5.1) and “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” (5.5)

• Romeo and Juliet

  ≈ 4%2 h 30 min

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas onlyCCEA onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Love, conflict, fate and family in Shakespeare’s tragedy: characters, key scenes, methods and Elizabethan context.

  • Analyse the presentation of love (Petrarchan, romantic and physical), hate and violence, fate, youth and age, and family honour
  • Trace Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, the Nurse, Friar Laurence and Lord and Lady Capulet, and how each shapes the tragedy
  • Analyse the key scenes: the Prologue sonnet, the Capulet ball and shared sonnet (1.5), the balcony (2.2), Mercutio’s death (3.1), Capulet’s rage at Juliet (3.5) and the tomb (5.3)

• Much Ado About Nothing

  ≈ 2%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas only

  Love, deception, honour and gender in Shakespeare’s comedy of Messina.

  • Analyse the presentation of love, deception and trickery, honour and reputation, and gender roles
  • Compare the two couples (Beatrice and Benedick; Claudio and Hero) and the roles of Don Pedro, Don John, Leonato and Dogberry
  • Analyse the key scenes: the “merry war” of wit (1.1), the gulling scenes (2.3 and 3.1), the church scene and “Kill Claudio” (4.1), and the final unmasking
  • Explore the comic methods: prose and verse, wordplay, overhearing, dramatic irony, and the near-tragic turn

• The Merchant of Venice

  ≈ 2%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas only

  Prejudice, money, mercy and justice in Shakespeare’s problem comedy.

  • Analyse the presentation of Shylock, antisemitism and prejudice, money and commerce, justice and mercy, and love and friendship
  • Trace Portia, Antonio, Bassanio, Shylock and Jessica through the casket plot and the bond plot
  • Analyse the key scenes: “Hath not a Jew eyes?” (3.1), the trial and “The quality of mercy” (4.1), and the return to Belmont (Act 5)
  • Discuss Elizabethan and modern audience responses and whether the play is best read as comedy or tragedy

• The Tempest

  ≈ 1.5%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel only

  Power, colonialism, forgiveness and illusion in Shakespeare’s late romance.

  • Analyse the presentation of power and control, colonisation, freedom, forgiveness and reconciliation, and magic and illusion
  • Trace Prospero, Miranda, Caliban, Ariel, Ferdinand and the court party
  • Analyse the key scenes: the storm (1.1), Prospero’s account of the past and “This island’s mine” (1.2), the masque and “Our revels now are ended” (4.1), and the epilogue
  • Link the play to Jacobean exploration and colonisation, the court masque and the conventions of romance

• Other set plays: Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Othello, Henry V and Cambridge plays

  ≈ 2.5%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyEduqas onlyCambridge IGCSE Literature in English onlyCambridge IGCSE (9-1) Literature in English only

  Board-specific Shakespeare set plays, studied with the same extract and whole-text methods.

  • Julius Caesar (AQA): analyse rhetoric and persuasion (Brutus’ and Antony’s funeral speeches, 3.2), honour, ambition, the crowd, and political violence
  • Twelfth Night (Edexcel): analyse disguise and identity, love and desire, folly and the treatment of Malvolio, and festivity versus melancholy
  • Othello and Henry V (Eduqas): analyse jealousy, race and Iago’s manipulation; kingship, war, leadership and national identity

About 14 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice

• A Christmas Carol

  ≈ 4.5%2 h 30 min

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyEduqas only

  Scrooge’s redemption, social responsibility and Victorian poverty in Dickens’s novella.

  • Trace Scrooge’s transformation across the five staves and how Dickens structures the redemption through the three spirits
  • Analyse the themes of social responsibility, poverty and ignorance, family, generosity and the Christmas spirit, and time and change
  • Analyse Fred, the Cratchits and Tiny Tim, Fezziwig, Belle, Marley, and the children Ignorance and Want
  • Explore Dickens’s methods: the intrusive narrator, pathetic fallacy, lists and contrast, allegory, and ghost-story conventions
  • Link the novella to its context: the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and workhouses, Malthus and the “surplus population”, Ragged Schools, and Dickens’s own childhood

• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

  ≈ 4.5%2 h 30 min

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas only

  Duality, repression and Victorian respectability in Stevenson’s Gothic novella.

  • Analyse the themes of the duality of human nature, repression and respectability, science versus religion and the supernatural, secrecy, reputation and violence
  • Trace Jekyll and Hyde, Utterson, Lanyon, Enfield and Poole
  • Analyse the structure: multiple narrators, delayed revelation, and the final documents (Lanyon’s narrative and Jekyll’s full statement)
  • Explore the Gothic methods: fog-bound London settings, the door and the doubled house, animal imagery, and the indescribable Hyde

• Great Expectations

  ≈ 2%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Ambition, class, guilt and moral growth in Dickens’s bildungsroman.

  • Trace Pip’s development through the novel’s three stages and analyse his ambition, snobbery, guilt and moral growth
  • Analyse Miss Havisham, Estella, Joe, Magwitch, Jaggers and Herbert, and the novel’s ideas of gentility and social class
  • Explore Dickens’s methods: first-person retrospective narration, the Gothic Satis House, symbolism (the stopped clocks and the wedding dress), and coincidence
  • Link the novel to Victorian class mobility, crime and transportation

• Jane Eyre

  ≈ 1.5%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas only

  Independence, class, gender and religion in Charlotte Brontë’s first-person novel.

  • Trace Jane’s journey through Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Moor House and Ferndean, and her search for independence, equality and love
  • Analyse Rochester, Bertha Mason, St John Rivers, Helen Burns and Mrs Reed
  • Explore Brontë’s methods: first-person retrospective narration, direct address to the reader, the red-room and Gothic elements, and nature imagery
  • Link the novel to Victorian ideas about women, governesses, class and religion

• Frankenstein

  ≈ 1.5%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel only

  Ambition, creation, responsibility and isolation in Mary Shelley’s Gothic and Romantic novel.

  • Analyse the themes of dangerous knowledge and ambition, creation and responsibility, isolation, revenge, and nature versus nurture
  • Compare Victor Frankenstein and the creature, and explore the roles of Walton, Elizabeth and the De Laceys
  • Explore Shelley’s methods: the frame narrative (Walton’s letters, Victor’s account, the creature’s story), Gothic settings, sublime landscapes and the Prometheus myth
  • Link the novel to Romanticism, galvanism and early science, and Enlightenment ideas

• Pride and Prejudice

  ≈ 2%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas onlyCambridge IGCSE Literature in English onlyCambridge IGCSE (9-1) Literature in English onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Marriage, class, pride and prejudice in Austen’s social comedy.

  • Trace Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy through the first proposal, Darcy’s letter, Pemberley, and the resolution
  • Analyse the themes of marriage and money, class and reputation, pride and prejudice, and women’s position

• Other 19th-century novels: The Sign of Four, Silas Marner, The War of the Worlds

  ≈ 2%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas only

  Board-specific 19th-century prose set texts, studied with the same extract and whole-text methods.

  • The Sign of Four (AQA): analyse Holmes and Watson, Mary Morstan, Jonathan Small and the Agra treasure, detective-fiction conventions, and empire and “otherness”
  • Silas Marner (Edexcel, Eduqas): analyse Silas’s isolation and redemption through Eppie, Godfrey Cass, the community of Raveloe, and faith and industrialisation
  • The War of the Worlds (OCR, Eduqas): analyse the narrator, the Martian invasion as critique of empire and complacency, science and evolution, and the collapse of social order

About 15 h of study, lessons and core practice

• An Inspector Calls

  ≈ 6%3 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas onlyCCEA onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Social responsibility, class, gender and generational change in Priestley’s play.

  • Analyse how Priestley uses the Inspector to expose each Birling in turn, and the roles of Arthur, Sybil, Sheila, Eric and Gerald
  • Analyse the themes of social responsibility versus capitalism, class, gender, age and generational change, and guilt
  • Explore the dramatic methods: the well-made play and the whodunnit structure, dramatic irony (the “unsinkable” Titanic), the changing lighting, entrances and exits, and the twist ending
  • Analyse the Inspector’s final speech (“We are members of one body… fire and blood and anguish”) and its purpose
  • Link the play to its dual context: set in 1912, first performed in 1945–46, and Priestley’s socialism and the post-war welfare state

• Blood Brothers

  ≈ 2.5%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyEduqas only

  Class, fate, nature versus nurture and friendship in Willy Russell’s musical play.

  • Trace Mickey and Eddie from childhood to their deaths, and analyse Mrs Johnstone, Mrs Lyons, Linda and the Narrator
  • Analyse the themes of social class and inequality, fate and superstition, nature versus nurture, and friendship
  • Explore the dramatic methods: the Narrator, songs and motifs (Marilyn Monroe, the locket, the gun), circular structure, and the use of children’s games
  • Link the play to 1960s–1980s Liverpool, unemployment and Thatcher-era Britain

• DNA

  ≈ 1.5%1 h 30 min

  AQA onlyOCR only

  Group dynamics, responsibility and power in Dennis Kelly’s play about a teenage gang.

  • Analyse Phil, Leah, John Tate, Cathy, Brian, Adam and the pairs of minor characters, and how power shifts within the group
  • Analyse the themes of responsibility and guilt, peer pressure and violence, leadership, and morality
  • Explore the dramatic methods: four-act structure and repeated settings (street, field, wood), Leah’s monologues against Phil’s silence, and fragmented dialogue
  • Link the play to contemporary concerns about youth, gangs and moral responsibility

• Lord of the Flies

  ≈ 2%2 h

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyEduqas onlyCCEA only

  Civilisation, savagery, power and innocence in Golding’s novel.

  • Trace Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon and Roger and the collapse of order on the island
  • Analyse the themes of civilisation versus savagery, power and leadership, fear, and loss of innocence
  • Explore Golding’s methods: symbols (the conch, Piggy’s glasses, the beast, the Lord of the Flies), allegory, setting, and the ironic ending with the naval officer
  • Link the novel to the Second World War, the Cold War, and Golding’s view of human nature

• Animal Farm

  ≈ 1.5%1 h 30 min

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyCCEA only

  Power, corruption and propaganda in Orwell’s political allegory.

  • Trace the rise of Napoleon and the roles of Old Major, Snowball, Squealer, Boxer, Benjamin and the other animals
  • Analyse the themes of power and corruption, propaganda and language, class and exploitation, and the betrayal of revolutionary ideals
  • Explore Orwell’s methods: allegory and fable form, the rewriting of the Seven Commandments, circular structure and irony (“some animals are more equal than others”)
  • Link the novella to the Russian Revolution, Stalinism and Orwell’s democratic socialism

• Anita and Me

  ≈ 1.5%1 h 30 min

  AQA onlyPearson Edexcel onlyOCR onlyEduqas only

  Identity, belonging, racism and growing up in Meera Syal’s novel.

  • Trace Meena’s development, her friendship with Anita Rutter, and the influence of her family and Nanima
  • Analyse the themes of identity and belonging, racism, friendship, class and community, and coming of age
  • Explore Syal’s methods: retrospective first-person narration, humour, dialogue and dialect, and the bildungsroman form
  • Link the novel to the 1960s–70s Black Country, British Indian experience and changing communities

• Other modern set texts

  ≈ 3%2 h

  The remaining modern set texts across boards, studied with a common method for character, theme, methods and context.

  • AQA: A Taste of Honey, Leave Taking, Princess & The Hustler, My Name is Leon, Pigeon English and the Telling Tales anthology. Build character, theme and method notes and a quotation bank
  • Edexcel: Hobson’s Choice, Journey’s End, The Empress, Refugee Boy, The Woman in Black, Coram Boy and Boys Don’t Cry. Plan essays on theme and character without a printed extract
  • Cambridge (2027 list) and other boards: modern plays (e.g. Blues for an Alabama Sky, A Taste of Honey, Princess & the Hustler) and world prose (e.g. Things Fall Apart, To Kill a Mockingbird). Prepare passage-based and essay responses
  • Apply a transferable method to any modern text: the writer’s purpose, key moments, character arcs, dramatic or narrative methods, and the context of writing

About 13 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice

• AQA anthology: power and conflict

  ≈ 5%3 h

  AQA only

  The 15 Power and Conflict poems: content, methods, context and comparison pairings.

  • Know all 15 poems: Ozymandias, London, The Prelude (stealing the boat), My Last Duchess, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Exposure, Storm on the Island, Bayonet Charge, Remains, Poppies, War Photographer, Tissue, The Émigrée, Checking Out Me History and Kamikaze
  • Group poems for comparison by theme: the power of nature, the power of humans and its limits, the reality of conflict, memory and trauma, identity and belonging
  • Analyse form and structure (dramatic monologue, sonnet, free verse, enjambment, caesura, volta) and the contexts of the poets
  • Compare a named, printed poem with a remembered poem, balancing both and comparing throughout

• AQA anthology: love and relationships

  ≈ 3%3 h

  AQA only

  The 15 Love and Relationships poems: content, methods, context and comparison pairings.

  • Know all 15 poems: When We Two Parted, Love’s Philosophy, Porphyria’s Lover, Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’, Neutral Tones, Letters from Yorkshire, The Farmer’s Bride, Walking Away, Eden Rock, Follower, Mother, any distance, Before You Were Mine, Winter Swans, Singh Song! and Climbing My Grandfather
  • Group poems for comparison: romantic love and desire, heartbreak and loss, family bonds, parents and children, memory and distance
  • Analyse form and structure (sonnet, dramatic monologue, rhyme and half-rhyme, stanza patterns) and the contexts of the poets
  • Compare a named, printed poem with a remembered poem, balancing both and comparing throughout

• AQA anthology: worlds and lives

  ≈ 2%2 h 30 min

  AQA only

  The newest AQA cluster (first examined 2025): 15 poems, two-thirds published after 2000, about people and how they respond to the physical and social world around them.

  • Know all 15 poems in the Worlds and Lives cluster: speaker, situation, key lines and central ideas
  • Group poems for comparison: identity and heritage, place and environment, society and community, change and belonging
  • Analyse the modern and contemporary forms used in the cluster (free verse, prose-poetry, shape, voice) and the poets’ contexts
  • Compare a named, printed poem with a remembered poem, balancing both and comparing throughout

• Edexcel anthology: relationships, conflict, time and place, belonging

  ≈ 2.5%2 h 30 min

  Pearson Edexcel only

  The four 15-poem collections in the Pearson poetry anthology, with Belonging the newest.

  • Know all 15 poems in your chosen collection (Relationships, Conflict, Time and Place, or Belonging): speaker, situation, key lines and central ideas
  • Group poems within the collection by theme and method so any named poem can be paired quickly
  • Analyse language, form and structure and the relevant contexts of each poem
  • Write a comparison of a named poem with one other from the collection in about 35 minutes

• Other board anthologies (OCR, Eduqas, CCEA, Cambridge, Edexcel IGCSE)

  ≈ 2.5%2 h 30 min

  OCR onlyEduqas onlyCCEA onlyCambridge IGCSE Literature in English onlyCambridge IGCSE (9-1) Literature in English onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Board-specific studied poetry: OCR clusters, the new Eduqas anthology, the CCEA anthology, Cambridge Songs of Ourselves selections and the Edexcel International GCSE anthology.

  • OCR: know your chosen anthology cluster and practise comparing a named poem with an unseen poem, then writing about another poem from the cluster
  • Eduqas: know the anthology poems (new anthology from first teaching 2025) and practise a single-poem question followed by a comparison

• Comparing poems: method and structure

  ≈ 3%1 h 30 min

  How to write an integrated comparison of two poems that balances both texts and compares methods, not just ideas.

  • Build a comparative thesis around a shared idea and the key difference in how the poets present it
  • Structure the answer as integrated comparison (point, both poems, contrast in method) rather than two separate halves
  • Use comparative connectives and compare language, form and structure, not only content
  • Balance the two poems and bring in context only where it explains the poets’ choices

• Unseen poetry

  ≈ 4%2 h 30 min

  Reading, analysing and comparing poems you have never seen before under timed conditions.

  • Use a quick annotation routine: work out who is speaking, to whom, about what, and where the poem turns; then note tone, imagery, form and structure
  • Write a focused analysis of one unseen poem that answers the question’s specific focus with a clear interpretation (e.g. AQA Q27.1 for 24 marks)
  • Write a short, precise comparison of methods across two unseen poems (e.g. AQA Q27.2 for 8 marks, Edexcel’s 20-mark comparison)
  • Analyse unfamiliar forms and ambiguity confidently, offering tentative alternative readings
  • (Cambridge Paper 4, Edexcel International GCSE Paper 1) Write a full critical commentary on an unseen poem

About 17 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice

• Extract-to-whole and passage-based questions

  ≈ 3%1 h 15 min

  How to handle printed extracts: close analysis of the passage, then linking it to the whole text within the time allowed.

  • Read the question focus first, then annotate the extract for 3–4 rich moments linked to that focus
  • Balance extract analysis with whole-text coverage as your board requires (e.g. AQA 30-mark extract-to-whole questions; Edexcel’s separate 20-mark extract and 20-mark whole-text parts)
  • Move from the extract to the rest of the text using remembered references from the beginning, middle and end
  • Answer Cambridge passage-based questions by tracking the passage in sequence and showing how it builds its effects

• Unseen prose and critical commentary

  ≈ 1.5%1 h 15 min

  OCR onlyCCEA onlyCambridge IGCSE Literature in English onlyCambridge IGCSE (9-1) Literature in English only

  Analysing and comparing unseen prose extracts (OCR, CCEA) and writing Cambridge-style critical commentaries.

  • Compare an extract from a studied modern text with a thematically linked unseen extract (OCR Component 01 Section A)
  • Analyse narrative voice, characterisation, setting, structure and language in an unseen prose passage
  • Plan and write a Cambridge Paper 4 critical commentary in 75 minutes, including about 20 minutes of reading and planning
  • Develop a personal response that is supported, evaluative and alert to ambiguity

• Timed essays, planning and quotation revision

  ≈ 3.5%1 h

  Timing plans for each paper, fast planning routines, and building and memorising a flexible quotation bank for closed-book exams.

  • Follow a timing plan for each paper (e.g. AQA Paper 1: about 50 minutes per section; Paper 2: about 45 minutes per section) and leave time to check SPaG
  • Use a 5–8 minute plan: thesis, three or four ideas in text order, key quotations and context
  • Build a quotation bank of 15–25 short, versatile quotations per text, organised by character and theme, and memorise it with retrieval practice
  • Practise timed essays and self-mark them against the level descriptors to target the next level

• Coursework and controlled assessment

  ≈ 2%1 h

  CCEA onlyCambridge IGCSE Literature in English onlyCambridge IGCSE (9-1) Literature in English onlyEdexcel International GCSE English Literature only

  Non-exam routes: Cambridge Component 5 coursework, Edexcel International GCSE Paper 3 coursework and CCEA’s Shakespeare controlled assessment.

  • Cambridge Component 5: plan two assignments of 600–1,200 words on different texts, one of which may be an empathic response, with titles that allow all four assessment objectives
  • Edexcel International GCSE Paper 3: write the two coursework assignments (modern drama and literary heritage) that replace Paper 2
  • CCEA Unit 3: prepare and write the Shakespeare controlled-assessment task under supervised conditions

About 4 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice