GCSE English with AQA
Most students take two English GCSEs: English Language and English Literature. Both are assessed by exams at the end of the course. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are marked in the Language writing tasks and across the Literature papers.
This page explains the papers and the skills that practice can help with. Secondary Scholars practises language skills, not the set texts for Literature. Its questions are written for this site and are not AQA papers.
How the exams are set out
| Paper | Time | Marks | Share of the grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language paper 1: explorations in creative reading and writing | 1 hour 45 minutes | 80 marks | Half of the grade |
| Language paper 2: writers’ viewpoints and perspectives | 1 hour 45 minutes | 80 marks | Half of the grade |
| Literature paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel | 1 hour 45 minutes | 64 marks | 40% of the grade |
| Literature paper 2: modern texts and poetry | 2 hours 15 minutes | 96 marks | 60% of the grade |
- English has no tiers: every student sits the same papers and can reach any grade from 9 to 1.
- Each Language paper has a reading section and a writing section.
- Spoken language is assessed separately and reported alongside the Language grade.
Is your school using a different exam board? Compare AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas.
What you can practise here
Secondary Scholars has eight English topics: homophones, spelling, punctuation, word classes, sentence types, language techniques, synonyms and opposites, and reading comprehension with twenty-five passages. There is no essay marking, and the Literature set texts are not covered.
- Homophones: Choose the right word from words that sound alike, such as their, there and they’re, or affect and effect.
- Spelling: Pick the correct spelling from common misspellings, with a tip for remembering each word.
- Punctuation: Choose the correctly punctuated sentence, covering commas, apostrophes, speech marks, colons and semicolons.
- Word classes: Say whether a word is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction or determiner in its sentence.
- Sentence types: Name a sentence as a statement, question, command or exclamation, and as simple, compound or complex.
- Language techniques: Name the language technique in an example: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration and more.
- Synonyms and opposites: Choose a word with the same meaning, or the opposite, to build a bigger vocabulary.
- Reading comprehension: Read a short passage, then answer questions on finding information, inference, word meaning and the writer’s methods.
How to practise
- Read a passage round to practise finding evidence and explaining what words suggest.
- Use the language techniques topic until you can name and explain each one without looking.
- Keep spelling and punctuation rounds short and regular: they build with repetition.
- Always read the explanation, which quotes the words in the passage that give the answer.
Common questions
- Does AQA English have tiers?
- No. Every student sits the same English Language papers and the same English Literature papers.
- How long are the AQA English Language papers?
- Each of the two papers lasts 1 hour 45 minutes and is worth 80 marks, and each counts for half of the grade.
- Is spelling, punctuation and grammar marked?
- Yes. It is marked in the Language writing tasks and across the Literature papers, so practising it helps in both.
- Can this site help with Shakespeare or poetry?
- Not yet. It practises language skills and reading. It does not cover the set texts for English Literature.
Exam details change. Always check the current specification on the exam board’s own website. Oakling Secondary Scholars is not connected with AQA.