Specifications that use this resource:

Modern times: Literature from 1945 to the present day: creating your own questions

Below you will find instructions on how to use the accompanying resources to create your own exam practice questions. This example shows you how to use the 'Modern times: Literature from 1945 to the present day' resource package to set questions for Paper 2B, Section B, for the 'Modern times: Literature from 1945 to the present day' component for A-level English Literature A.

Paper 2B, Section B 

Comparative texts

If you have used the relevant questions from the specimen assessment materials or want to set a question on a different aspect of Modern Times, you can use these documents in the following way:

1. Look at how the relevant questions from the specimen assessment materials are constructed, for example:

'Modern literature shows isolated characters as being profoundly damaged.'

Compare the significance of isolation in two other texts you have studied. Remember to include in your answer reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts you are comparing.

The question wording (Compare the significance of…you are comparing.) can remain unchanged, with the exception of the area to be explored (here 'isolated characters as being profoundly damaged'). You will need, however, to construct a different 'view' depending upon the aspect of Modern times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day you want the students to explore.

2. Read the examiner commentary to help you construct a different 'view' to debate. Look for aspects of Modern Times which occur in both texts but don't forget that the absence of aspects in a text is equally valid for debate. Other sources can be used to construct a view:

  • look at the list of aspects of Modern Times in the specification and make up a critical view around one of these
  • research critical views on these texts around which to structure a debate
  • research critical views on another text about 'Modern Times' (non-set texts included) and adapt the quote in a more general sense so that students can consider how far this can be said to be true of the texts they have studied.

This resource is part of the Modern times - Literature from 1945 to the present day resource package.