AS English Literature A₇₇₁₁

Find past papers and mark schemes, and specimen papers for new courses, on our website at aqa.org.uk/pastpapers

This specification is designed to be taken over one or two years with all assessments taken at the end of the course.

AS exams and certification for this specification are available for the first time in May/June 2016 and then every May/June for the life of the specification.

This is a linear qualification. In order to achieve the award, students must complete all exams in May/June in a single year. All assessments must be taken in the same series.

Our AS and A-level exams in English include questions that allow students to demonstrate their ability to:

• draw together their knowledge, skills and understanding from across the full course of study
• provide extended responses.

All AS and A-level components offer only extended response questions.

All materials are available in English only.

4.1 Aims

Courses based on this specification must encourage students to develop their interest in and enjoyment of literature and literary studies as they:

• read widely and independently both set texts and others that they have selected for themselves
• engage critically and creatively with a substantial body of texts and ways of responding to them
• develop and effectively apply their knowledge of literary analysis and evaluation
• explore the contexts of the texts they are reading and others’ interpretations of them.

4.2 Assessment objectives

Assessment objectives (AOs) are set by Ofqual and are the same across all AS English Literature specifications and all exam boards.

The exams will measure to what extent students have achieved the following assessment objectives:

• AO1: Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression
• AO2: Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts
• AO3: Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received
• AO4: Explore connections across literary texts
• AO5: Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations.

Weighting of assessment objectives for AS English Literature A

The specification reflects the belief that the assessment objectives (AOs) work best together, producing a rounded and holistic view of English literature. Students will need to show coverage of all AOs in all tasks. To be specific:

AO1 essentially requires informed and relevant responses which are accurately written and use appropriate concepts and terminology.

AO2 requires students to analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts, with particular focus on the structures of texts as a form of shaping.

AO3 relates to the many possible contexts which arise out of the text, the specific task and the period being studied.

This specification treats AOs 1, 2 and 3 as broadly equal, given their relative weightings: AO1 has a weighting of 28% whilst AOs 2 and 3 both have a weighting of 24%.

AO4 involves connections across texts and sees possible meanings and interpretations arising not only out of the contexts of the text itself (AO3 above) but also out of the wider and broader contexts which comes from the study of period. Thus even when an individual text is being investigated it should still be seen as being framed by a wider network of texts and contexts to which it connects.

AO5 completes the picture by acknowledging that if work in AOs 2, 3 and 4 had been included in the response to the question then debate and interpretations will arise out of this work showing that the interpretation of texts is not a fixed process but a dynamic one.

AOs 4 and 5 each have a weighting of 12% in all questions.

4.3 Assessment weightings

The marks awarded on the papers will be scaled to meet the weighting of the components. Students’ final marks will be calculated by adding together the scaled marks for each component. Grade boundaries will be set using this total scaled mark. The scaling and total scaled marks are shown in the table below.