Paper 1 Section A · 45 marks
Assessment
Five questions, two texts, one rising ladder of demand. Here is what each question rewards in practical terms, and the habits that move students up it.
The ladder of demand
- Q1–Q3 (2 + 4 + 5): retrieval, own-words summary, and explanation with brief support. Marks are lost to habits, not ability: quoting on Q2, under-counting points, straying outside the line range.
- Q4 (12): language AND structure analysed for effect across the whole extract. The standing warning holds: no credit for feature-spotting or retelling. Marked in five levels; a strong answer selects the aspects it can analyse best rather than cataloguing everything.
- Q5 (22): comparison of the two reading texts. The discriminator is integration: both texts held in single paragraphs and sentences, evidence in reasonable balance, structure compared as well as language.
Descriptors paraphrased for planning purposes; always mark against the current published grid from Pearson.
What moves an answer up
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Names techniques (‘uses a simile’) | Explores what the technique does to tone, meaning and reader, zoomed to single words. |
| Quotes whole lines, separately introduced | Embeds short quotations inside the analytical sentence. |
| Analyses the opening only | Tracks the whole extract, including structural turns and the ending. |
| Compares in a bolt-on final sentence | Builds every Q5 paragraph around a comparative topic sentence with connectives doing real work. |
| Generic effects (‘engages the reader’) | Effects tied to the question focus and the text’s purpose and audience. |
Marking with the desk
The marking desk gives annotations, never marks: it challenges device-spotting, checks embedding and question focus, and (for 22-mark answers) tests whether comparison is integrated or stapled. Suggested routine: timed answer in class, desk annotation for homework, redraft in a different colour, teacher marks the redraft against the grid. Your level judgements stay yours; the desk does the first-pass reading.
Marking rhythm for Q4/Q5
Read once for question focus (underline every topic sentence: do they use the question’s words?), once for method range (language and structure both analysed for effect), and once for evidence (short, embedded, zoomed). For Q5, add a comparison pass: fewer than five sentences containing both texts is a sequential answer. Comment at the level of pattern, and the redraft does the rest.