Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing

Paper 1, "Explorations in creative reading and writing", is one of two equally weighted exams on this course. It lasts 1 hour 45 minutes, is worth 80 marks, and counts for 50% of your GCSE.

The paper is built around a single unseen fiction text: a passage of 20th- or 21st-century prose fiction, printed in a separate insert. "Unseen" means you have never studied it before, so the paper tests transferable reading and writing skills rather than knowledge of a set book. The sample paper, for instance, uses an extract from Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

The exam splits into two halves that test opposite skills:

Section	Skill tested	Marks	Weighting of paper
A: Reading	Responding to one fiction source	40	50%
B: Writing	Your own descriptive or narrative writing	40	50%

You must answer every question in Section A and one writing task in Section B. Reading and writing carry equal marks, so neither section can be rushed.

Section A prints one fiction source and asks four questions on it. Each is worth more than the last, and each rewards a different Assessment Objective (AO) — the specific skill the examiner marks.

Q	Task	Marks	AO
1	Multiple choice on a short line range	4	AO1
2	"How does the writer use language…?"	8	AO2
3	"How has the writer structured the text…?"	8	AO2
4	Evaluation: "To what extent do you agree…?"	20	AO4

The questions move through the source in order. Question 1 is a set of four multiple-choice items on the opening lines (new for 2026). Question 2 zooms in on a short extract and asks how its language creates an effect. Question 3 steps back to the whole source and asks how its structure is organised. Question 4 focuses on the second half of the source and asks you to evaluate a statement about it, judging how far you agree.

Read the questions before the source. Knowing that Q4 asks about the second half, for example, tells you what to watch for as you read.

Section B is a single creative writing task worth 40 marks, the same as the whole of Section A. You are given a scenario (in the sample, a magazine creative writing competition) and a choice of two options, usually linked to the theme of the Section A source.

The two options give you a genuine choice of form:

• Describe a scene, often with a photograph provided for ideas. Descriptive writing paints a picture and holds a moment still; it does not need a plot.
• Narrate a story, or the opening of one. Narrative writing tells events over time, with a sense of character and development.

You pick one. The 40 marks split into two Assessment Objectives:

Marks	AO	What it rewards
24	AO5	Content and organisation: ideas, vocabulary, tone and structure matched to purpose and audience
16	AO6	Technical accuracy: spelling, punctuation and a range of sentence forms

Because 16 of the 40 marks are for accuracy alone, careful spelling, punctuation and varied sentences are worth as much as vivid content.

Section A and Section B use levels-based mark schemes. Instead of ticking separate points, the examiner reads your whole answer, decides which level it best fits, and places it in that band.

The published levels run from Level 1 (simple, limited) up to Level 4 (perceptive, detailed). Moving up a level is not about writing more; it is about the quality of what you do. For the reading questions, that means moving from spotting a feature, to explaining its effect clearly, to analysing it in a developed, precise way.

Question 1 is the exception: as multiple choice it is marked right or wrong, one mark for each of the four correct answers, with no levels.

A single, well-developed point that names a method and explains its effect on the reader will lift you a level. A list of features with no explanation keeps you in the lower bands.

This is why depth beats coverage on every question except Q1. You do not have to write about everything; you have to write well about what you choose.

Each question rewards a named AO, and the whole paper is designed so that reading covers AO1–AO4 and writing covers AO5–AO6.

• AO1 — identify and interpret information (Q1).
• AO2 — analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects, using terminology (Q2 for language, Q3 for structure).
• AO4 — evaluate a text critically and support this with references (Q4).
• AO5 — communicate clearly and imaginatively, organising your ideas (Section B).
• AO6 — accurate spelling, punctuation and a range of sentence structures (Section B).

AO3 (comparing texts) is not tested on Paper 1; it belongs to Paper 2, which uses two sources. AO4 (evaluation) is the reverse: it is a Paper 1 skill only.

AO6 (technical accuracy) is a fixed 20% of the marks across the whole qualification, and on Paper 1 those marks all sit in Section B. Proofreading your writing directly protects them.

The single most common way to lose marks on Paper 1 is running out of time, usually because Section A over-runs and the 40-mark writing task gets rushed. Matching your minutes to the marks fixes this.

A reliable plan for the 105 minutes:

Stage	Time	Why
Read the source and questions	~15 min	AQA advises this; it sets up every answer
Q1 (4 marks)	~3–4 min	Multiple choice; do not over-think it
Q2 (8 marks)	~10 min	One tight extract, three or four points
Q3 (8 marks)	~10 min	Whole-source structure, three or four points
Q4 (20 marks)	~20 min	The big reading question; plan it
Q5 (40 marks)	~45 min	Plan, write, then check for errors

The rising mark tariff is your guide: give Q1 the least time and Q4 the most within Section A, then guard a full 45 minutes for the writing, including a few minutes at the end to check spelling and punctuation for those AO6 marks.

1. Spending too long on Section A

Section A and Section B are worth 40 marks each, so an hour on the reading leaves too little for the writing. If a reading answer is running over, move on; the marks lost by leaving Section B unfinished are far greater.

2. Writing about the wrong lines

Q1, Q2 and Q4 each specify a line range. Answering Q2 using the whole source, or Q1 from lines outside the stated range, earns nothing for material taken from the wrong place. Check the line numbers before you write.

3. Confusing language and structure

Q2 is about language (words, phrases, sentence forms) and Q3 is about structure (how the whole text is ordered and shaped). Writing about word choice in the structure question, or about openings and shifts in the language question, answers the wrong AO.

4. Treating Section B as an afterthought

The creative writing task is worth 40 marks, and 16 of them are for technical accuracy. Skipping the plan or leaving no time to check errors throws away easy AO6 marks that vivid content cannot replace.

5. Listing features without explaining effects

Across the reading questions, naming a technique earns little on its own. The marks come from explaining the effect on the reader. "The writer uses a simile" is identification; explaining what the simile makes the reader feel is analysis.