QCE English & Literature Extension past exams 2020–2024, by year and topic

The rest of the syllabus

Question-level mapping for these areas is still being verified. Every official paper covering them is in the year table above.

• Unit 3: Ways of reading — Readings and defences — reader-centred theoretical approach · Readings and defences — author-centred theoretical approach · Interpretive strategies and reading practices for producing an individual reading of a literary text · Defence of a reading — explaining how a chosen theoretical approach shapes meaning-making · Defence of a complex transformation: text-centred and world-context-centred approaches
• Unit 4: Exploration and evaluation — Text-centred theoretical approaches to meaning-making · World/context-centred theoretical approaches to meaning-making · Determining invited and alternative readings of texts · Repositioning audiences through theoretically defensible strategies · Evaluating aspects of text-centred and world-context-centred approaches applied to literary texts · Relationship between writing practices and reading positions · IA3 Academic research paper: at least two selected theories, up to3000words,35%
• External assessment: Theorised exploration of unseen text (25%) — Analytical essay response to an unseen literary stimulus text · 2026 EA: aspects of text-centred and world-context-centred approaches applied to one of three unseen short texts · Synthesising interpretation with theoretical framing under exam conditions
• Internal assessment (context for EA preparation) — IA1 Reading and defence (20%) · IA2 Defence of a complex transformation (20%) · IA3 Academic research paper (35%), up to3000words