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English Literature flashcards

32 cards covering every topic of the 9275 syllabus (Version 5.1, for exams May/June 2018 onwards (final May/June exams 2027)). Study one topic or mix them all, turn each card, and mark yourself honestly.

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Topic 1: Prose and drama

How is OxfordAQA 9275 Paper 1 (Prose and drama) set out?: 1 hour 30 minutes, closed book, 60 marks, 40% of the qualification, taken on both routes: Section A prose fiction (30 marks) and Section B drama (30 marks).
What are the two routes through 9275?: Route A: Paper 1 plus Paper 2a (anthology poetry, unseen poetry and unseen prose). Route B: Paper 1 plus Paper 2b and a non-exam assessment.
Essay-style or passage-based question: how do you choose?: Passage-based suits close line-by-line reading of a printed extract. Essay-style needs evidence selected from memory across the whole text. Practise both.
What should a closed-book quotation bank cover for a novel?: Two or three major characters and two or three central themes, each with short quotations from more than one point in the text.
What is foreshadowing, and what is its effect?: An early hint of later events. It builds suspense or a sense of inevitability and rewards the reader for noticing patterns.
Why does the edition of a set text matter?: Editions can differ in pagination and sometimes content, so revise from the edition your course follows.
How should a 9275 drama answer differ from a prose answer?: Treat the play as written to be staged: comment on stage directions, how dialogue might be delivered, and dramatic structure, not just the words.
What should a drama quotation bank add for each major character?: At least one quotation with a staging note: how it might be delivered or what the stage directions imply.
What is a dramatic climax?: The point of highest tension where the central conflict comes to a head, usually leading to the resolution.
What can a stage direction about silence or a pause achieve?: It lets tension, awkwardness or unspoken feeling register with the audience, often saying more than dialogue would.

Topic 2: Route A: Poetry and unseen texts

How is 9275 Paper 2a set out?: 2 hours 15 minutes, open book, 90 marks, 60% of the qualification: Section A anthology poetry, Section B unseen poetry, Section C unseen prose, 30 marks each.
What is the 9275 poetry anthology?: People and Places, a collection of 20 thematically linked poems, supplied in the exam.
How should you revise the People and Places anthology?: By theme rather than poem by poem: prepare two or three pairings across themes such as identity, displacement, place and memory, each with one real similarity and one real difference.
Why does "both poems are about..." score poorly?: It states a shared subject and stops. Strong comparison explains how each poem treats the theme differently through its methods.
What does Paper 2a Section B (Unseen poetry) reward?: Close reading of a poem you have not studied: the whole mark comes from what the poem contains, with no biography or context to fall back on.
In what order should you work through an unseen poem?: Structure (stanza shape, line length, rhyme or its absence), then language (word choice, imagery, sound), then tone, asking what effect each choice creates.
What is the effect of a line break placed mid-phrase?: It suspends meaning briefly, so the reader holds an idea alone at the line end before the next line completes or changes it.
What is imagery, and why analyse it?: Language that appeals to the senses, including similes and metaphors. It shapes how the reader pictures and feels about the subject.
What does Paper 2a Section C (Unseen prose) require?: Analysis of how viewpoint, structure and language create meaning within an unseen prose extract. It is taken on Route A only.
Why should you not speculate about the wider novel in unseen prose?: The assessment rewards close reading of what is on the page. Guessing at plot beyond the extract earns nothing.
What three-step method works for both unseen sections?: Structure: where the text opens, shifts and ends, and why. Language: which words or images stand out and what they suggest. Effect: what the reader is meant to feel or understand.
What is the effect of a close third-person viewpoint?: The narrator stays near one character's perceptions and feelings, so the reader shares their experience while still seeing from outside.

Topic 3: Route B: Poetry and non-exam assessment

What should a profile of each studied poem include?: Situation, theme and attitude, form and structure, key language, any context needed, and links to other poems in the group.
How do you choose the second poem in a Route B comparison?: Pick the poem that best fits the question, not your favourite, and organise the comparison by an idea, explaining why the methods differ.
What does a strong paragraph on a poem contain?: A clear claim, brief evidence, analysis of the poet's method and an explanation of its effect on the reader.
What is a five-step approach to an unseen poem?: Read twice (sense, then detail); annotate repeated words, images and tone shifts; sum up what it is about in a sentence or two; choose three or four points on method; write in an organised way.
What are common unseen-poetry traps?: Hunting for a hidden meaning and ignoring the surface meaning, listing techniques without effects, spending all the time on the first stanza, and writing about what the poem is not.
How do you compare two unseen poems?: Plan around two or three shared ideas, such as the poets' attitudes to nature, and show how each uses language and structure differently.
What is the 9275 Route B non-exam assessment?: Written work on a whole prose text, completed in school over a period rather than under timed conditions, in place of Route A's unseen prose.
How should you plan NEA literature work?: Turn the task into a question, write a thesis and a sequence of points with evidence, and choose evidence from across the text to show development.
How should an NEA draft be revised?: Revise for argument first (does each paragraph support the thesis and explain effects?), then edit for accuracy, check quotations and keep within the word limit.
How should another reader's view be used in NEA work?: Put it in your own words and acknowledge where it came from, and use context only where you are sure of it and it explains a choice in the text.

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Written for OxfordAQA International GCSE English Literature (9275), syllabus 9275 (Version 5.1, for exams May/June 2018 onwards (final May/June exams 2027)).

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