IGCSE English Literature: Paper 1 - Poetry and Prose (Cambridge 0475)

This guide covers Paper 1 – Poetry and Prose, the compulsory component of Cambridge IGCSE English Literature 0475, 2026 series (Version 2, valid for the 2026 series only). Literature syllabuses are organised around named papers and set texts rather than a numbered topic taxonomy, and the set-text list changes by examination year — this guide covers the paper’s structure and assessment objectives, which are stable, rather than any specific text, since candidates should always check the current set-text grid published for their own exam series.

Where this fits in 0475

All candidates take Paper 1 plus either Paper 2 (Drama), or Paper 3 (Drama, Open Text) combined with either Paper 4 (Unseen) or Component 5 (Coursework). Paper 1 is therefore universal — every 0475 candidate sits it regardless of which route they take through the rest of the qualification — which makes its two sections, Poetry and Prose, the one part of the syllabus every candidate needs to prepare for in full.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE IGCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE 0475 — PAPER 1 POETRY AND PROSE

• Format: a compulsory, externally set and centrally marked written paper, 1 hour 30 minutes, 50 marks total
• Structure: candidates answer two questions — one from Section A (Poetry) and one from Section B (Prose) — each worth 25 marks, with a choice of two questions on each set text; relevant passages or poems are printed on the question paper itself, and set texts may not be taken into the exam room
• Assessment objectives tested by every question: AO1 knowledge of the content of the text, shown through reference to detail and quotation; AO2 understanding of characters, relationships, situations and themes; AO3 understanding of the writer’s intentions and methods, including response to their use of language; AO4 personal response, expressed either directly or through exploring the effect of the writer’s choices
• Set texts: drawn from the poetry and prose set-text lists published for the specific examination series — always confirm the current list against the syllabus grid for the year being examined, since it rotates

How to approach it

Because relevant passages are printed on the paper, Paper 1 is not primarily a memory test — it rewards close, textual analysis over recall, which changes how revision time should be spent. Rather than memorising quotations wholesale, practise annotating a printed extract cold and building an answer that moves through all four assessment objectives in sequence: establish what happens (AO1), what it reveals about character or theme (AO2), how the writer achieves that effect through specific language or structural choices (AO3), and what your own considered response to it is (AO4). A common way marks are lost is stopping at AO1–AO2 (accurate but purely descriptive answers) without pushing into AO3’s “how” and AO4’s personal engagement — timed practice answering the exact essay-style prompts used in past papers, for the texts actually being studied, is the most direct way to build that habit before the real exam.

The command word “Explore”

“Explore” is the one command word Cambridge formally defines for this syllabus, glossed as “write in detail about particular aspects.” It appears in the implied-question style described above (“Explore the ways in which…”), and understanding what it is asking for changes how an answer should be built: not a broad tour of the whole extract, but sustained, detailed engagement with a small number of well-chosen moments. Two or three closely analysed quotations, each unpacked for language, structure and effect, will consistently outscore six quotations that are each mentioned only briefly — breadth of coverage is not what earns marks on Paper 1, depth of analysis is.

Building an answer that satisfies all four AOs together

The strongest answers do not treat AO1 knowledge, AO2 understanding, AO3 analysis of method and AO4 personal response as four separate boxes to tick in sequence. A well-built paragraph instead folds them together: it states a point about the text, supports it with a short, exactly quoted phrase, analyses the specific language or structural choice within that quotation, and closes by connecting it to the writer’s likely intention or to the effect on a reader. Written this way, AO4’s personal response tends to emerge naturally through the quality of the analysis itself, rather than needing a bolted-on “I think…” sentence at the end of a paragraph, which examiners routinely identify as a weaker, more mechanical way of satisfying that objective.

Because the relevant passage or poem is printed on the question paper, quotation should always be short and exact — copied precisely, including punctuation, since claiming to analyse a specific word choice while misquoting it undermines the analysis. With two 25-mark answers to complete inside 90 minutes, timing discipline matters as much as textual knowledge: a candidate who spends significantly longer on their more confident first answer routinely runs short on their second, so planning a roughly even split between the two responses, with a few minutes of reading and planning built into each, tends to protect the mark total more reliably than writing until a first answer “feels finished.”

For the practical exam-technique side of this paper — including a fuller breakdown of the two question styles Cambridge sets, a working model for structuring a paragraph around all four assessment objectives, and the specific ways marks are most often lost — see the Paper 1 revision notes, which build directly on the format and assessment objectives introduced here.

Official syllabus

Cambridge IGCSE English Literature 0475 syllabus for 2026 (Version 2, December 2025) — cambridgeinternational.org.