IGCSE English Literature: Paper 3 - Drama (Open Text) (Cambridge 0475)

Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475) gives candidates three routes through the qualification: Paper 1 plus Paper 2, or Paper 1 plus Paper 3 and Paper 4, or Paper 1 plus Paper 3 and Component 5 Coursework. This guide covers Paper 3 – Drama (Open Text), the drama paper taken by candidates on either of the two routes that don’t use Paper 2, and explains how it differs in both format and demand from Paper 2 Drama.

The headline difference: open book

Paper 3 is the only externally assessed literature paper on this syllabus where candidates may take their set text into the exam room. The syllabus is specific about what “open book” actually permits:

• Candidates may take a clean copy of their set text into the exam room.
• The text must not contain personal annotations, highlighting or underlining.
• Candidates may not use editions that include extensive study notes or facing-page translations or explanations.
• Editions with brief introductions, conclusions and foot/end notes are permitted, but candidates must not use those additional notes during the exam.

This is a meaningfully different skill from Paper 2’s closed-book format. Having the text available removes the pressure of recalling exact wording from memory, but it does not reduce the standard expected – all four assessment objectives are still tested in full, and examiners still expect precise, well-selected quotation rather than time spent searching the text during the exam. In practice, open book rewards candidates who know their text well enough to locate relevant passages quickly, not candidates who have simply not learned the text.

Format: one question, not two

Where Paper 2 requires two questions on two different texts, Paper 3 is shorter and narrower:

• 45 minutes, 25 marks (compared with Paper 2’s 1 hour 30 minutes, 50 marks)
• Candidates answer one question from a choice of two, both worth equal marks (25 marks each)
• Both questions are set on the same single text – candidates study just one play for this paper, not two
• Relevant passages are printed on the question paper

Because there is only one text to prepare rather than two, Paper 3 candidates can go deeper into a single play than Paper 2 candidates typically manage across two. The trade-off is time pressure: 45 minutes is a tight window for a full response addressing all four assessment objectives, so efficient planning matters more here than on the longer papers.

Set texts for the 2026 series

Paper 3 draws on the same five-play list as Paper 2 for the 2026 series: Blues for an Alabama Sky (Pearl Cleage), A Taste of Honey (Shelagh Delaney), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare), Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams). Set texts rotate by examination series, so always confirm the current list for the year your candidates are actually sitting the exam, rather than assuming it matches a previous year’s list.

What the four assessment objectives reward here

As on every paper in this syllabus, all four AOs are tested and weighted equally:

• AO1 – knowledge of the content of the text, shown through reference to detail and use of quotations
• AO2 – understanding of characters, relationships, situations and themes
• AO3 – understanding of the writer’s intentions and methods, responding to their use of language
• AO4 – a personal response, communicated either directly (questions asking “what do you think?”) or by implication (questions asking you to “explore the ways in which…”)

Open-book access mainly supports AO1 (you can locate and check quotations rather than relying purely on memory) and, indirectly, AO3 (you can point precisely to specific lines when discussing language and technique). It does not substitute for AO2 and AO4, which still require genuine understanding and a considered personal response worked out in advance of the exam, not assembled on the spot from the page in front of you.

How Paper 3 combines with the rest of the qualification

Paper 3 is never taken alone – it always pairs with either Paper 4 Unseen (1 hour 15 minutes, 25 marks, a critical commentary on unseen poetry or prose) or Component 5 Coursework (25 marks, two internally assessed portfolio assignments of 600-1200 words each, on different texts). Both routes bring the drama component to the same 25% weighting of the overall qualification; the choice between Paper 4 and Component 5 is a decision your school makes about how the course is delivered and assessed, not one you make individually as a candidate, so confirm early which route you are on.

How to approach it

Because the whole paper rests on one text, use your preparation time to build genuine familiarity with the entire play, not just the scenes you expect to be asked about – both set questions could draw on any part of it, and the “choice of two” only helps if you’re prepared for either. Practise locating specific, well-chosen quotations quickly under time pressure, since 45 minutes leaves little room for page-flipping; a small number of pre-identified key passages per major theme or character, tagged with sticky notes you’re permitted to use (check current guidance on what markings are allowed on a clean set text), is more useful than trying to search cold. Because this is the shortest externally assessed paper on the syllabus, spend a proportionate few minutes planning your single answer before writing, since a well-structured response that clearly addresses all four AOs in 40 minutes of writing will outperform an unplanned answer that runs out of time before reaching a personal response.

Official syllabus

Cambridge International, Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475) syllabus for examination in 2026 (Version 2, published December 2025): official syllabus PDF, sections 3 (set texts) and 4 (“Details of the assessment – Paper 3 Drama (Open Text)”). Verified 2026-09-02.