Prose and Drama (9275): Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination, and do not reference any specific set text — apply the method below to your own studied prose text and play. They are not reproduced past-paper questions. Examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Prose and Drama revision notes

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Section A (practise using your own studied prose text)

1. Explore how the writer presents a central relationship in your studied prose text. [30]

2. Discuss how your studied prose writer uses setting to shape the reader’s understanding of a central character. [30]

Section B (practise using your own studied play)

3. Explore how tension is created at a key moment in your studied play, considering both language and dramatic method. [30]

4. Discuss how your studied playwright presents conflict between two characters, considering how this conflict is staged as well as what is said. [30]

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Answers (worked approach — marks depend on your studied texts)

1. A top-band response identifies the relationship precisely and traces how it is presented at several distinct points across the text [12], supports every point with a short, precisely chosen quotation, not paraphrase or plot summary [10], and analyses the writer’s specific methods (narrative voice, structure, imagery, dialogue) rather than simply describing what happens between the characters [8].

2. A strong response identifies specific settings the writer returns to at key moments [10], explains what each setting is made to suggest about the character placed within it – through description, atmosphere, or the character’s own response to the place [12], and connects at least two different settings to show how the writer’s use of place develops across the text, rather than analysing one setting in isolation [8].

3. A strong response identifies a specific moment and analyses both the language used (word choice, imagery, rhythm of dialogue) and dramatic method (stage directions, pacing, staging choices, what is left unsaid) [16], explains precisely how these choices create tension for an audience rather than a reader [8], and situates the moment within the play’s wider structure — why this point, and not another, is where tension builds [6].

4. A strong response identifies the specific nature of the conflict (its cause, and what each character wants) [8], analyses how the playwright stages the conflict – through dialogue, stage directions, blocking, or significant silence – rather than only summarising what the characters say to each other [14], and considers how an audience’s sympathies might shift during the scene, using specific evidence from the text [8].

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Why this resource is text-agnostic

OxfordAQA’s Prose and Drama paper sets questions on whichever prose text and play a centre has chosen from the specification’s prescribed list, so a single set of practice questions naming specific texts would only be useful to a fraction of students studying this paper. These questions are instead built around the transferable skills the paper actually rewards – analysing how a writer presents relationships, setting, tension and conflict – so they apply directly regardless of which specific prose text and play your class has studied.

How to adapt these questions to your own set text

Because this resource deliberately does not name a specific prose text or play, the most effective way to use it is to substitute your own studied texts into each question exactly as worded, then time yourself writing a full response under exam conditions (roughly 45 minutes per question, reflecting the 30-mark allocation relative to the paper’s overall timing). Before writing, jot down two or three specific moments or quotations from your own text that could support the question, since planning which evidence to use before starting to write is what separates a well-structured top-band response from one that discovers its argument as it goes.

Where marks are usually lost

• Section A answers that summarise the relationship’s plot instead of analysing how it’s presented.
• Section B answers that treat the play as prose, missing staging and performance considerations entirely.
• Quotations that are too long or imprecisely selected to support a clear analytical point.
• Confusing details from a different edition or adaptation of the set text.
• Answering only part of a two-part question (for example, discussing what a conflict is about without addressing how it is staged), losing marks against the specific wording of the question set.
• Writing a response that could apply to almost any text in the studied genre, rather than one that is clearly rooted in the specific details, characters and structure of the text actually studied.

Building an exam-ready evidence bank in advance

Rather than searching for suitable quotations under exam pressure, prepare a short bank of 8-10 versatile quotations or specific moments from each of your studied prose text and play well before the exam, each one briefly annotated with what technique it demonstrates and what it could be used to argue. Versatile evidence – a moment or quotation that could plausibly support several different question types (relationship, setting, tension, conflict) – is more valuable revision material than evidence tied to only one possible question, since you cannot predict exactly which question will appear on the day.

Why command words matter as much as content knowledge

Both “explore” and “discuss” invite a genuinely analytical response rather than a purely descriptive one – a response that only narrates what happens in the text, however accurately, will not reach the top band against either command word. Treat every practice question as requiring a clear analytical argument, built and sustained across the whole response, with quotations and technique-analysis used as evidence for that argument rather than as isolated observations dropped in without connection to a wider point.