Route B Poetry and Non-Exam Assessment (9275): Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Question 1 does not name specific People and Places poems: apply it to your own studied selection. The poem in Question 2 is an original poem written for this resource.

Related: Route B revision notes, Route B study guide

Route B of OxfordAQA International GCSE English Literature (9275) is assessed by Paper 2b: Poetry (one 30-mark anthology question and one 30-mark unseen poetry question, 1 hour 30 minutes, open book) and a 30-mark non-exam assessment on a prose text that is not a set text. Each task below is marked against AO1 (themes, ideas, contexts), AO2 (writers’ methods) and AO3 (informed personal response and accurate writing).

Paper 2b Section A: Poetry (30 marks)

1. Choose two poems from People and Places in which a place shapes a person’s sense of identity. Compare how the poets present the relationship between the person and the place. [30]

Paper 2b Section B: Unseen poetry (30 marks)

2. Read the poem below. How does the poet present the speaker’s feelings about returning home? [30]

Return

The bus leaves me where the road gives up, and the village comes to meet me in the shape of a dog I do not know.

My mother’s gate has a new hinge. It does not complain the way it used to. I miss the complaint.

Inside, the clock I wound each Sunday has learned to wind itself, or someone has learned to wind it. Either way,

the house kept time without me, and I stand in the kitchen doorway like a guest who has come too early.

Non-exam assessment (30 marks)

3. Choose one of the following tasks, or adapt it with your teacher to your chosen text. Write an extended response on the whole text. (a) How does Charlotte Brontë present Jane’s struggle for independence in Jane Eyre? (b) How does Mary Shelley use the novel’s narrative structure to shape the reader’s sympathy in Frankenstein? (c) How does Chinua Achebe present the conflict between tradition and change in Things Fall Apart?

4. A student proposes writing their NEA on Great Expectations. Explain why this is not allowed and suggest an alternative. [2]

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Indicative content

Question 1 (anthology comparison)

AO	What a strong answer does
AO1	Chooses two poems with a clear link; explores ideas of belonging, displacement, memory or cultural identity; uses context where relevant
AO2	Compares methods: speaker and voice, imagery of place, structure (shifts in time or perspective), form and line length
AO3	A clear comparative argument with accurate terminology; integrated comparison throughout

Level guidance (using the same level descriptors as the NEA criteria for illustration): Level 4 is a clear, focused comparison with clear explanation of methods; Level 6 is a conceptualised comparison, for example arguing that one poet presents place as a source of identity and the other as something the speaker must leave to define themselves.

Question 2 (“Return”)

AO1: ideas

• Returning home after time away; the speaker finds the home has changed and continued without them; feelings of loss, displacement and estrangement; the idea that belonging depends on being needed.

AO2: methods

• Personification: the road that “gives up”, the village that “comes to meet me”, the hinge that no longer “complain[s]” make the place alive and indifferent.
• Short sentence: “I miss the complaint.” isolates an unexpected feeling: the speaker misses an imperfection because it was familiar.
• Clock imagery: the clock that “has learned to wind itself” symbolises life continuing; the hesitation “or someone / has learned to wind it” hints that someone has taken the speaker’s place.
• Structure: tercets move from arrival (outside) to gate to house to kitchen, narrowing to the doorway; enjambment across stanzas 3 and 4 (“Either way, / the house kept time”) carries the realisation.
• Final simile: “like a guest who has come too early” reverses expectations: the speaker is now a visitor in their own home, and “too early” suggests they are not yet expected or welcome.

AO3

• A personal interpretation: the poem may be read as gentle regret, or as the painful discovery that home is a relationship, not a place. Accurate terminology and a structured response.

Levels (illustrative): Level 2 identifies personification or the simile with simple comment; Level 4 explains the effects of a range of methods clearly; Level 6 explores how small details (hinge, clock) build the central idea and offers a conceptualised reading.

Question 3 (NEA)

Task	AO1	AO2	AO3
(a) Jane Eyre	Independence, class, gender, religion; the governess’s position in 19th-century society	First-person retrospective narration; settings as stages (Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Moor House, Ferndean); symbolism of the red-room and fire	An argued view of whether Jane’s final marriage completes or compromises her independence
(b) Frankenstein	Responsibility, ambition, isolation; Romantic and scientific contexts	Nested narrators (Walton, Victor, the creature) and how the creature’s central narrative changes sympathy; letters as frame	A personal judgement on where sympathy finally rests
(c) Things Fall Apart	Igbo society, colonialism and missionaries; Okonkwo’s fear of weakness	Proverbs and folk tales; the three-part structure; the ironic final paragraph from the District Commissioner’s view	A view on whether Okonkwo’s fall is personal, social or both

Each response must engage with the whole text to reach Level 3 and above, and Level 6 needs a “critical, exploratory, conceptualised response”.

4. Great Expectations is a prescribed Paper 1 set text, and the NEA text must not come from the prescribed set texts [1]. An alternative of similar quality, scope and challenge, such as Jane Eyre or Things Fall Apart [1].

Frequently asked questions

How long should the NEA response be? The specification describes “one extended response” but does not print a word limit; follow your centre’s guidance.

Can I compare two novels in the NEA? The specification describes a response to “a substantial whole prose fiction text”, so the task is normally on one text. Ask your teacher before planning a comparison.

Should I compare in the unseen poetry answer? Not on Paper 2b, which asks one question on one unseen poem. Comparison is assessed in the anthology question.

Official specification

OxfordAQA International GCSE English Literature (9275) specification, 3.3 Route B and 4.4 NEA marking criteria — oxfordaqa.com.