AQA A-Level English Literature A 2026 Predicted Practice Paper — Paper 1

Answer ALL questions. Write your answers in the spaces provided. You must write down all the stages in your working.

Section A

Shakespeare - passage-based question with linked essay. Answer one question in Section A, the compulsory question in Section B and one question in Section C. Extract-safe note: StudyVector does not reproduce copyrighted exam-board or set-text extracts here. Use your clean copy, class extract or the original unseen poem printed in the relevant question.

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  Question SECTION-A1 (25 marks)

  AQA-style extract-safe Shakespeare task (25 marks). Use the Shakespeare play you have studied. Choose a short moment where power, ambition, conflict or responsibility changes a character's behaviour. Starting with that moment, write about how Shakespeare presents power and responsibility in the play as a whole. In your answer, write about the chosen moment, the wider play, Shakespeare's methods and relevant context where it strengthens the argument.

  (Total for Question SECTION-A1 is 25 marks)

Section B

Unseen poetry - compulsory comparative essay. Answer one question in Section A, the compulsory question in Section B and one question in Section C. Extract-safe note: StudyVector does not reproduce copyrighted exam-board or set-text extracts here. Use your clean copy, class extract or the original unseen poem printed in the relevant question.

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  Question SECTION-B1 (25 marks)

  Read this original StudyVector practice poem, then answer the 25-mark question on Unseen poetry comparison. The Last Light The bus stop glass holds one pale square of sun, then lets it slide across the empty road. I fold your note until the corners split, and wait for evening to admit what it knows. Explore how the poem presents memory and uncertainty. Write about language, structure and the effect on the reader.

  (Total for Question SECTION-B1 is 25 marks)

Section C

Comparing texts - open-book essay linking two texts. Answer one question in Section A, the compulsory question in Section B and one question in Section C. Extract-safe note: StudyVector does not reproduce copyrighted exam-board or set-text extracts here. Use your clean copy, class extract or the original unseen poem printed in the relevant question.

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  Question SECTION-C1 (25 marks)

  AQA-style extract-safe literature task (25 marks). Use the prose, drama or 19th-century text you have studied. Choose a moment where a character faces inequality, fear, moral pressure or responsibility. Starting with that moment, write about how the writer presents comparing prose and poetry texts and what the reader is encouraged to think or feel. In your answer, write about the chosen moment, the text as a whole, writer methods and relevant context where it supports the argument.

  (Total for Question SECTION-C1 is 25 marks)