AQA GCSE English Literature 2027 Predicted Practice Paper — Paper 2

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

Section A: Modern Texts

Essay question on a modern prose or drama text. Answer ONE question from Section A, ONE question from Section B, and BOTH questions 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-A-MODERN-TEXTS1 (34 marks)

  Answer ONE question on the modern prose or drama text you have studied. Do not quote the copyrighted set text directly; instead refer closely to specific moments, characters and stagecraft or narrative choices from your clean copy. In the modern text you have studied, a character is often shown to change as a result of the events of the play or novel. Write about how a character changes, and how the writer uses this change to explore an idea that matters to the whole text. Write about: - how the writer presents the character and the way they change - how the writer uses this change to explore ideas about people or society. [30 marks + 4 marks for the range and accuracy of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar]

  (Total for Question SECTION-A-MODERN-TEXTS1 is 34 marks)

Section B: Poetry Anthology

Comparative poetry analysis. Answer ONE question from Section A, ONE question from Section B, and BOTH questions 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-B-POETRY-ANTHOLOGY1 (30 marks)

  Answer ONE question on the poetry anthology cluster you have studied (for example Power and Conflict, or Love and Relationships). Do not quote the copyrighted poems; instead refer closely to specific images, lines, structures and techniques you remember from your clean anthology. Compare how poets present the effects of POWER (whether the power of people, nature, or the state) in one poem from your studied cluster and in one other poem from the same cluster. Write about: - the ideas about power in the two poems - the poets' methods of presenting these ideas - the effect of these methods on the reader. [30 marks]

  (Total for Question SECTION-B-POETRY-ANTHOLOGY1 is 30 marks)

Section C: Unseen Poetry

Analysis of unseen poem(s). Answer ONE question from Section A, ONE question from Section B, and BOTH questions 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-C-UNSEEN-POETRY1 (24 marks)

  Read the following ORIGINAL StudyVector practice poem, then answer the question. The Last Bus Home The last bus breathes at the stop like a tired horse, its windows fogged with other people's warmth. I climb aboard the yellow, humming room and watch the town unspool behind the glass: the shuttered shops, the chip-lit corner queues, the lamp-posts standing guard at even lengths. A stranger sleeps two seats ahead of me, his forehead resting on the shivering pane, and I invent a life to keep him warm — a kitchen light left on, a kettle's steam, a small dog turning circles by a door. We are all just going somewhere, in the dark, carried by an engine we did not build, trusting the driver's hands we cannot see. Question 30.1: In 'The Last Bus Home', how does the poet present the speaker's feelings about the journey and the people around them? [24 marks]

  (Total for Question SECTION-C-UNSEEN-POETRY1 is 24 marks)
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  Question SECTION-C-UNSEEN-POETRY2 (8 marks)

  Now read this second ORIGINAL StudyVector practice poem and answer the comparison question. Morning Commute The six-fifteen is bright as an interrogation, each seat a numbered cell of solitude. We do not speak. We angle away our knees, we build small fortresses of coat and phone, and watch the platforms flick past, gone, gone, gone. The city hauls us in on its hard rope, a thousand strangers folded into one long silver muscle, flexing toward the day. No one invents a life for anyone. We are all just cargo, priced and on time. Question 30.2: In 'Morning Commute', the poet presents a very different journey. Compare how the two poems present the speaker's feelings about travelling among strangers. [8 marks]

  (Total for Question SECTION-C-UNSEEN-POETRY2 is 8 marks)