10C Course Outline
Your son/daughter will prepare for two separate GCSE courses in KS4. They will take iGCSE English
Literature in year 10 and GCSE English in year 11.
iGCSE Literature
Paper 1: unseen poetry and prose/drama
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60% of iGCSE
Exam: May 2015
1 hour 30 minutes exam (45 minutes on each section)
75 marks (35 marks Section A, 40 marks Section B)
Section A: students will answer on a compulsory unseen poetry text. On foundation tier, the question
will be divided into 2 parts.
Section B: students will answer a question on ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by
Mark Haddon. On foundation tier, students will answer a two part question on the text. On higher tier,
students will answer 1 question from a choice of 2. All students will have an unannotated copy of the
text with them in the exam.
In both sections of the exam, students will get marks for the quality of their ideas, using quotations to
support their ideas and exploring/analysing language and structure and the effects created.
It would be beneficial for students to have their own copy of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time’ to enable them to revise and make notes in preparation for their exam.
Coursework
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40% of iGCSE
50 marks
Students completed a coursework task exploring how female characters are presented in ‘Of Mice and
Men’ and ‘Blood Brothers’. This will be completed in year 10.
How can I revise for iGCSE English Literature?
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Section A and B: Complete past exam questions/papers
(http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/aqa-certificate/english-literature-8710/past-papers-and-markschemes)
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Section B: You need to know the text so re-reading The Curious Incident would be useful – an
audiobook version is available on YouTube.
Use SparkNotes to help you revise the text, plot, themes, character and analysis:
(http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/)
There is also information on: http://www.shmoop.com/curious-incident/summary.html
AQA GCSE English
Unit 1: Understanding and producing non-fiction texts = 60%
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60% of GCSE
2 hours 15 minutes exam (1 hour on Section A, 1 hour on Section B and 15 minutes reading time)
Exam: May/June 2016
80 marks
Higher tier
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Section A: Reading - 3 non-fiction texts to read, students to answer 4 questions.
o Question 1: information retrieval (8 marks/12 minutes)
o Question 2: presentational devices (8 marks/ 12 minutes)
o Question 3: inference (8 marks/ 12 minutes)
o Question 4 language comparison and analysis (16 marks/ 24 minutes)
Section B: Writing – students to answer 2 questions. For each question, students receive 2/3 of marks
for content and organisation and 1/3 of marks for the technical accuracy of their spelling, punctuation
and grammar and using a range of sentence structures.
o Question 5: writing to inform, explain, describe (16 marks/ 25 minutes)
o Question 6: writing to argue, persuade (24 marks/ 35 minutes)
Foundation tier
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Section A: Reading – 3 non-fiction texts to read, students to answer 5 questions.
o Question 1a: evidence/information retrieval (4 marks/6 minutes)
o Question 1b: explanation/inference (4 marks/6 minutes)
o Question 2: locate and retrieve information & inference (evidence and explanation) (8 marks,
12 minutes)
o Question 3: language features - analysis (12 marks, 18 minutes)
o Question 4: presentational features – analysis and comparison (12 marks, 18 minutes)
Section B: Writing – students to answer two questions. For each question, students receive 2/3 of marks
for content and organisation and 1/3 of marks for the technical accuracy of their spelling, punctuation
and grammar and using a range of sentence structures.
o Question 5: writing to inform, explain, describe (16 marks/25 minutes)
o Question 6: writing to argue, persuade (24 marks/35 minutes)
Unit 3: Understanding and producing creative texts
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Controlled assessments
40% of GCSE
o Understanding creative texts = 20% (3 tasks on Shakespeare, Of Mice and Men and poetry)
o Producing creative texts = 20% (two pieces of writing)
o These controlled assessments will be undertaken in lessons during year 10 and the start of year
11.
How can I revise for GCSE English?
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Complete past exam questions/papers (http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-language4705/past-papers-and-mark-schemes)
Improve your vocabulary – for example use http://dictionary.reference.com/
Test and improve your punctuation – for example use
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_10.htm
Look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/ - note not all resources are relevant.
Revise different writing techniques and create examples you could use in an example response.
Use SAM Learning to revise writing – spelling, punctuation, grammar and composition.
Make sure you know how to use paragraphs correctly and effectively in your writing
Read a range of non-fiction texts to become more aware of the conventions.
There are some revision guides/work books available, check with your teacher what tier you are being
entered for before buying.