Which Shakespeare play, novel, modern text and poetry cluster AQA's 8702 specification puts your child's school through, and where an outdated text list can still catch a family out.
Book a Free ConsultationAQA GCSE English Literature (8702) is AQA's GCSE specification for English Literature, and its defining feature is a fixed structure of set-text choices: a school picks one Shakespeare play from six options, one 19th-century novel from seven, one modern prose or drama text from twelve, and one 15-poem cluster from AQA's own anthology. Three of the twelve current modern texts were last examined in 2024; three replacements began in 2025. The choice belongs to the school, not the student.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppA school entered for AQA GCSE English Literature makes four separate choices, one from each of four named lists in the specification: a Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel, a modern prose or drama text, and a poetry cluster. Each choice is made once, by the school, and applies to a whole cohort -- not to an individual student.
The two written papers split those four choices in half. Paper 1 covers the Shakespeare play and the 19th-century novel; Paper 2 covers the modern text and the poetry cluster. A parent who wants to know what their child is actually revising needs the answer to a different question from the one most guides address: not "how is AQA English Literature assessed" but "which four texts has this particular school picked". AQA's own specification names every option on all four lists; nothing about which option a given school has taken is published there, or anywhere else that indexes to a search.
| Set text | Chosen from | Paper |
|---|---|---|
| Shakespeare play | one of six | Paper 1, extract and whole-text question |
| 19th-century novel | one of seven | Paper 1, extract and whole-text question |
| Modern prose or drama text | one of twelve | Paper 2, essay question |
| Poetry cluster | one of three (15 poems each) | Paper 2, comparative question |
Source: AQA GCSE English Literature (8702) specification, retrieved 7 September 2026.
AQA's specification names six Shakespeare plays a school can set: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and Julius Caesar. A school studies one of the six as a whole text across the course.
The exam question itself has a fixed two-part shape. AQA's specification states that a student is required "to write in detail about an extract from the play and then to write about the play as a whole" -- one question, no choice of angle, built from an extract AQA selects on the day and prints on the paper. A student cannot revise for a Shakespeare paper by memorising a single essay in advance, because the extract sets the starting point every time; what can be prepared is the skill of locating an unfamiliar extract inside the whole play and using it as a springboard into a wider argument about character, theme or structure.
Preparing for a Shakespeare extract question? Our AQA GCSE English Literature tutors drill extract recognition and whole-play essay recall together, for whichever of the six set plays a student's school has chosen.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe second Paper 1 choice is a 19th-century novel, and AQA's list holds seven: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson), A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations (both Charles Dickens), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) and The Sign of Four (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
Nothing on that list has changed since AQA's specification was written for teaching from September 2015. That stability matters as a point of contrast with the section below: a family checking an old resource, or a sibling's notes from a few years earlier, can trust a 19th-century novel title in a way that is not safe to assume for the modern-text list. The exam question follows the same pattern as Shakespeare -- an extract from the chosen novel, followed by a response on the novel as a whole, in a single answer with no alternative question offered.
AQA's Paper 2 modern-text list holds twelve titles, and three of them changed for students examined from 2025 onwards. AQA's own specification marks each retired title with the same three-word annotation. Alan Bennett's The History Boys and Simon Stephens's stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time are both marked "(Last exam 2024)", as is Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go. All three were examinable for the last time in the summer 2024 series and cannot be studied by a student sitting the exam from 2025 onwards.
Three texts took their place, each marked "(First teaching 2023, first exam 2025)": Chinonyerem Odimba's play Princess & The Hustler, Winsome Pinnock's play Leave Taking, and Kit de Waal's novel My Name is Leon. A family working from a resource, book list or hand-me-down revision guide written before this change may still be pointed at a text no longer on the live specification -- worth checking directly with the English department if any of the three retired titles above appears in something a student has been given.
The working: three of the twelve current modern-text options changed for 2025, which is 3 divided by 12, or 25%. A quarter of the choice list turned over in one specification update -- a bigger shift in a single cycle than the seven 19th-century novels above have seen since 2015, where none has been added or retired.
AQA's poetry anthology, Poems Past and Present, offers three clusters for a school to choose between, each holding fifteen poems: three clusters of fifteen makes forty-five poems in the full anthology, and a student studies the fifteen in their own school's chosen cluster, plus one further poem printed on the exam paper for comparison. Fifteen of forty-five is one third -- two-thirds of the anthology a school could have picked is never touched by a given cohort.
Like the Shakespeare play, the novel and the modern text, which of the three clusters a school has picked sits outside anything a school routinely publishes online. It is worth confirming directly rather than assuming it matches a sibling's school, a friend's school, or an older cohort at the same school.
Two schools three streets apart can teach entirely different texts under the same 8702 specification code, and neither is obliged to publish its choice. Four practical ways to find out, roughly in the order families report success with them:
Ask the English department directly. A short email to the Head of English — naming the Shakespeare play, the 19th-century novel, the modern text and the poetry cluster a particular Year group is studying — is routine information, not confidential, and most schools answer within a few days.
Check the school's own curriculum pages. Some schools publish a Key Stage 4 curriculum map or subject overview naming set texts by year group. Search the school's own site for "English Literature curriculum" or "GCSE set texts" before assuming the information is not there.
Look at the book already in use. If a text is already being read in class, the class copy or the reading list sent home at the start of the course names it directly — the fastest confirmation for a text already under way.
Ask at a parents' evening or options evening. The Year 9 options evening ahead of GCSE choices, and the first Year 10 parents' evening, are natural points at which the English department outlines the course, often including the set texts as a matter of course.
Whichever route confirms the answer, the same four questions apply every time: which Shakespeare play, which 19th-century novel, which modern text, and which poetry cluster. Knowing all four before revision starts means time goes into the right extracts and quotations, not a text the exam will never ask about.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppKnowing which four texts a student has been set changes what an English Literature programme should actually cover in the weeks before mocks and the real exam. A Shakespeare play and a 19th-century novel are both examined the same way in Paper 1 — an extract printed on the paper, followed by a whole-text response — so preparation for both rests on the same two skills: recognising which moment in the play or novel an unfamiliar extract comes from, and writing about the whole text from memory once the extract has anchored the answer.
A modern prose or drama text in Paper 2 is examined differently: a straight essay question, with no extract to anchor recall. The same student needs a different kind of preparation for that text — secure enough command of the whole play or novel to select relevant moments and quotations without a printed prompt. The poetry cluster adds a third pattern again: one named poem is printed on the paper, and the student compares it from memory with a second poem chosen out of the fifteen studied, a task closer to the modern text than to Shakespeare or the novel, but one that demands comparison as well as recall.
None of this changes with the exam board's overall structure. It changes with which specific texts a school has picked. A programme built before those four choices are confirmed is built on a guess, whichever English Literature tutor is doing the teaching.
Four. AQA's 8702 specification requires one Shakespeare play, chosen from a list of six, one 19th-century novel from a list of seven, one modern prose or drama text from a list of twelve, and one cluster of poems from AQA's own anthology, a choice of three clusters of fifteen poems each. Each text is examined once: the Shakespeare play and the novel in Paper 1, the modern text and the poetry cluster in Paper 2. A student does not choose any of the four themselves; the school selects them, usually before the GCSE course begins.
The school decides, not the student. AQA's specification sets out named lists for each of the four categories, six Shakespeare plays, seven 19th-century novels, twelve modern texts and three poetry clusters, and the English department chooses one option from each list for the whole cohort, typically before the two-year GCSE course begins. Two schools using the same AQA specification code, 8702, can study four completely different texts between them. A student who moves school during Key Stage 4 inherits whichever texts the new school has already chosen.
Six: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and Julius Caesar. A school studies one of the six as a whole text, and the Paper 1 exam question requires students to write in detail about a printed extract from that play and then about the play as a whole, in a single answer. There is no choice of question once the school has picked the play; every student answers on their own school's chosen play, using an extract AQA selects on the day.
Three texts were retired and three replaced them. The History Boys (Alan Bennett), the play version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Simon Stephens) and Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro) are each marked (Last exam 2024) on AQA's specification and cannot be studied by a student examined from 2025 onwards. Princess and The Hustler (Chinonyerem Odimba), Leave Taking (Winsome Pinnock) and My Name is Leon (Kit de Waal) replaced them, marked (First teaching 2023, first exam 2025). That is three of the twelve current options, or 25%, changed in one update.
Seven: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson), A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations (both Charles Dickens), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) and The Sign of Four (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Unlike the modern-text list, this list has had no additions or retirements since the specification was introduced for teaching from September 2015. A school studies one novel from the seven, examined the same way as the Shakespeare play: an extract question in Paper 1, followed by a response on the novel as a whole.
The anthology, Poems Past and Present, holds forty-five poems across three clusters of fifteen. A school chooses one cluster, so a given student studies fifteen of the forty-five, one third of the anthology. In the exam, one poem from that cluster is printed on the paper and the student compares it from memory with a second poem chosen out of the remaining fourteen in their cluster. Which of the three clusters a school has picked is not always published online and is worth confirming directly with the English department.
Ask the Head of English directly; it is routine information, not confidential, and most schools answer a short email within a few days. Failing that, check whether the school publishes a Key Stage 4 curriculum map, look at the book already being read in class or sent home on a reading list, or ask at a Year 10 parents' evening or GCSE options evening, both natural points at which the English department outlines the course. The same four questions apply every time: the Shakespeare play, the 19th-century novel, the modern text and the poetry cluster.
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