The same Ofqual assessment objectives, differently paired papers -- and, for poetry, a genuinely different amount to learn depending which board's code is on the specification.
Book a Free ConsultationGCSE English Literature is a Key Stage 4 qualification examined in England by AQA (specification 8702), Pearson Edexcel (1ET0), Cambridge OCR (J352) and WJEC Eduqas (C720), each marking it closed book against the same Ofqual-defined assessment objectives. Beyond that shared frame, the papers diverge: AQA splits its two papers 40% to 60%, Edexcel and OCR split their two components evenly at 50% each, and Eduqas alone requires the whole poetry anthology rather than a school-chosen selection.
Whichever board your child's school has entered, our expert GCSE English Literature tutors build every programme around the actual specification in front of them — the right paired texts, the right paper structure, the right assessment objectives.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppEvery GCSE English Literature specification taught in England is built from the same document: the Department for Education's own content prescription (reference DFE-00231-2013, last updated 1 November 2013) requires at least one play by Shakespeare, at least one 19th-century novel, poetry since 1789 — no fewer than 15 poems by at least five different poets and a minimum of 300 lines — and fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards. The same document fixes the range each assessment objective must sit inside: AO1 between 35% and 40%, AO2 between 40% and 45%, AO3 between 15% and 20%, and AO4 fixed at exactly 5%, the only assessment objective the document does not leave a range for.
Because the department sets a range rather than a single figure for three of the four objectives, and prescribes what must be examined without prescribing how, AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas can all satisfy the same document while producing genuinely different exams. Which board a school has entered decides which texts sit on the same paper, how the marks divide between them, and — the sharpest difference of all — how much of a poetry anthology a student is actually required to know.
AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas all examine GCSE English Literature closed book, though each specification states the rule in its own words. AQA's specification says plainly: “All assessments are closed book: any stimulus materials required will be provided as part of the assessment.” Edexcel's specification says “Closed book (texts are not allowed in the examination)” — printed separately for each of its two components. OCR's specification does not use the phrase “closed book” at all: its own vocabulary throughout the Version 3.0 specification is “closed text,” as in “Both are closed text examinations of two hours duration, each with a 50% weighting.” Eduqas's specification states the same rule as an instruction rather than a label: “Learners are not permitted to take copies of the set texts into the examination,” repeated for the anthology as “Learners are not permitted to take a copy of the anthology into the examination.”
A parent checking whether their child's board is the one exception that allows annotated texts into the exam hall will not find one. Every route to that answer runs through wording that differs board to board — “closed book”, “closed text”, or an instruction with no label at all — never through a single shared term a search engine can match directly.
Every board pairs a Shakespeare play with something else on one paper, and pairs the remaining texts on the other — but no two boards make the same pairing.
| Board | Paper / Component | Texts paired together | Duration | Marks | % of GCSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AQA | Paper 1 | Shakespeare + the 19th-century novel | 1 hour 45 minutes | 64 | 40% |
| AQA | Paper 2 | Modern texts + poetry | 2 hours 15 minutes | 96 | 60% |
| Edexcel | Component 1 | Shakespeare + Post-1914 Literature | 1 hour 45 minutes | 80 | 50% |
| Edexcel | Component 2 | 19th-century Novel + Poetry since 1789 | 2 hours 15 minutes | 80 | 50% |
| OCR | Component 01 | Modern/heritage text + 19th-century prose | 2 hours | 80 | 50% |
| OCR | Component 02 | Poetry + Shakespeare | 2 hours | 80 | 50% |
| Eduqas | Component 1 | Shakespeare + Poetry | 2 hours | 80 (2 × 40) | 40% |
| Eduqas | Component 2 | Post-1914 Prose/Drama + 19th-century Prose + Unseen Poetry | 2 hours 30 minutes | 120 (3 × 40) | 60% |
AQA and Edexcel both put Shakespeare alongside a text from a different era on the first paper — the 19th-century novel for AQA, Post-1914 Literature for Edexcel — and the poetry alongside the remaining prose text on the second. OCR does the opposite: Component 01 pairs the modern text with the 19th-century prose text, leaving poetry to sit alongside Shakespeare in Component 02, a pairing none of the other three boards uses. Eduqas splits three text types across a single component: Component 2 carries the post-1914 text, the 19th-century prose text and an unseen poetry comparison together, in three 20%, 40-mark sections — which is also why Eduqas's two components run 40% and 60% rather than the even 50/50 split Edexcel and OCR both use. OCR's own two components split further still, each dividing its 80 marks into two 40-mark, 25%-of-GCSE sections.
The raw marks differ too, in a way the percentages hide. AQA's specification prints its own “Total scaled mark: 160”, and Edexcel's specification separately prints its own “160 marks” total — the same figure, reached by two different splits (64/96 against an even 80/80). OCR's two components, 80 marks each, also sum to 160. Eduqas is the outlier: every one of its five assessed sections — two in Component 1, three in Component 2 — is printed at 40 marks each, summing to 200 raw marks across the qualification, a larger total that is then scaled to the same 100% as the other three boards.
In name, yes: every GCSE English Literature specification is marked against AO1 to AO4, the same four labels the Department for Education's own document defines. In percentage terms, no two boards land in exactly the same place inside the range the department allows.
| Board | AO1 | AO2 | AO3 | AO4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DfE permitted range | 35–40% | 40–45% | 15–20% | 5% (fixed) |
| AQA (8702) | 37.5% | 42.5% | 15% | 5% |
| Edexcel (1ET0) | 37% | 42% | 16% | 5% |
| OCR (J352) | 40% | 40% | 15% | 5% |
| Eduqas (C720) | 40% | 40% | 15% | 5% |
OCR and Eduqas land on identical percentages — AO1 40%, AO2 40%, AO3 15%, AO4 5% — despite structuring their papers completely differently, while AQA and Edexcel each sit a little lower on AO1 and a little higher on AO3 than OCR and Eduqas do. AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas each land on exactly 5% for AO4, the only assessment objective the Department for Education fixes rather than ranges — the single point of genuine national uniformity in an otherwise varied picture.
A different paper pairing means a different revision plan. Our GCSE English Literature tutors teach to the paper structure your child's own board actually sets, not a generic essay-writing course.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThree of the boards make a school choose. AQA offers a choice of three poetry clusters, each containing 15 poems, and its own specification states that “students should study all 15 poems in their chosen cluster.” Edexcel's Pearson Poetry Anthology offers “a choice of one collection from the following: Relationships, Conflict, Time and Place, Belonging” — each collection holding 15 poems, all of which must be studied. OCR offers “a choice of three poetry clusters for study… each comprising fifteen poems since 1789.” In each of the three, a school picks one selection and the rest of that board's anthology goes untouched by that cohort.
Eduqas makes no such choice available. Its specification states plainly that “learners must study all of the poems in the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology in preparation for this assessment” — no cluster, no collection, the whole thing. Counted directly from the anthology's own printed list, that is eighteen poems for assessment until the 2026 series. Eduqas has already published the anthology that replaces it: for assessment from 2027, the poetry anthology is cut to fifteen poems, counted the same way from its own printed replacement list. A student beginning Year 10 in September 2026 is the first cohort examined under the new anthology, since their GCSE exams fall in the 2027 series.
Until then, a Eduqas student's whole-anthology requirement stays at eighteen poems, all mandatory. Even from 2027, when the new anthology drops that figure to fifteen, the distinction that matters survives the change: AQA's, Edexcel's and OCR's students each study fifteen poems chosen from a larger pool their own school picked; Eduqas's students, before and after 2027, study every poem the board publishes, with no cluster and no choice at all.
A poetry anthology studied in full is a different revision job to a chosen cluster. Our GCSE English Literature tutors work from your child's actual board and actual anthology, not a generic poetry list.
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This page compares GCSE English Literature board to board; it does not repeat any board's own set-text list. AQA's full list of Shakespeare plays, 19th-century novels, modern texts and poetry clusters lives on our AQA GCSE English Literature page. Edexcel's equivalent lists live on our Edexcel GCSE English Literature page. Neither OCR nor Eduqas has a dedicated Leading Tuition page yet, so what follows is what this page can add for those two families.
OCR's own specification names four Shakespeare plays to choose from — Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, counted directly from its own list — with no Tempest, Julius Caesar or Twelfth Night option among them. Eduqas, by contrast, changed its own Shakespeare list for assessment from 2025, replacing Henry V with Twelfth Night in Component 1, Section A: worth checking against an older sibling's experience or an out-of-date revision guide, either of which might still list Henry V.
For results, grade boundaries and resit routes, our GCSE English page covers GCSE English Language and Literature together and is not repeated here. For the next stage, A-Level English Literature — despite the shorter URL, that is Leading Tuition's dedicated A-level English Literature page — covers what changes once GCSE is behind a student.
Our GCSE English Literature tutors start every programme by confirming your child's exact board and specification, then teach directly to it — AQA, Edexcel, OCR or Eduqas.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppClosed book on every board that offers it in England. AQA's own specification states: “All assessments are closed book: any stimulus materials required will be provided as part of the assessment.” Edexcel's specification repeats “Closed book (texts are not allowed in the examination)” for each of its two components. OCR does not use the phrase “closed book” at all — its Version 3.0 specification calls both components “closed text” examinations. Eduqas states the same rule as an instruction: “Learners are not permitted to take copies of the set texts into the examination.” The practical result is identical everywhere: no annotated copy in the exam hall.
It depends entirely on the board. AQA and OCR each offer a choice of three poetry clusters of 15 poems, and Edexcel offers a choice of one collection of 15 poems from its own named list — Relationships, Conflict, Time and Place, Belonging. WJEC Eduqas gives no choice at all: every student studies the whole current anthology — eighteen poems, counted directly from its own printed list. Eduqas is replacing that anthology for assessment from 2027 with a new fifteen-poem anthology, still studied in full, with no cluster or collection choice at any point.
Both pair Shakespeare with a text from a different era on the first paper and the rest on the second, but not the same way. AQA's Paper 1 pairs a Shakespeare play with a 19th-century novel, worth 64 marks and 40% of the GCSE; Paper 2 pairs a modern text with poetry, worth 96 marks and 60%. Edexcel splits evenly instead: Component 1 pairs Shakespeare with Post-1914 Literature and Component 2 pairs a 19th-century novel with poetry since 1789, each worth 80 marks and exactly 50% of the GCSE.
No. OCR pairs its texts the opposite way round. Component 01, Exploring modern and literary heritage texts, pairs a modern prose or drama text with a 19th-century prose text — two texts AQA and Edexcel both keep on separate papers. Component 02, Exploring poetry and Shakespeare, then pairs poetry with Shakespeare, a combination none of AQA, Edexcel or Eduqas uses. Both OCR components are worth 80 marks and 50% of the GCSE, split into two 40-mark, 25% sections each, under OCR's own Version 3.0 specification, published November 2025.
The four labels are identical — AO1 to AO4 — but the percentages are not. AQA weights them AO1 37.5%, AO2 42.5%, AO3 15%, AO4 5%. Edexcel weights them AO1 37%, AO2 42%, AO3 16%, AO4 5%. OCR and Eduqas both land on AO1 40%, AO2 40%, AO3 15%, AO4 5% — identical to each other despite structuring their papers differently. Every board sits inside the ranges the Department for Education sets in DFE-00231-2013, and every one lands on exactly 5% for AO4, the only objective the department fixes rather than ranges.
Yes. The anthology currently in use — eighteen poems, studied in full, with no cluster choice — applies for assessment until the 2026 exam series. Eduqas has already published its replacement: a new fifteen-poem anthology, for assessment from 2027 onwards, still studied in full rather than chosen from a cluster. A student beginning Year 10 in September 2026 is the first cohort sitting the new anthology, since their GCSE exams fall in the 2027 series.
Not yet on a dedicated Leading Tuition page for either board. This page names what makes each of them different from AQA and Edexcel — OCR's four-play Shakespeare choice and Eduqas's whole-anthology poetry requirement — rather than listing every option on their specifications. AQA's and Edexcel's complete Shakespeare, novel, modern-text and poetry-cluster lists are on Leading Tuition's dedicated pages for those two boards. For OCR or Eduqas, the board's own specification, cited throughout this page, remains the fullest available source until a dedicated page exists.
Our specialist GCSE English Literature tutors work from your child's actual board — AQA, Edexcel, OCR or Eduqas — and their school's own paired texts and anthology, alongside our wider GCSE English and A-level English Literature tuition. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, and 91% of our students go on to achieve their desired grades.
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