AQA's own discount-code warning, the AS/A-level content and grading split, and AQA's confirmed May/June 2027 exam dates and new set texts — sourced from AQA, not a school's scheme of work.
Book a Free ConsultationAQA teaches English Literature at A-level as two parallel specifications, chosen by the school: Literature A (AS 7711, A-level 7712) and Literature B (AS 7716, A-level 7717). Whichever one a Year 12 class follows, AQA treats the AS and the A-level as separate qualifications, each with its own exam series and grading scale. A school deciding whether to enter Year 12 for a standalone AS grade faces a real, published consequence the site's existing English Literature page never mentions.
Not sure whether your child's school has entered them for AS, or which specification — Literature A or B — they're following? Our expert Year 12 AQA English Literature tutors confirm the details before building a programme.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAS and A-level English Literature at AQA are both linear qualifications, but they are not two halves of one course. AQA's own AS and A-level English Literature A specification states it directly: “These qualifications are linear. Linear means that students will sit all the AS exams at the end of their AS course and all the A-level exams at the end of their A-level course.” A student entered for AS in Year 12 sits every AS paper in one May/June series and receives a final AS certificate; a student going straight through to the full A-level sits nothing until the end of Year 13.
The two routes are separately accredited by Ofqual, too. AS Literature A carries qualification accreditation number 601/5259/X, distinct from A-level Literature A's 601/5327/1; AS Literature B carries 601/5257/6 against A-level Literature B's 601/5328/3 — four separately numbered qualifications behind what a family might otherwise assume is one two-year course. Whether a school enters its Year 12 cohort for the standalone AS award at all is a decision the school makes, not something AQA or national policy sets — and it is worth asking early, because it changes how the qualification is counted, which is the single most useful thing AQA's own specification says about it.
AQA's own specification carries a direct warning about entering students for both AS and A-level in the same subject. Every one of the four qualifications — AS Literature A (7711), A-level Literature A (7712, both option codes), AS Literature B (7716, all four option codes) and A-level Literature B (7717, all four option codes) — shares the identical Department for Education discount (classification) code, 5110. AQA states what a shared code means in the entries-and-codes section of its Literature A specification, confirmed identically in its Literature B specification: “Every specification is given a national discount (classification) code by the Department for Education (DfE), which indicates its subject area. If a student takes two specifications with the same discount code, Further and Higher Education providers are likely to take the view that they have only achieved one of the two qualifications. Please check this before your students start their course.”
The Department for Education's own guidance explains why the code exists at all. Its 16 to 18 qualifications, discount codes and point scores guidance states: “We use discount codes to ensure that a single course of study is credited only once in school and college performance measures.” In practice, that means a school entering a student for both the AS and the later A-level in the same specification — Literature A or Literature B — should expect the AS result to be credited only once alongside the A-level in the school's own performance tables, and should expect some Further and Higher Education providers to read the two results the same way. It is a fact about how the qualifications are classified and counted, not a verdict on whether sitting AS is worthwhile for any individual student — that balance, and how a school's own entry policy actually handles it, is worth asking the school directly.
The table below sets out what AQA's own specifications say each route covers.
| Feature | AS (7711 / 7716) | A-level (7712 / 7717) |
|---|---|---|
| Content strand | Lit A: Love through the ages only. Lit B: Literary genres only. | Adds Lit A: Texts in shared contexts. Lit B: Texts and genres. |
| Non-exam assessment | None — AQA's own contents page labels this section “(A-level only)” | Lit A: Independent critical study, one 2,500-word essay, 20% of A-level. Lit B: Theory and independence, two 1,250–1,500 word essays, 20%. |
| Grading scale | Five-point: A, B, C, D, E | Six-point: A*, A, B, C, D, E |
| Written papers | Two papers, 50 marks each, 100 total | Reported only once all components, including the NEA, are complete |
Source: AQA AS and A-level English Literature A (7711/7712) and Literature B (7716/7717) specifications, sections 2 (Specification at a glance), 3–4 (Subject content) and contents page.
For AS Literature A specifically, the two papers differ in a way that matters for revision: AQA states “the paper for this component is closed book” for the Shakespeare-and-poetry paper, while “the paper for this component is open book” for the prose paper, meaning students may take a clean copy of their set texts into that second exam only. A student and a school planning a Year 12 AS timetable need to know which paper is which before deciding how to revise for each.
AQA states the grading difference plainly, in identical wording across both specifications: “The AS qualification will be graded on a five-point scale: A, B, C, D and E. The A-level qualification will be graded on a six-point scale: A*, A, B, C, D and E.” An AS result has no A* to aim for, and the mark totals sit on a different scale entirely — AS is out of 100 across its two papers, while the full A-level grade cannot be calculated until every component, including the non-exam assessment, is finished at the end of Year 13. A family comparing a Year 12 AS grade against a future A-level grade boundary is comparing two different mark scales on two different certificates, not one qualification part-way through.
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Our expert Year 12 AQA English Literature tutors work from AQA's own specification, whichever spec and route your child's school has chosen, so revision is built around the papers they are actually sitting.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA's exams-administration dates-and-timetables hub lists the May/June 2027 AS and A-level timetable under a heading reading “Confirmed exam timetables,” stating: “The timetables on this page are definitive. Please check back frequently to ensure you have the latest version.” That page is the only route we used to reach the timetable, checked 7 September 2026, and AQA gives no other status for it — not provisional, not draft.
In the confirmed timetable document itself, AS Paper 1s for both Literature A and Literature B sit 13 May 2027, and AS Paper 2s for both sit 21 May 2027. A-level Paper 1s also sit 13 May 2027; A-level Paper 2s (Texts in shared contexts for Lit A, Texts and genres for Lit B) sit 20 May 2027; and the non-exam assessment for either specification must be submitted by 15 May 2027. A Year 12 AS student and a Year 13 A-level student in the same class therefore sit their respective Paper 1s on the same day, but their Paper 2s fall a day apart — worth knowing when planning revision leave or half-term work around the series.
AQA's current specification, in force for teaching from September 2025, adds three set texts first examined in 2027, spread across the two parallel specs: two on Literature A and one on Literature B. Neither reaches the AS papers, though the reason is different for each.
Wake by Anna Hope is added to Literature A's comparative set-text list for the “WW1 and its aftermath” option within Texts in shared contexts — the A-level-only content strand that AS Literature A does not study at all, whichever option (WW1 and its aftermath, or Modern times) a school has chosen for its A-level cohort. Kala by Colin Walsh is added to Literature B's set-text list for the “Elements of crime writing” option within Texts and genres — again an A-level-only content strand entirely absent from the AS Literature B specification, which covers Literary genres alone. Both are straightforward: the components they belong to simply do not exist at AS.
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is the more interesting case, because it was added to the prose list inside A-level Literature A's own version of Love through the ages — the same topic name AS Literature A also studies. AQA maintains two separate text lists for that topic: one for AS (section 3.1.1) and a longer one for A-level (section 4.1.1), and the new title was added only to the A-level list. The AS prose list a Year 12 student actually chooses from is unchanged. So even though “Love through the ages” is shared ground between AS and A-level in name, AQA's own set-text lists for it are not identical, and this particular addition sits only on the A-level side.
A Year 12 English Literature programme starts from two questions that vary school to school: which specification — Literature A or Literature B — is being taught, and has the school entered this cohort for the standalone AS award or is it going straight through to the full A-level? Our tutors confirm both before building anything, because the answers change what a student needs from the year: an AS-entered student needs Paper 1 and Paper 2 technique finished to exam standard ahead of the May series, while a student going straight through has the whole of Year 13 to build on the same Year 12 content before the second content strand and non-exam assessment begin.
Our expert A-level English Literature tutors work from whichever specification a school has actually set, using AQA's own published set-text lists and exam dates rather than a generic “A-level English Literature” syllabus that does not distinguish AS from A-level or one AQA spec from the other. For essay technique, critical argument structure and the AQA Literature A vs B comparison in full, see our A-Level English Literature page; for the wider subject across GCSE and A-level, see our English Literature tutor service, and our A-Level tutoring page lists every subject we cover.
Whichever AQA specification and route your child's school has chosen for Year 12 English Literature, our expert tutors can build a programme around it — get in touch and we'll confirm what your child actually needs.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppYes. AQA's own specification states that AS and A-level English Literature “are linear,” meaning “students will sit all the AS exams at the end of their AS course and all the A-level exams at the end of their A-level course.” AS Literature A (7711) and AS Literature B (7716) are each accredited by Ofqual under their own qualification accreditation number, separate from A-level Literature A (7712) and B (7717). Whether a school enters Year 12 for the standalone AS award at all is a decision the school makes, not something AQA sets.
Because AS Literature A, A-level Literature A, AS Literature B and A-level Literature B all carry the same Department for Education discount (classification) code, 5110. AQA's own specification warns that “if a student takes two specifications with the same discount code, Further and Higher Education providers are likely to take the view that they have only achieved one of the two qualifications,” and the Department for Education confirms discount codes exist so “a single course of study is credited only once in school and college performance measures.” That is a fact about how the qualifications are classified and counted, not a verdict on whether sitting AS is worthwhile for any individual student.
AS Literature A covers Love through the ages only, and AS Literature B covers Literary genres only, each assessed across two written papers worth 50 marks apiece with no non-exam assessment. A-level adds a second content strand — Texts in shared contexts for Literature A, Texts and genres for Literature B — plus a non-exam assessment component that AQA's own contents page labels “(A-level only)”: a 2,500-word Independent critical study essay worth 20% of the A-level for Literature A, or two shorter Theory and independence essays worth 20% for Literature B. Neither exists at AS.
No. AQA's specification states plainly: “The AS qualification will be graded on a five-point scale: A, B, C, D and E. The A-level qualification will be graded on a six-point scale: A*, A, B, C, D and E.” An AS result has no A* to aim for, and the mark totals behind each scale are different too — AS is marked out of 100 across two papers, while the A-level grade is only calculated once all components, including the non-exam assessment, are complete at the end of Year 13.
AQA's exams-administration hub lists its “Confirmed exam timetables,” stating “the timetables on this page are definitive,” and links the May/June 2027 AS and A-level timetable from that page — checked 7 September 2026. In that document, AS Paper 1s for both Literature A and B sit 13 May 2027 and AS Paper 2s sit 21 May 2027; A-level Paper 1s also sit 13 May 2027, A-level Paper 2s sit 20 May 2027, and the non-exam assessment must be submitted by 15 May 2027.
No, though the reason differs by text. AQA's current specification adds three set texts first examined in 2027: two on Literature A — Wake by Anna Hope, which sits inside the A-level-only “Texts in shared contexts” WW1-and-its-aftermath option that AS never studies at all, and The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, which was added to A-level's own Love through the ages prose list but not to the separate AS prose list covering that same topic — and one on Literature B, Kala by Colin Walsh, inside the A-level-only “Texts and genres” crime-writing option. A Year 12 AS student reads from the unchanged, older text lists regardless of which title their A-level counterparts will eventually study.
Our expert Year 12 AQA English Literature tutors build every programme around AQA's own specification, discount-code warning and confirmed exam dates, whichever spec and route your child's school has chosen. 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. Read more on the A-Level English Literature page or explore English Literature tutoring across GCSE and A-level.
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