O/L Literature Past Papers

These are O/L English Literature papers, arranged by grade with the newest first. Unlike a language paper, a Literature paper can only be answered by somebody who has studied the particular texts it asks about.

So check the texts before you use an older paper. Prescribed texts change from time to time. A paper on a poem or play you are not studying is still useful for practising how to answer, but you cannot practise the content. The prescribed texts page lists what is set now.

A Literature answer is marked on what you notice in the text and how well you argue it, not on how much you remember about the author.

• Plan before you write. Three or four lines: your argument, and the two or three moments in the text that prove it. Answers that begin without a plan retell the story, and retelling earns very little.
• Answer the question that was asked. The commonest loss of marks in Literature is a good essay about the wrong thing. Underline the words in the question that limit it, and check them again when you finish.
• Quote short and quote from memory. One well-chosen phrase, used to make a point, is worth more than four lines copied out. Practise with the book closed, because in the examination it will be.
• Practise the context questions separately from the essays: they reward precision rather than length. See context questions and essay questions.
• Time the questions against their marks. Running out of time on the last question is a planning failure, not a knowledge failure, and it is the easiest kind to fix.