AQA GCSE English Literature 8702 assesses four Assessment Objectives (AOs). Understanding what each AO requires and where it is assessed helps you allocate effort and avoid common mark-scheme pitfalls.
The four AOs
AO1 — Read, understand and respond to texts; maintain a critical style; develop an informed personal response; use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.
AO2 — Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.
AO3 — Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written and received.
AO4 — Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
Where each AO is assessed
| Question | AO1 | AO2 | AO3 | AO4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 Sec A (Shakespeare) | 12 | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| Paper 1 Sec B (19th-cent. novel) | 20 | 8 | 2 | — |
| Paper 2 Sec A (Modern text) | 12 | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| Paper 2 Sec B (Poetry cluster) | 15 | 15 | — | — |
| Paper 2 Sec C Q27.1 (Unseen) | 12 | 12 | — | — |
| Paper 2 Sec C Q27.2 (Compare) | — | 8 | — | — |
Key implications
- AO3 is worth most in Shakespeare and Modern texts (6 marks each). Context must be substantial and integrated in these questions.
- AO3 is worth very little in 19th-century novel (2 marks). One embedded contextual point is enough.
- AO3 = 0 in Poetry comparison (Q26) and Unseen poetry. Spending time on context in these questions wastes marks.
- AO4 is only assessed in Paper 1 Section A and Paper 2 Section A. These are the Shakespeare and Modern text essays. Accuracy of writing matters here.
- AO2 is equally weighted with AO1 in most questions. Language/form/structure analysis is not an add-on — it is half the marks.
AO1 in practice
AO1 is about the quality of your interpretation — your argument. Examiners do not want description ("Macbeth feels guilty"). They want analysis with a thesis: "Shakespeare presents guilt as an internalised psychic force that, once activated, cannot be contained by human will — the hallucinations and sleepwalking are its visible symptoms."
Textual references: integrated quotations are more effective than dropped-in long passages. Short, precise quotation with analysis beats long quotation with no comment.
AO2 in practice
Name the technique → quote precisely → explain the effect in this text. Generic effects ("this creates tension") score poorly; specific effects ("the metaphor of 'vaulting ambition' uses the horse-rider conceit to suggest that ambition, like an over-ambitious rider, destroys the very animal that carries it") score at Level 5–6.
AO3 in practice
Context should serve analysis, not replace it. The best AO3 is embedded: "Shakespeare, writing for James I — a king who had survived the Gunpowder Plot and written his own treatise on witchcraft — makes the regicide of a king a cosmological crime, not merely a political one."
Context types: historical (period events), biographical (author's life), literary (genre, tradition, influence), reception (how the text was received).
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