english literature a level ocr coursework

OCR A-Level English Literature Past Papers

This section includes recent A-Level English Literature past papers from OCR. You can download each of the OCR A-Level English Literature past papers and marking schemes by clicking the links below.

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2022 (H072 & H472)

A-Level English Literature H472/01 - Drama and poetry pre-1900 Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

A-Level English Literature H472/02 - Comparative and Contextual Study Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

OCR A-Level English Literature November 2021 (H072 & H472)

OCR A-Level English Literature November 2020 (H072 & H472)

A-Level English Literature H472/01 - Drama and poetry pre-1900 Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

A-Level English Literature H472/02 - Comparative and Contextual Study Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

AS Level English Literature H072/01 - Shakespeare and poetry pre-1900 Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

AS Level English Literature H072/02 - Drama and prose post -1900 Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2019 (H072 & H472)

A-Level English Literature H472/01 - Drama and poetry pre-1900 Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

A-Level English Literature H472/02 - Comparative and Contextual Study Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

AS Level English Literature H072/01 - Shakespeare and poetry pre-1900 Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

AS Level English Literature H072/02 - Drama and prose post -1900 Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2018 (H072 & H472)

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2017 (H072 & H472)

A-Level English Literature H072/01 - Drama and poetry pre-1900 -  Download Past Paper  - Mark Scheme currently unavailable

A-Level English Literature H072/02 - Comparative and Contextual Study -  Download Past Paper  - Mark Scheme currently unavailable

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2016 (H072 & H472)

AS Level English Literature H072/01 - Shakespeare and poetry pre-1900 -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

AS Level English Literature H072/02 - Drama and prose post-1900 -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2016 (H071 & H471)

Unit F661 AS: Poetry & Prose 1800-1945 (Closed Text) -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

Unit F663 A2: Drama & Poetry pre-1800 (Closed Text) -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2015 (H071 & H471)

Unit F661 AS: Poetry & Prose 1800-1945 (Closed Text) -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

OCR A-Level English Literature June 2014 (H071 & H471)

A-Level OCR English Language and Literature past papers (F671 and F673) can be found on the English Language section

For more A-Level English Literature past papers from other exam boards  click here .

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AS and A-level English Literature A

• Specification
• Planning resources
• Teaching resources
• Assessment resources
• Introduction
• Specification at a glance
• 3.1 Love through the ages
• 4.1 Love through the ages
• 4.2 Texts in shared contexts

4.3 Independent critical study: texts across time

• Scheme of assessment
• Non-exam assessment administration (A-level only)
• General administration

In Texts across time, students write a comparative critical study of two texts.

This specification is committed to the notion of autonomous personal reading and Texts across time provides a challenging and wide-ranging opportunity for independent study. Possible themes for the comparison are indicated below, but this is not a set list and students are free to develop their own interests from their own wider and independent reading.

Texts chosen for study must maximise opportunities for writing about comparative similarity and difference and must allow access to a range of critical views and interpretations, including over time . Students should take an autonomous approach to the application and evaluation of a range of critical views.

The title 'Independent critical study' highlights the important idea that, within a literature course, students should have the opportunity to work independently. Although one common text could, if required, be taught to a whole cohort, at least one text should be studied independently by each student. Texts should always be chosen with your guidance and support. Students should also individually negotiate their own task.

In Texts across time, students write a comparative critical study of two texts on a theme of their choice. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• the struggle for identity
• crime and punishment
• minds under stress
• nostalgia and the past
• satire and dystopia
• war and conflict
• representations of race and ethnicity
• representations of sexuality
• representations of women
• representations of men
• representations of social class and culture.

The spirit of this component is for independent study, with schools and colleges submitting work on a range of texts and tasks. Schools and colleges are encouraged to check the appropriateness of texts and tasks with their non-exam assessment adviser, especially where there may be some uncertainty on the approach being taken, either by the school or college as a whole or by individual students.

• The word count is 2,500 words.
• Tasks should be designed to ensure that students address all assessment objectives in their essay response.
• An appropriate academic bibliography (not included within the 2,500 word count) must be included.
• An appropriately academic form of referencing must be used.

The following conditions apply to the texts chosen:

• one text must have been written pre-1900
• two different authors must be studied
• set texts listed for the A-level exam components cannot be used for non-exam assessment, even if they will not be used in the exam
• the essay is comparative and connective so equal attention must be paid to both texts
• a poetry text could be either one longer narrative poem or a single authored collection of shorter poems. If using a collection of poetry, students must have studied the whole text and select at least two poems to write about in detail as examples of the wider collection
• single authored collections of short stories are permissible. If using a collection of short stories, students must have studied the whole text and select at least two stories to write about in detail as examples of the wider collection
• texts chosen for study may include texts in translation that have been influential and significant in the development of literature in English. The translated text should be treated as the original writer's own words for assessment purposes. Therefore, schools and colleges should ensure that they use a version recognised by academia as being a high quality translation which supports the original author's writing appropriately.

Recommended texts

Texts listed in the A-level core set text and comparative set text lists in Sections 4.1 and 4.2 cannot be studied for non-exam assessment. Texts chosen for study may include texts in translation that have been influential and significant in the development of literature in English.

Possible pre-1900 texts include, but are not limited to:

NEA prohibited texts

Students cannot use the following texts for non-exam assessment as they appear on the exam set text lists.

Examples of choices of non-exam assessment texts and possible connections

Compare and contrast the presentation of British attitudes to race and ethnicity in The Moonstone and in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth in the light of this view.

In what ways do you think the Gothic settings of these texts help the writers to shape their presentation of heroines in peril?

Compare and contrast the presentation of Sue Trinder in Fingersmith with Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White in the light of this view.

Task 1: Close Reading: What The Question Is Asking ( OCR A Level English Literature )

Revision note.

Task 1: Close Reading: What The Question Is Asking

The non-exam assessment (NEA) is a compulsory component of the A Level English Literature qualification. It is worth 40 marks and counts as 20% of the total A Level. The NEA comprises two pieces of work, totalling approximately 3000 words, and you are required to study three literary texts: one prose text, one poetry text and one drama text. The texts must have been first published or performed in 1900 or later, and one literary text must have been first published or performed after the year 2000. The choice of texts must be different to any of the core set texts for this specification.

In Task 1, you should choose  one  of the following tasks:

A close, critical analysis of a section of your chosen text or poem:

Your selection should be a small section of text, three to four pages of prose or drama, or up to 45 lines of poetry

You are required to include a copy of your chosen passage when you submit your coursework folder

An item of re-creative writing based on a selected passage of your chosen text or poem, with a commentary explaining the links between your own writing and the original passage selected:

Again, you are required to include a copy of your chosen passage when you submit your coursework folder

The guide below will enable you to approach the first option of Task 1 ( the close reading exercise ) with confidence. This is divided into:

Breaking down the task

For the close reading task, you are required to critically analyse a section of your chosen text, or an individual poem selected from an anthology or collection. Any selection made from poetry should be either a single poem or one extract from a longer poem. The recommended word length for this task is 1000 words, excluding quotations.

The task is worth 15 marks and you are assessed on:

AO2: analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts:

This is the dominant Assessment Objective

AO1: articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression

The wording of the task itself should balance a focus on close analytical discussion with an informed view of how the chosen extract relates to the rest of the text from which it is taken. The task is generally set by your centre, but you can submit your own for approval. 

The most successful responses contextualise the passage or poem and blend the analysis with wider text awareness, demonstrating how key methods, techniques and concerns are reflective of the text as a whole. It is important to show how content and meaning are communicated by the writer’s choices of language and structure, and also to make clear and specific references to other parts of the text or other poems to show characteristic features. A strictly narrative approach, only explaining content and meaning, will not gain a high mark.

Candidates should:

Present a coherent reading of the selected extract or poem

Use analytical detail to demonstrate your understanding of ways in which the author guides the reader or audience response

Relate the selection to the whole text, considering methods as well as content and concerns

Consider genre, form and structure as well as language

Your centre (or you) can choose to write your own task, or choose from a list of pre-approved tasks using OCR’s Text and Task Tool. Whichever method you select, it’s important that the wording of the task allows you to explore both a detailed, critical analysis of the passage or poem as well as prompting you to demonstrate your awareness of how the extract, passage or poem relates to the text as a whole.

Therefore, tasks should:

Make explicit the requirement to comment closely on the writing of the extract, passage or poem

Ask you to relate the extract, passage or poem in some way to the text from which it is taken

For example:

While you will not be specifically penalised for exceeding the suggested word length, any response that significantly differs from the word count is likely to be self-penalising by either not demonstrating the AOs to the required level or through lacking coherence and concision:

Therefore, try your best to stick to the word count!

If quotations from secondary sources are used, these must be acknowledged by the use of footnotes (these do not form part of the word count)

All work must be accompanied by a complete bibliography – again, this does not form part of the word count

Candidates who do well in this task:

Demonstrate an understanding and familiarity with the requirements of the task

Are able to explore and pursue their own interests in terms of tasks and/or texts, producing lively, engaging and thoroughly researched essays

Engage with language, structure and form, whether that be poetic, narrative or dramatic

Contextualise the passage or poem and blend the analysis with wider text awareness

Make clear, explicit references to other parts of the text or poems to demonstrate characteristic features that have been highlighted in the close analysis

Structure a clear and well developed argument

Candidates who do less well in this task:

Take a strictly narrative approach, just “re-telling” the poem or passage

Concentrate too much on plot and character

Do not demonstrate their awareness and understanding of the Assessment Objectives in their response:

AO2 is the dominant AO because the task requires close, detailed textual analysis

Do not analyse how the poem or extract relates to the rest of the text or anthology from which it is taken

If you are closely analysing a poem, you should ideally make some detailed references to between two to four other poems, dependent on length, with others mentioned in passing where they fit with your developing argument:

You might also wish to consider the placement of the selected poem within the structure of the collection as a whole

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Author: Deb Orrock

Deb is a graduate of Lancaster University and The University of Wolverhampton. After some time travelling and a successful career in the travel industry, she re-trained in education, specialising in literacy. She has over 16 years’ experience of working in education, teaching English Literature, English Language, Functional Skills English, ESOL and on Access to HE courses. She has also held curriculum and quality manager roles, and worked with organisations on embedding literacy and numeracy into vocational curriculums. She most recently managed a post-16 English curriculum as well as writing educational content and resources.

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Text and task proposal form (h472), literature post-1900 text(s) and task(s) tool.

As of September 2019, this tool is the approved method of submitting texts and tasks for the A Level English Literature H472 non-exam assessment. This is to ensure parity across centres in terms of their access to advice, as well as ensuring this information is logged more carefully.

This three-stage tool is built to check valid combinations of texts, then choose or propose tasks based around these texts, before submitting them for approval by OCR.

• The list of pre-approved texts and tasks is extensive and we would advise choosing from these lists where possible.
• While only teachers may submit tasks on behalf of their cohort, it should be noted that students are welcome to browse what’s already here, seeing if there are tasks suit the approach they’d like to take with their texts.
• Should you wish to propose a new text, please click the ‘Propose new text’ button on the lower right side of the tool. This will open a window within the tool where you will be able to propose new texts.
• Please check the list of pre-approved tasks thoroughly. If you want to submit a new task for your chosen pre-approved text, please click the ‘Propose new task’ button.
• You may submit the task 1 and task 2 titles separately through the tool; you may make your submission in stages. If you're submitting task 2 you will need to select a task 1 text in order to view the pre-approved tasks.
• Do take a look at our NEA guide and task setting documents as they offer lots of tips and examples.

If you have any queries please look at the FAQ guide or contact the subject team on [email protected] .

1. Check text combination

First choose the texts to be used for both task 1 and task 2 from the list of available texts. Then click 'Check' to find out if the combination of texts is valid. If the text a student has chosen is not listed, please click ‘Propose other texts’ and list there.

Task 1 text

To choose a text, first choose the type of text from the dropdown. Then start typing a title in the box and select from the results that display.

Task 2 texts

2. choose tasks.

Second, choose pre-approved tasks from the dropdowns that will appear below once you've chosen a valid combination of texts. When you have chosen your tasks click 'Add texts and tasks' to add them to the list for submission. Please check the list of pre-approved tasks thoroughly. If want to submit a new task for your chosen preapproved text, please click the ‘Propose new task’ button.

Choose either a Close reading or Recreative task.

There are no pre-approved Close reading tasks for this text. If you wish to use this text for this task you will need to propose a task.

There are no pre-approved Recreative tasks for this text. If you wish to use this text for this task you will need to propose a task.

Choose a Comparative essay task.

There are no pre-approved Comparative essay tasks for these texts. If you wish to use these texts for this task you will need to propose a task.

Add your selected texts and tasks to your list for submission.

3. Submit texts and tasks

Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have added all the texts and tasks you wish to submit to the lists below. Once you have done this, click 'Submit' to submit them.

• Texts will appear here.
• Tasks will appear here.

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