Year 11 English Language

Welcome to our Year 11 English Language revision hub. Here you can find details of the exam board & specification, when your mock exams will take place, what will be tested in the exam and how you should revise and prepare.

To download a pdf summary of the English Language revision information – click here.

Y11 English Language

Exam Board: AQA GCSE English Language (8700)

Specification: Click here to access the exam board specification

Mock Exam Details

Date: Monday 24 November 2025

Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Total Marks: 80 Marks

What Will My Assessment Test My Knowledge On?

Explorations in creative reading and writing

The aim of this paper is to engage students in a creative text and inspire them to write creatively themselves by:

in section A, reading a literature fiction text in order to consider how established writers use narrative and descriptive techniques to capture the interest of readers

in section B, writing their own creative text, inspired by the topic that they have responded to in section A to demonstrate their narrative and descriptive skills in response to a written prompt, scenario or visual image.

The paper will assess in this sequence, AO1, AO2 and AO4 for reading, and AO5 and AO6 for writing. Section A will be allocated 40 marks, and Section B will be allocated 40 marks to give an equal weighting to the reading and writing tasks.

Content

The source for the reading questions will be a literature fiction text. It will be drawn from either the 20th or 21st century. Its genre will be prose fiction. It will include extracts from novels and short stories and focus on openings, endings, narrative perspectives and points of view, narrative or descriptive passages, character, atmospheric descriptions and other appropriate narrative and descriptive approaches.

As a stimulus for students’ own writing, there will be a choice of scenario, written prompt or visual image that is related to the topic of the reading text in section A. The scenario sets out a context for writing with a designated audience, purpose and form that will differ to those specified on Paper 2.

Assessment Objectives

• AO1: identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas, select and synthesise evidence from different texts
• AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views
• AO3: Compare writers’ ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed, across two or more texts
• AO4: Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references
• AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts
• AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

What Should I Do To Revise And Prepare For This Assessment?

To prepare for this assessment:

1. Talk to the BTA English team! We are happy to help and will support you with feedback.
2. Complete the Seneca Homework tasks that have been assigned to you by your teacher.
3. Complete the Homework booklet that was given to you at the start of the term.
4. Attend revision club after school every Tuesday in 1.07.
5. All students have access to the ‘Student Access Only’ One Drive which has the following at their disposal to revise from:
   1. Knowledge Organisers for formative and low-stakes assessment.
   2. The BTA English Dictionary: A compendium of ambitious and carefully chosen vocabulary to enhanced and improve your quality of thinking and writing
   3. Previous lessons taught in class in booklet and PowerPoint form.
   4. Recorded videos on how to be successful in each exam.
6. Complete past papers that are available from your teachers and the AQA website: https://www.aqa.org.uk/find-past-papers-and-mark-schemes

Useful Revision Resources & Links

The best revision students can do is completing past papers, practising the timing and structures of each question for the paper, as well as attending revision and seeking support from the BTA English team. Even though revision videos can be helpful, AQA are encouraging students not to engage with videos on social media that are not delivered by recognised educational experts. Additionally, AI such as ChatGPT and Copilot do not give accurate tips in securing higher marks.

• Seneca Learning
• Mr Bruff’s Playlists for English Language Paper 1
• BBC Bitesize
• SENECA