2026 sampleExam time1 hour 45 minutes
Life of Pi · Yann Martel
[Pi and the hyena; updated-format sample]
Past papers at a glance
AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 — Explorations in creative reading and writing
Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
Choose a board and paper, then open the question paper, mark scheme or insert.
Past papers17 / 17
QP Question paperMS Mark schemeIN Insert
EXAM SERIESREADING CONTENT REMINDEROPEN PDF ↗
June 2025Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Midwich Cuckoos · John Wyndham
[Midwich falls silent; unexplained disappearances]
November 2024Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Glass House · Eve Chase
[Rita drives a family to an isolated forest house]
June 2024Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Grass is Singing · Doris Lessing
[Mary struggles with the heat; conflict over water]
November 2023Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
Possession · A. S. Byatt
[Roland, a university research assistant]
Reading extract redacted.
June 2023Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
Life of Pi · Yann Martel
[Pi and the hyena aboard a lifeboat]
Reading extract redacted.
November 2022Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Old Man and the Sea · Ernest Hemingway
[Opening of the novel]
Reading extract redacted.
June 2022Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Pearl · John Steinbeck
[Opening of the novel]
Reading extract redacted.
November 2021Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
Half of a Yellow Sun · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
[Ugwu arrives to work for a professor]
June 2020Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Silk Factory · Judith Allnatt
[Rosie & stranger child]
November 2019Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Silent Land · Graham Joyce
[Zoe and Jake skiing; an avalanche]
June 2019Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Mill · H. E. Bates
[Hartop, Alice and the family van]
Reading extract redacted.
November 2018Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
A Sound of Thunder · Ray Bradbury
[Eckels encounters a Tyrannosaurus rex]
June 2018Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
Jigs and Reels · Joanne Harris
[Mr Fisher discovers an extraordinary student story]
November 2017Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
Reading extract
[Alice volunteers at an archaeological dig in the Pyrenees]
Reading extract redacted.
June 2017Exam time1 hour 45 minutes
The Tiredness of Rosabel · Katherine Mansfield
[Rosabel returns from work at a hat shop]
SpecimenExam time1 hour 45 minutes
Jamaica Inn · Daphne du Maurier
[Coach journey through stormy Cornwall]
Insert included in QP.