Sample paper 1 responses

For those schools taking the examination route in May 2021, the Paper 1 examination is happening on Monday May 10th.  We also know that for those taking examinations in 2022, Paper 1 will be the only examination paper.  Whatever position you are in, the skills of Paper 1 sit at the heart of the course and it is always important for teachers and students to look at a range of examples in order to become familiar with the expectations the examination and how student work is assessed using the criteria. 

On tthis site, we continue to add to our resource bank of paper 1 responses with teacher marks and comments.  While many of these samples could be described as exemplary, they do vary in approach, style and quality; it is important for students to see that there is not one set way of responding to this examination, and it is also useful to look at examples in terms of what they get wrong or could do better, as well as those that do a lot of things right.   

We have now organised these samples by literary form so that as we add more responses it will be easier to navigate these pages to find examples from drama, poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction.

Responses to drama 

Responses to poetry 

Responses to prose fiction 

Responses to prose non-fiction