2024_AQA: A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE a Paper 1 Love through the Ages (Merged Question paper and marking scheme): Friday 24 May 2024 A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE A

2024_AQA: A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE a Paper 1 Love through the Ages (Merged Question paper and marking scheme): Friday 24 May 2024 A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE A Paper 1 Love through the ages Friday 24 May 2024 Materials For this paper you must have:  an AQA 12-page answer book Morning Time allowed: 3 hours  a copy of each of the set texts you have studied for Section C. These texts must not be annotated and must not contain additional notes or materials. Instructions  Use black ink or black ball-point pen.  Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7712/1.  In Section A you will answer one question about a Shakespeare play.  In Section B you will answer the one question about unseen poetry.  In Section C you will answer one question about two texts: one poetry text and one prose text, one of which must be written pre-1900.  Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. Information  The marks for questions are shown in brackets.  The maximum mark for this paper is 75.  You will be marked on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.  In your response you need to: – analyse carefully the writers’ methods – explore the contexts of the texts you are writing about – explore connections across the texts you have studied – explore different interpretations of your texts. A-level English Literature A Paper 1 – Love Through the Ages Key Areas to Revise for May 2025 Overview: This paper explores the theme of love in literature, examining how different writers portray love through a range of genres, periods, and cultural contexts. You will study both the representation of love as a personal experience and its social, moral, and cultural implications, drawing from a variety of texts ranging from Shakespearean plays to modern poetry. Key Areas to Revise: 1. Types of Love:  Romantic Love: Understand how different texts portray the idealization, complexity, and challenges of romantic love. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, explore the intense passion of youthful love, while in Pride and Prejudice, analyze how love develops gradually through mutual understanding and respect.  Platonic Love: Study how non-romantic, intellectual, or friendship-based love is represented in texts, such as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Great Gatsby, where relationships are built on companionship, wit, or shared values.  Unrequited Love: Explore themes of one-sided love or desire, as seen in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or in poems like those of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, where the lover experiences longing without reciprocation.  Love and Sacrifice: Consider how love can lead to self-sacrifice or suffering, exemplified in texts like Antigone, where love for family and duty leads to tragic consequences. 2. Social and Cultural Contexts of Love:  Love in Different Periods: Study how the representation of love changes over time. In medieval literature, love is often idealized (e.g., The Canterbury Tales), while in the Romantic period, love may be more about emotional intensity and individual feeling (e.g., Wuthering Heights).  Class and Love: Examine how social class influences relationships and the portrayal of love, such as in Jane Eyre, where social hierarchy and love intersect. 3. Literary Techniques in Representing Love:  Symbolism: Understand how symbols like flowers, seasons, or the setting (e.g., the garden in The Garden of Love) symbolize different aspects of love, such as beauty, purity, or fleeting nature.  Language and Imagery: Focus on how poets and playwrights use language to express the depth of love. For example, examine metaphors and imagery in the works of Shakespeare or the sonnets of John Keats, which often depict love as transcendent or all-consuming. 4. The Tragic and the Idealized in Love:  Tragic Love: Study the representation of love leading to tragedy, such as in Romeo and Juliet, where love ultimately leads to death. Look at the emotional intensity and the external obstacles (e.g., family feuds, fate) that complicate love.  Idealized Love: Examine texts that portray idealized or unattainable love 5. Comparing Texts:  The Role of Love in Different Genres: Be prepared to compare the portrayal of love in different genres, including poetry, drama, and the novel. How does the form influence how love is presented?  Themes of Love in Different Periods: Compare how different periods (e.g., Elizabethan, Romantic, Victorian, and Modern) present love. Is love portrayed more as a moral duty, an emotional experience, or a social construct 7712/1 IB/H/Jun24/G4006/E10 2 Section A: Shakespeare Answer one question in this section. Either 0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare ‘In Othello, Iago’s skills make him a likeable anti-hero rather than a hateful villain.’ In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents Iago’s attitudes to love in this extract and elsewhere in the play. IAGO Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used: exclaim no more against it. And, good Lieutenant, I think you think I love you. CASSIO I have well approved it, sir. I drunk! IAGO You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. I’ll tell you what you shall do. Our General’s wife is now the General. I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the contempla- tion, mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. Confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband, entreat her to splinter; and my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before. CASSIO You advise me well. IAGO I protest in the sincerity of love and honest kind- ness. CASSIO I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I am desperate of my fortunes if they check me here. IAGO You are in the right. Good night, Lieutenant, I must to the watch. CASSIO Good night, honest Iago. IAGO And what’s he then that says I play the villain, When this advice is free I give, and honest, Probal to thinking, and indeed the course To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy Th’inclining Desdemona to subdue In any honest suit. She’s framed as fruitful As the free elements; and then for her To win the Moor, were’t to renounce his baptism, All seals and symbols of redeemèd sin, His soul is so enfettered to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, Exit [25 marks] IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 3 Even as her appetite shall play the god With his weak function. How am I then a villain To counsel Cassio to this parallel course Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows As I do now. For whiles this honest fool Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear: That she repeals him for her body’s lust, And by how much she strives to do him good, She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all. Turn over for the next question IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 (Act 2, Scene 3) Turn over ► 4 or 0 2 The Taming of the Shrew – William Shakespeare ‘Grumio and other servants are crucial to the development of the love stories in The Taming of the Shrew.’ In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents Grumio and other servants in this extract and elsewhere in the play. CURTIS I prithee, good Grumio, tell me how goes the world? He kindles a fire GRUMIO A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine – and therefore fire. Do thy duty, and have thy duty, for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death. CURTIS There’s fire ready – and therefore, good Grumio, the news. GRUMIO Why, ‘Jack boy, ho boy!’ and as much news as wilt thou. CURTIS Come, you are so full of cony-catching. GRUMIO Why therefore fire, for I have caught extreme cold. Where’s the cook? Is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept, the serving- men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without, the carpets laid, and everything in order? CURTIS All ready – and therefore, I pray thee, news. GRUMIO First know my horse is tired, my master and mistress fallen out. CURTIS How? GRUMIO Out of their saddles into the dirt, and thereby hangs a tale. CURTIS Let’s ha’t, good Grumio. GRUMIO Lend thine ear. CURTIS Here. GRUMIO There. He boxes Curtis’s ear CURTIS This ’tis to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. GRUMIO And therefore ’tis called a sensible tale; and this cuff was but to knock at your ear and beseech listening. Now I begin. Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress – CURTIS Both of one horse? GRUMIO What’s that to thee? CURTIS Why, a horse. GRUMIO Tell thou the tale. But hadst thou not crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse; thou shouldst have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoiled, how he left her [25 marks] IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 5 with the horse upon her, how he beat me because her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore, how she prayed that never prayed before, how I cried, how the horses ran away, how her bridle was burst, how I lost my crupper – with many things of worthy memory, which now shall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienced to thy grave. CURTIS By this reckoning he is more shrew than she. GRUMIO Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? Call forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop, and the rest. Let their heads be slickly combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of an indifferent knit. Let them curtsy with their left legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my master’s horse-tail till they kiss their hands. Are they all ready? CURTIS They are. GRUMIO Call them forth. CURTIS Do you hear, ho? You must meet my master to countenance my mistress. Turn over for the next question (Act 4, Scene 1) IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 Turn over ► 6 or 0 3 Measure for Measure – William Shakespeare ‘An audience can only be appalled by Angelo’s abuses of power in leadership and love.’ In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents Angelo in this extract and elsewhere in the play. ISABELLA Must he needs die? ANGELO ISABELLA Maiden, no remedy. Yes, I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. ANGELO I will not do’t. ISABELLA ANGELO But can you if you would? Look what I will not, that I cannot do. ISABELLA But might you do’t, and do the world no wrong, If so your heart were touched with that remorse As mine is to him? ANGELO He’s sentenced; ’tis too late. LUCIO (aside to Isabella) ISABELLA Too late? Why, no. I that do speak a word May call it again. Well, believe this, No ceremony that to great ones longs, Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe, Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy does. If he had been as you, and you as he, You would have slipped like him; but he, like you, Would not have been so stern. ANGELO ISABELLA I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel; should it then be thus? No, I would tell what ’twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner. LUCIO (aside to Isabella) Ay, touch him; there’s the vein. ANGELO Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. ISABELLA Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once, [25 marks] You are too cold. Pray you, be gone. Alas, alas; IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 7 And He that might the vantage best have took Found out the remedy. How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgement, should But judge you as you are? O think on that, And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made. ANGELO Be you content, fair maid, It is the law, not I, condemn your brother; Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow. ISABELLA Tomorrow? O, that’s sudden; spare him, spare him. He’s not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season. Shall we serve heaven With less respect than we do minister To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you: Who is it that hath died for this offence? There’s many have committed it. LUCIO (aside to Isabella) ANGELO Ay, well said. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept. Those many had not dared to do that evil If the first that did th’edict infringe Had answered for his deed. Now ’tis awake, Takes note of what is done, and like a prophet Looks in a glass that shows what future evils, Either now, or by remissness, new-conceived, And so in progress to be hatched and born, Are now to have no successive degrees, But where they live, to end. ISABELLA ANGELO Yet show some pity. I show it most of all when I show justice, For then I pity those I do not know, Which a dismissed offence would after gall, And do him right that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be satisfied Your brother dies tomorrow. Be content. Turn over for the next question (Act 2, Scene 2) IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 Turn over ► 8 or 0 4 The Winter’s Tale – William Shakespeare ‘The relationships between women are the strongest bonds of love in the play.’ In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents relationships between women in this extract and elsewhere in the play. Enter Paulina, a Gentleman, and Attendants PAULINA The keeper of the prison, call to him. Let him have knowledge who I am. No court in Europe is too good for thee: What dost thou then in prison? Enter Gentleman, with the Gaoler Now, good sir, You know me, do you not? GAOLER For a worthy lady, And one who much I honour. PAULINA Conduct me to the Queen. GAOLER Pray you, then, I may not, madam: To the contrary I have express commandment. PAULINA Here’s ado To lock up honesty and honour from Th’access of gentle visitors! Is’t lawful, pray you, To see her women? Any of them? Emilia? GAOLER So please you, madam, To put apart these your attendants, I Shall bring Emilia forth. PAULINA I pray now, call her. Withdraw yourselves. Exeunt Gentleman and Attendants GAOLER And, madam, I must be present at your conference. PAULINA Well, be’t so, prithee. Here’s such ado to make no stain a stain As passes colouring. Enter Gaoler with Emilia Dear gentlewoman, How fares our gracious lady? EMILIA As well as one so great and so forlorn May hold together. On her frights and griefs – Which never tender lady hath borne greater – She is something before her time delivered. [25 marks] Exit Gentleman Good lady, Exit Gaoler IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 9 PAULINA A boy? EMILIA A daughter, and a goodly babe, Lusty, and like to live. The Queen receives Much comfort in’t; says, ‘My poor prisoner, I am innocent as you.’ PAULINA I dare be sworn. These dangerous, unsafe lunes i’th’King, beshrew them! He must be told on’t, and he shall. The office Becomes a woman best. I’ll take’t upon me. If I prove honey-mouthed, let my tongue blister, And never to my red-looked anger be The trumpet any more. Pray you, Emilia, Commend my best obedience to the Queen. If she dares trust me with her little babe, I’ll show’t the King, and undertake to be Her advocate to th’loud’st. We do not know How he may soften at the sight o’th’child: The silence often of pure innocence Persuades when speaking fails. EMILIA Most worthy madam, Your honour and your goodness is so evident That your free undertaking cannot miss A thriving issue. There is no lady living So meet for this great errand. Please your ladyship To visit the next room, I’ll presently Acquaint the Queen of your most noble offer, Who but today hammered of this design, But durst not tempt a minister of honour Lest she should be denied. PAULINA Tell her, Emilia, I’ll use that tongue I have. If wit flow from’t As boldness from my bosom, let’t not be doubted I shall do good. EMILIA Now be you blest for it! I’ll to the Queen. Please you come something nearer. GAOLER Madam, if’t please the Queen to send the babe, I know not what I shall incur to pass it, Having no warrant. PAULINA You need not fear it, sir. This child was prisoner to the womb, and is By law and process of great Nature thence Freed and enfranchised; not a party to The anger of the King, nor guilty of, If any be, the trespass of the Queen. GAOLER I do believe it. PAULINA Do not you fear. Upon mine honour, I Will stand betwixt you and danger. Exeunt (Act 2, Scene 2) IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 Turn over ► 10 Section B: Unseen Poetry Answer the following question. 0 5 Compare and contrast the significance of ending a relationship in the following love poems. Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part – Nay, I have done, you get no more of me; And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart, That thus so cleanly I myself can free. Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows, And when we meet at any time again, Be it not seen in either of our brows That we one jot of former love retain. Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath, When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies, When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death, And Innocence is closing up his eyes, – Now if thou would’st, when all have given him over, From death to life thou might’st him yet recover. Michael Drayton (1563–1631) The Terrible Door Too long outside your door I have shivered. You open it? I will not stay. I’m haunted by your ashen beauty. Take back your hand. I have gone away. Don’t talk, but move to that near corner. I loathe the long cold shadow here. We will stand a moment in the lamplight, Until I watch you hard and near. Happy release! Good-bye for ever! Here at the corner we say good-bye. But if you want me, if you do need me, Who waits, at the terrible door, but I? Harold Monro (1879–1932) [25 marks] IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 11 Section C: Comparing Texts Answer one question in this section. Either 0 6 ‘In the literature of love, opposites attract.’ In the light of this view, compare how lovers and their attraction to one another is presented in two texts you have studied. You must write about at least two poems in your answer as well as the prose text you have studied. [25 marks] or 0 7 Compare how the authors of two texts you have studied present deception in love relationships. You must write about at least two poems in your answer as well as the prose text you have studied. [25 marks] END OF QUESTIONS IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 12 There are no questions printed on this page Copyright information For confidentiality purposes, all acknowledgements of third-party copyright material are published in a separate booklet. This booklet is published after each live examination series and is available for free download from . Permission to reproduce all copyright material has been applied for. In some cases, efforts to contact copyright-holders may have been unsuccessful and AQA will be happy to rectify any omissions of acknowledgements. If you have any queries please contact the Copyright Team. Copyright © 2024 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. IB/H/Jun24/7712/1 A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE A 7712/1 Paper 1 Love through the ages Mark scheme June 2024 Version: 1.0 Final MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024 Mark schemes are prepared by the Lead Assessment Writer and considered, together with the relevant questions, by a panel of subject teachers. This mark scheme includes any amendments made at the standardisation events which all associates participate in and is the scheme which was used by them in this examination. The standardisation process ensures that the mark scheme covers the students’ responses to questions and that every associate understands and applies it in the same correct way. As preparation for standardisation each associate analyses a number of students’ scripts. Alternative answers not already covered by the mark scheme are discussed and legislated for. If, after the standardisation process, associates encounter unusual answers which have not been raised they are required to refer these to the Lead Examiner. It must be stressed that a mark scheme is a working document, in many cases further developed and expanded on the basis of students’ reactions to a particular paper. Assumptions about future mark schemes on the basis of one year’s document should be avoided; whilst the guiding principles of assessment remain constant, details will change, depending on the content of a particular examination paper. No student should be disadvantaged on the basis of their gender identity and/or how they refer to the gender identity of others in their exam responses. A consistent use of ‘they/them’ as a singular and pronouns beyond ‘she/her’ or ‘he/him’ will be credited in exam responses in line with existing mark scheme criteria. Further copies of this mark scheme are available from Copyright information AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre. Copyright © 2024 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. 2 MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024 Level of response marking instructions Level of response mark schemes are broken down into levels, each of which has a descriptor. The descriptor for the level shows the average performance for the level. There are marks in each level. Before you apply the mark scheme to a student’s answer read through the answer and annotate it (as instructed) to show the qualities that are being looked for. You can then apply the mark scheme. Step 1 Determine a level Start at the lowest level of the mark scheme and use it as a ladder to see whether the answer meets the descriptor for that level. The descriptor for the level indicates the different qualities that might be seen in the student’s answer for that level. If it meets the lowest level then go to the next one and decide if it meets this level, and so on, until you have a match between the level descriptor and the answer. With practice and familiarity you will find that for better answers you will be able to quickly skip through the lower levels of the mark scheme. When assigning a level you should look at the overall quality of the answer and not look to pick holes in small and specific parts of the answer where the student has not performed quite as well as the rest. If the answer covers different aspects of different levels of the mark scheme you should use a best fit approach for defining the level and then use the variability of the response to help decide the mark within the level, ie if the response is predominantly level 3 with a small amount of level 4 material it would be placed in level 3 but be awarded a mark near the top of the level because of the level 4 content. Step 2 Determine a mark Once you have assigned a level you need to decide on the mark. The descriptors on how to allocate marks can help with this. The exemplar materials used during standardisation will help. There will be an answer in the standardising materials which will correspond with each level of the mark scheme. This answer will have been awarded a mark by the Lead Examiner. You can compare the student’s answer with the example to determine if it is the same standard, better or worse than the example. You can then use this to allocate a mark for the answer based on the Lead Examiner’s mark on the example. You may well need to read back through the answer as you apply the mark scheme to clarify points and assure yourself that the level and the mark are appropriate. Indicative content in the mark scheme is provided as a guide for examiners. It is not intended to be exhaustive and you must credit other valid points. Students do not have to cover all of the points mentioned in the Indicative content to reach the highest level of the mark scheme. An answer which contains nothing of relevance to the question must be awarded no marks. 3 MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024 7712/1 Love through the ages – Mark Scheme Welcome to this mark scheme which is designed to help you deliver fair and accurate assessment. Please read carefully all sections and ensure that you follow the requirements that they contain. The significance of closed book (AS Paper 1 Sections A and B, A-level Paper 1 Section A) Examiners must understand that in marking a closed book exam there are examining implications. Candidates do not have their texts in front of them, so while it is expected that they will use quotations, it is also legitimate to use close textual references. They will have had to memorise quotations so there may be some errors which should not be over-penalised. Detailed discussions of particular sections of texts, apart from printed extracts, are less likely here than in open book exams. Instead, candidates may range broadly across their texts as they construct their arguments. There are specific issues for AO2 – how meanings are shaped in texts. There is, with closed book, the expectation that candidates will not have the texts in front of them, so although they will sometimes be able to make specific references to structural and organisational issues, at other times they will be more general. The significance of open book (AS Paper 2 Section B, A-level Paper 2 Section A and the second part of Section B) Examiners must understand that in marking an open book exam there are examining implications. Candidates have their texts in front of them, and they are expected to use them to focus on specific passages for detailed discussion. They will not have had to memorise quotations, so when quotations are used they should be accurate. Because candidates have their texts in the examination room, examiners need to be alert to possible malpractice. The texts should not be annotated, but if examiners suspect that they have been or that notes from texts have been copied, they must alert the malpractice team. There are specific issues for AO2 – how meanings are shaped in texts. There is, with open book, the expectation that candidates can use the text they have in front of them to make specific and detailed reference to structural and organisational issues. Arriving at Marks 1. 2. 3. 4. All questions are framed to address all the Assessment Objectives (AOs). Weightings are given above the generic mark scheme. Answers are marked holistically but, when deciding upon a mark in a band, examiners should bear in mind the relative weightings of the assessment objectives (see page 7) and be careful not to over/under credit a particular skill. This will be exemplified and reinforced as part of examiner training and standardisation. Examiners need to read the whole answer taking into account its strengths and weaknesses and then place it in the appropriate band. Examiners should avoid making early snap judgements before the whole answer has been read. Some candidates begin tentatively but go on to make relevant points. Examiners should be prepared to use the full mark range and not ‘bunch’ scripts in the middle for safety. Top band marks are attainable if candidates could not be expected to do more in the time and under the conditions in which they are working. Examiners should mark positively. Although the mark scheme provides some indicators for what candidates are likely to write about, examiners should be willing to reward what is actually there – provided, of course, that it is relevant to the question being asked. 4 MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024 5. 6. 7. Examiners should remember that there are no right answers. Candidates’ views which are relevant, well-argued and supported by appropriate textual evidence must receive credit whether the examiner agrees with the views or not. It is important to try to remain flexible if a candidate introduces unusual or unorthodox ideas. Examiners should remember that length and quality are not synonymous. Some brief answers may be relevant and concise. Equally, long answers may be diffuse and repetitive. If answers are short or incomplete, examiners can only reward what is there and assess accordingly. Some further credit can be given to answers finished in note form. Using the Mark Bands 8. 9. When placing answers in mark bands, examiners need to look closely at the descriptors and the detailed generic mark bands on page 8. The key words for the bands are important and are printed below. MARK BAND DESCRIPTORS Band 5 perceptive/assured Band 4 coherent/thorough Band 3 straightforward/relevant Band 2 simple/generalised Band 1 largely irrelevant, largely misunderstood, largely inaccurate Answers placed at the top of the band will securely address the descriptors; answers at the lower end of the band will securely address the descriptors below and begin to show the qualities of the band into which you are placing them. Careful judgements need to be made about marks in the middle of the range; here it is likely that the key descriptors will be more intermittent but still clearly evident. 10. There will be occasions when an answer addresses descriptors in different bands; in such cases, the ‘best-fit’ model applies. Here examiners will need to exercise a different kind of judgement, looking to see where the answer can be most fairly and appropriately placed in terms of its quality against the descriptors. 11. Examiners must remember that the mark bands are not equivalent to grades: grades are decided by the awarding committee at the end of each session. Advice about marking specific sections 12. Examiners need to bear in mind the following key points when marking extract based questions:  has the candidate engaged with the relevant interpretation and constructed a relevant argument?  does the candidate have an overview of the extract(s)/text(s)?  has the candidate quoted from the extract(s)/text(s) to support ideas? 5 MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024  has the candidate seen the significance of the extract(s)/text(s) in relation to the central historicist literary concept?  has the candidate written about authorial method(s)?  the candidate’s AO1 competence. 13. Examiners need to bear in mind the following key points when marking questions based on single texts and compared texts:  has the candidate engaged with the relevant interpretation and constructed a relevant argument?  has the candidate referred to relevant sections of the text(s) to support their views?  has the candidate seen the significance of the text(s) in relation to the central historicist literary concept?  has the candidate referred to authorial methods?  the candidate’s AO1 competence. 14. Examiners need to bear in mind the following key points when marking questions connecting two texts:  has the candidate focused on the central historicist literary concept set up in the question and referred to two texts?  has the candidate engaged in a relevant debate or constructed a relevant argument around the two texts?  has the candidate considered the writers’ authorial methods in the two texts?  has the candidate adhered to the rubric?  has the candidate given substantial coverage of two texts?  the candidate’s AO1 competence. Annotation 15. Examiners should remember that annotation is directed solely to senior examiners. 16. In addition to giving a mark, examiners should write a brief summative comment indicating how the mark has been arrived at. These comments are likely to mirror the appropriate mark band descriptors but comments must not be mechanical. Examiners need to describe candidate performance. 17. Please remember that scripts can go back to candidates, so although your audience is a senior examiner, you must express your views temperately. 18. Please use the e-Marker2 symbols provided as formative annotation, and a text box for a holistic summative comment. 19. Use the Model Marked Script(s) for guidance, along with the Standardisation scripts. 6 MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024 The Assessment Objectives and their significance 20. All questions are framed to test AOs 2, 3, 4 and 5, so if candidates answer the question, then they will be addressing the AOs. In marking questions, however, examiners must also take account of AO1, which tests more than technical accuracy. The AOs are as follows: AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations. (12%) AO4 Explore connections across literary texts. (12%) AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received. (24%) AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts. (24%) AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression. (28%) Weightings for each question are as follows: AO5: 3 marks AO4: 3 marks AO3: 6 marks AO2: 6 marks AO1: 7 marks 7 MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE A – 7712/1 – JUNE 2024 Mark Scheme It is important to remember that these students, in the main, are 18 years old so we are judging their skills at the end of Key Stage 5. Weightings for each question are as follows: AO1: 7 marks AO2: 6 marks AO3: 6 marks AO4: 3 marks AO5: 3 marks. Mark AO Typical features AO5  perceptive and confident engagement with the debate set up in the task Band 5 Perceptive/Assured 21 25 marks ‘Perception’ is demonstrated when students are showing the depth of their understanding and responding sensitively to the texts and task. AO4  perceptive exploration of connections across literary texts arising out of historicist study ‘Assuredness’ is shown when students write with confidence and conviction. AO3  perceptive understanding of the significance of relevant contexts in relation to the task  assuredness in the connection between those contexts and the historicist literary concept studied AO2  perceptive understanding of authorial methods in relation to the task  assured engagement with how meanings are shaped by the methods used AO1  perceptive, assured and sophisticated argument in relation to the task  assured use of literary critical concepts and terminology; mature and impressive expression