Who chooses the board?
Your school chooses both the exam board and the set texts, so two students at different schools may study quite different books. Each board publishes its own GCSE English Literature specification, the official document that says what is examined. Ask your English department which board and which texts you are on before you rely on a column below. This page explains what the documents say; it is not a guide to picking between them.
What the three boards share
Each course has two written papers, all of them closed book, which means you do not take your copies of the texts into the exam. Each asks you to cover a Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel, a more recent prose or drama text, and a body of poetry that includes poems you have not seen before. Total marks across the two papers come to 160 for every board, so what changes is how those marks are split.
Where the documents differ
Paper structure is the first difference. AQA puts Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel together in one paper and the modern text and poetry in the other. Pearson Edexcel pairs Shakespeare with a post-1914 text, then puts the 19th-century novel with poetry. OCR pairs the modern text with the 19th-century novel, and poetry with Shakespeare. So the same four elements are grouped three different ways.
Timing and weighting follow from that. AQA’s two papers are worth 40% and 60%, while Pearson Edexcel and OCR split the qualification equally. Paper lengths differ as well: 1 hour 45 minutes and 2 hours 15 minutes for AQA and Pearson Edexcel. OCR's lengths are in its own specification, so check them there.
Set text lists differ in size. AQA and Pearson Edexcel list six Shakespeare plays and seven 19th-century novels, whereas OCR lists four and six. Modern text lists run to 12, 12 and 6 titles. Titles overlap in places, but a revision resource written around one board’s list will not necessarily cover another board’s.
Poetry is organised differently too. Each board uses its own poetry anthology divided into clusters or collections, and you study one; AQA and Pearson Edexcel have 15 poems in each. AQA and OCR each offer three, Pearson Edexcel offers four. How the unseen poetry is asked varies between the three, so read your board’s paper description closely.
| What is compared | AQA 8702 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Pearson Edexcel 1ET0 6, 7 | OCR J352 8, 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Papers | 2 written papers | 2 written components | 2 written components |
| Paper titles | Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel. Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry | Component 1: Shakespeare and Post-1914 Literature. Component 2: 19th-century Novel and Poetry since 1789 | 01: Exploring modern and literary heritage texts. 02: Exploring poetry and Shakespeare |
| Length of each paper | 1 hour 45 minutes; 2 hours 15 minutes | 1 hour 45 minutes; 2 hours 15 minutes | See the OCR specification|
| Marks per paper | 64; 96 | See the Pearson specification | See the OCR specification |
| Total marks | 160 | 160 | See the OCR specification |
| Weighting | 40%; 60% | 50%; 50% | 50%; 50% |
| Closed book | Yes: all assessments are closed book | Yes: texts are not allowed in the examination | Yes: both components are closed text |
| Shakespeare choice | 1 play from a list of 6 | 1 play from a list of 6 | 1 play from a list of 4 |
| 19th-century novel choice | 1 novel from a list of 7 | 1 novel from a list of 7 | See the OCR specification |
| Modern text choice | 1 from 12 listed titles (prose or drama); some are marked as last examined in 2024 | 1 post-1914 British play or novel from 12 listed titles | See the OCR specification |
| Poetry | 1 cluster of 15 poems from 3 clusters, plus unseen poetry | 1 collection of 15 poems from 4 collections, plus two unseen contemporary poems | 1 themed cluster from 3 clusters, plus an unseen poem compared with a named poem |
Last checked: 28 October 2026.
Reading the table
Every cell comes from the board’s own pages or specification PDF listed under Sources, with the numbers in each column heading pointing to them. Set text lists change over time, which is why one AQA entry notes titles last examined in 2024. We show the date we last checked below the table. If anything conflicts with your school’s information, your school and the board’s current document come first.
Using the differences in your revision
Closed book papers put weight on knowing your texts well enough to quote and discuss without the book open. Practise under the time limit that applies to your own board. Our free past papers finder points you to where each board publishes its papers, and a tutor can help you plan your reading and talk through your essays with you.
Official specification pages
Go straight to the source: AQA GCSE English Literature (8702), Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature (2015) and OCR English Literature (J352).
Part of the GCSE English Literature revision set: the revision guide, glossary of key terms and self-marking quiz.