2026 AQA GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE 8702/1 Paper 1 Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel Question Paper & Mark scheme (Merged) June 2026 [VERIFIED] (Question paper and marking scheme combined) (QP & MS Combined) (51pages)

GCSE

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Paper 1 Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel

Wednesday 17 May 2026 Morning Time allowed: 1 hour 45 minutes

Materials

For this paper you must have:

• an AQA 16-page answer book.

Instructions

• Use black ink or black ball-point pen. Do not use pencil.

• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 8702/1.

• Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.

• You must not use a dictionary.

Information

• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.

• The maximum mark for this paper is 64.

• AO4 will be assessed in Section A. There are 4 marks available for AO4 in Section A in addition

to 30 marks for answering the question. AO4 assesses the following skills: use a range of

vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and

punctuation.

• There are 30 marks for Section B.