GCSE English Language 9-1 Paper 1 "Past Paper" (with extensive MARK SCHEME)

I created this “past paper” for my students who are doing the AQA board. The extract is from “Sons and Lovers” (1913) by DH Lawrence and is taken from Chapter 1. It focuses on Mrs Morel, unhappy with her situation in life, who reflects on her life and wonders, frankly, where it all went wrong! It works very well for this exam and is - as one might expect from Lawrence - beautifully and concisely written.

Most ‘past papers’ written by teachers omit a mark scheme. However, I have also created an extensive mark scheme for this paper, which mirrors those released by AQA in its format. So, for each question I have written a response - the indicative content - for each level (1-4).

As an extra, I have also included some of the other things that students may pick up on for each question (something that AQA does but in a ‘blink and you miss it’ kind of way. I would hesitate before saying these are exhaustive (who knows what our students’ minds may conjure!). However, I hope the responses and the additional suggestions will help you as teachers.

I have uploaded the PDFs but also the original Word documents if you wish to tweak them in any way (hopefully no need!)

Questions
1 List four things that are happening from this part of the source.
2 How does the writer use language here to describe Mrs Morel’s situation in life?
3 How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
4 A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer shows us just how much Mrs Morel feels that her life is out of her control. She feels like she has been cheated, somehow.” To what extent do you agree?
5 Write a description suggested by this picture. or
Write a story entitled “The disappointment”.

The paper covers:
AO1 -Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas
AO2, Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views
A04 - Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references
AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts
AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

There is no scheme for marking the creative writing - responses are too varied to make an exemplar either possible or warranted. Please refer to AQAs mark schemes for how to arrive at a mark for Section 2.