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AQA A-Level English Literature B Paper 2 (7716/2) - 8th June 2023 [Exam Chat]


AQA A-Level English Literature B Paper 2 (7716/2, 7716/2A, 7716/2B) - 8th June [Exam Chat]

Welcome to the exam discussion thread for this exam. Introduce yourself! Let others know what you're aiming for in your exams, what you are struggling with in your revision or anything else.

Wishing you all the best of luck. :yy:

General Information
Date/Time: 8th June (morning)
Length: 3 hr

Resources Exam board website

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This exam thread is for the following topics and texts:

Elements of Crime Writing
Kate Atkinson When Will There Be Good News?
Agatha Christie The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
George Crabbe, Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde Poems
Charles Dickens Oliver Twist
Graham Greene Brighton Rock
Ian McEwan Atonement
William Shakespeare Hamlet


Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing
Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale
William Blake Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Jim Crace Harvest
Charles Dickens Hard Times
Tony Harrison Selected Poems
Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
Henrik Ibsen A Doll’s House
Henry IV Part I
Hi! I do the crime poetry cluster, Brighton Rock, and Atonement!

Feeling a bit nervous for the Atonement question as the text is so intricate, but generally okay with the content of the rest! Really hope I can secure a strong A* with this paper :smile:

Does anyone have any non past-paper exam questions they could share? Struggling to find any and can't afford the fees!!
Original post by daphneffion
Hi! I do the crime poetry cluster, Brighton Rock, and Atonement!

Feeling a bit nervous for the Atonement question as the text is so intricate, but generally okay with the content of the rest! Really hope I can secure a strong A* with this paper :smile:

Does anyone have any non past-paper exam questions they could share? Struggling to find any and can't afford the fees!!

I studied this spec in the year that it came out, and I did Atonement. Advice would be to focus on the elements of crime writing from the spec that you can identify within the text. It's a dense novel, but there is a fair amount that you can try to disregard when you're just focusing on it as a piece of crime writing.
We're doing blake, handmaids tale, and kite runner. Any advice or predictions on what themes may be tested?
No way, we do the exact same texts! My teacher reckons an individual character question for TKR & poetry for the unseen, but was uncertain for the rest, as each year has been pretty evenly spread. I'd say assess your strengths (specifically S&P themes vs characters) & try to pinpoint chapters to flip to for each. At least, that's what we've been advised to do haha. Just curious, what texts did you do for Paper 1? We did aspects of tragedy, so King Lear, Tess of the D'Urbervilles & Death of a Salesman. Just wondering if we do the same for everything lol
Original post by skybright
No way, we do the exact same texts! My teacher reckons an individual character question for TKR & poetry for the unseen, but was uncertain for the rest, as each year has been pretty evenly spread. I'd say assess your strengths (specifically S&P themes vs characters) & try to pinpoint chapters to flip to for each. At least, that's what we've been advised to do haha. Just curious, what texts did you do for Paper 1? We did aspects of tragedy, so King Lear, Tess of the D'Urbervilles & Death of a Salesman. Just wondering if we do the same for everything lol

but wasn't the unseen a poem last year? so I'm not sure if they'll do another poem but I hope they don't 🙏
Original post by annqbellex
but wasn't the unseen a poem last year? so I'm not sure if they'll do another poem but I hope they don't 🙏


That’s what I thought, they did do a poem last year but with the way paper 1 was i wouldn’t be surprised if they do another poem i just REALLY hope they don’t 🤞
Original post by skybright
No way, we do the exact same texts! My teacher reckons an individual character question for TKR & poetry for the unseen, but was uncertain for the rest, as each year has been pretty evenly spread. I'd say assess your strengths (specifically S&P themes vs characters) & try to pinpoint chapters to flip to for each. At least, that's what we've been advised to do haha. Just curious, what texts did you do for Paper 1? We did aspects of tragedy, so King Lear, Tess of the D'Urbervilles & Death of a Salesman. Just wondering if we do the same for everything lol


we did aspects of tragedy too but did Othello, Gatsby and Richard ii haha
Reply 9
any predictions for brighton rock/atonement/crime poems? :smile:
Original post by molly123xx
we did aspects of tragedy too but did Othello, Gatsby and Richard ii haha


two shakespeare?! damn
Original post by annqbellex
but wasn't the unseen a poem last year? so I'm not sure if they'll do another poem but I hope they don't 🙏

i think the reason she's suspicious is that previously it's gone prose, play, play, prose, poem, so another poem would even it out, plus they've repeated before, but obviously be prepared for anything haha
Original post by skybright
i think the reason she's suspicious is that previously it's gone prose, play, play, prose, poem, so another poem would even it out, plus they've repeated before, but obviously be prepared for anything haha

oh **** thats true. aqa english lit has been repeating lots of things from last year tbh (like the othello extract act)
Original post by annqbellex
oh **** thats true. aqa english lit has been repeating lots of things from last year tbh (like the othello extract act)

in all honestly unseen is the only thing i'm not worried about (although now i say that i bet it's going to be awful hahaha) ... we do it so much in class i just waffle about power dynamics! terrified for the rest though, i'm super confident on the handmaid's tale & william blake but the kite runner? not so much 😬
Original post by skybright
in all honestly unseen is the only thing i'm not worried about (although now i say that i bet it's going to be awful hahaha) ... we do it so much in class i just waffle about power dynamics! terrified for the rest though, i'm super confident on the handmaid's tale & william blake but the kite runner? not so much 😬

its the opposite for me, unseen is def my worse one and kite runner is alright because it's quite simple compared to handmaids, but blake is the best (hoping section b is a good blake question but I have no idea for predictions). you'll do fine though goodluck !
Original post by skybright
in all honestly unseen is the only thing i'm not worried about (although now i say that i bet it's going to be awful hahaha) ... we do it so much in class i just waffle about power dynamics! terrified for the rest though, i'm super confident on the handmaid's tale & william blake but the kite runner? not so much 😬

Yes same, i think they mark a bit nicer on the Unseen, we’ll on my last mock most of our class got higher marks in the Unseen extract than the sec b and C lol
Hi guys!

I’m doing Pol Soc
My texts are:
- Harvest
- A Dolls House
- Tony Harrison poetry

Anyone similar?
If so what are people’s predictions and feelings about the texts?

I personally don’t enjoy Harvest so I’m just not looking forward to writing about it at all.
Original post by top-lushness
Hi guys!

I’m doing Pol Soc
My texts are:
- Harvest
- A Dolls House
- Tony Harrison poetry

Anyone similar?
If so what are people’s predictions and feelings about the texts?

I personally don’t enjoy Harvest so I’m just not looking forward to writing about it at all.


omg someone else doing Harvest, so am I and i hate it, i’m just hoping the section b questions are good so i can just do it for sec C, there’s just not many resources online for it and i find it so hard to talk about sometimes. I’m hoping there might be a section C question on Punishment maybe as that’d be good.
I forgot to label my questions in my paper 1 would I get 0 marks?
Reply 19
We're doing Brighton Rock, Rime and Atonement - does anyone have any predictions of what the essays could be? Im thinking its possible for Brighton Rock to be a character question as they haven't done that since 2017 on Ida (though obvs might be wrong on that assumption) but i have no clue for Atonement!

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