AQA GCSE english language timings

Hi, as someone is looking to get a 9, I was wondering how long other people spend on each question on this paper. With the hour that I use for the first section, I try to spend around 10-12 minutes on 2 and 3 and then around 20 but usually more a bit more on 4. What do other people find works well and do you think it's worth planning asap instead of spending the 15 minutes or something suggested, which is just ridiculous?

personally i'd start with the last question- work backwards. because my teacher always says that it's better to finish the 40 marker (that's literally 50 percent of your paper) rather than start at the beginning and risk the possibility of rushing the 40 marker from being slower on the other questions. if you were to answer the 40 marker, 20 marker, and even half of the 8 marker (hypothetically) you've already bagged so many fricking marks already 😭. usually i'll spend like 45-50 minutes on the 40 marker (like 5-10 minutes planning if i need to) 20 minutes on the 8 markers (together), and like 30 minutes on the 20 marker. you should have 15 minutes left over to quickly do the 4 marker and then go over all your work again if you want to. you could probably spend up to an hour on the 40 marker if you know that you can write the 20 marker pretty fast, but yeah. i'd centre your timings around section B- because that's what you want to prioritise. i hope that helped 🫶

that is helpful, thx ! I think I'll try to stick to similar timings as you suggest but I honestly prefer getting the first section out of the way. I actually find that it helps me concentrate more on creative writing when I know that there isn't a ton of analysis still in front of me. For me, I'd compare the 40 marker to a kind of victory lap as I actually enjoy it, and that motivates me to finish the first section