AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2 - Tuesday, May 20, 2025 [Exam Chat]

Poll

How did your AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2 exam go today?

Hi!! Currently in year 11 and GCSEs are like 6 months away 😶. I do Macbeth and a Christmas carol for paper 1 and An inspector calls and power and conflict poetry. So.....

•What are your predictions for 2025?
•What are your strengths or weaknesses?
• What paper do you prefer?

If Tissue comes up for the poetry 💀💀💀

TSR staff edit: check our round-up to see how students reacted to GCSE English Literature Paper 2

(edited 5 months ago)

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Reply 1

chloezzzzzzz

Hi! I’m also in y11 and doing these topics. I prefer paper 2 and if London comes up istg… Strength is defo the poetry section, and a major weakness is a Christmas Carol.

Reply 2

ellaboo12

Original post

by TwistedParadox

Hi!! Currently in year 11 and GCSEs are like 6 months away 😶. I do Macbeth and a Christmas carol for paper 1 and An inspector calls and power and conflict poetry. So.....
•What are your predictions for 2025?
•What are your strengths or weaknesses?
• What paper do you prefer?
If Tissue comes up for the poetry 💀💀💀

if tissue comes up for the poetry ill ACC cry

Reply 3

LXY0705

looking at what has come up, i've noticed that its only been the themes of power and control and effects of war, so i feel like maybe its time that they gave us a poem of a different theme - nature, identity, loss and memory

past poems
2024 - kamikaze - effects of conflict
2023 - duchess- effects of power
2022 - bayonet - conflict
2021 - london - power and control
2020 - remains - how ppl are affected by difficult experiences
2019 - war photo - how ppl are affected by war
2018 - ozy - power
2017 - bayonet - effects of war (twice bayonet has come up)
specimen paper - ozy - power (twice also)

of course, we can't be 100% sure what comes up as AQA could throw anything at us, but we can quite safely eliminate:
kamikaze - it was last yr
bayonet - come up twice
ozy - come up twice
duchess- recent
tissue - its a hard poem and i don't think aqa will be that cruel to give us tissue but we can't be sure as everyone says this every year, but i think aqa wont give us tissue
i have a gut feeling that remains won't come up, just because a) its come up before and b) its very similar to kamikaze so probs won't but plz don't hate on me if it comes up coz idk what will actually come up.
probs not london coz thats quite recent

i would predict the following
prelude- not had a nature poem b4
storm on the island - not had nature b4
poppies or emigree - talks about a lot of themes incl memory and loss and identity which have not come up before, my teacher predicts this also
checking - identity poem
exposure - best war poem, also discusses nature, people think it will come up but it hasn't in previous yrs so maybe its time for exposure to come up, my teacher thinks this also

plz don't hate me if predictions are wrong, they are purely predictions.
and plz revise ALL the poems and not just the prediction ones
and who knows, the poems we think won't come up might actually come up coz who knows what aqa will give us
best of luck to everyone in gcses

Reply 4

User_09

Original post

by ellaboo12

if tissue comes up for the poetry ill ACC cry

tissue won't come up. its mainly there to be compared to the given poem if a student wants a challenge. but still revise it at least a bit tho

Reply 5

LXY0705

Original post

by ellaboo12

if tissue comes up for the poetry ill ACC cry

it's unlikely that you will get tissue since it's probs the hardest poem to understand, but we still need to prepare for it in case of the worst case scenario, but i don't think you should be losing sleep over worrying about tissue. in a nutshell, tissue is an extended metaphor for life to show both the fragility and power of humans - life is fragile and death is inevitable but humans also hold a lot of power to change things, and we use paper to change things. ik there are lots of good youtube videos and resources out there to help you (e.g. mr salles, mr bruff, glow up your grades, etc,etc). Anyways, it probs won't come up so dw about it too much but prepare for it just in case

Reply 6

TwistedParadox

Original post

by LXY0705

looking at what has come up, i've noticed that its only been the themes of power and control and effects of war, so i feel like maybe its time that they gave us a poem of a different theme - nature, identity, loss and memory
past poems
2024 - kamikaze - effects of conflict
2023 - duchess- effects of power
2022 - bayonet - conflict
2021 - london - power and control
2020 - remains - how ppl are affected by difficult experiences
2019 - war photo - how ppl are affected by war
2018 - ozy - power
2017 - bayonet - effects of war (twice bayonet has come up)
specimen paper - ozy - power (twice also)
of course, we can't be 100% sure what comes up as AQA could throw anything at us, but we can quite safely eliminate:
kamikaze - it was last yr
bayonet - come up twice
ozy - come up twice
duchess- recent
tissue - its a hard poem and i don't think aqa will be that cruel to give us tissue but we can't be sure as everyone says this every year, but i think aqa wont give us tissue
i have a gut feeling that remains won't come up, just because a) its come up before and b) its very similar to kamikaze so probs won't but plz don't hate on me if it comes up coz idk what will actually come up.
probs not london coz thats quite recent
i would predict the following
prelude- not had a nature poem b4
storm on the island - not had nature b4
poppies or emigree - talks about a lot of themes incl memory and loss and identity which have not come up before, my teacher predicts this also
checking - identity poem
exposure - best war poem, also discusses nature, people think it will come up but it hasn't in previous yrs so maybe its time for exposure to come up, my teacher thinks this also
plz don't hate me if predictions are wrong, they are purely predictions.
and plz revise ALL the poems and not just the prediction ones
and who knows, the poems we think won't come up might actually come up coz who knows what aqa will give us
best of luck to everyone in gcses

Thanks for taking the time to write this! I have a feeling that a nature poem will come up because we have had the effects of power and conflict in recent years, but we can't know for sure 😊

Reply 7

TwistedParadox

How did everyone's mocks go?✨

Reply 8

LXY0705

Original post

by TwistedParadox

How did everyone's mocks go?✨

mine went alright but in regards to english, i aint as good as lit as i am at lang, i got a 9 on lang but a 7 on lit but i so want the 9 in literature as well

Reply 9

TwistedParadox

Original post

by LXY0705

mine went alright but in regards to english, i aint as good as lit as i am at lang, i got a 9 on lang but a 7 on lit but i so want the 9 in literature as well

You did really well! I got a 9 in language too ( I do EDUQAS/Wjec) and an 8 in literature (AQA) but I was really shocked at my lit grade because I find literature way more stressful! We did the 2024 papers as well.✨

Reply 10

LXY0705

Original post

by TwistedParadox

Tysm. Though i think a big reason i got a 7 in lit was coz my teacher couldnt read my handwriting, which is strange coz i don't think it was thattt bad and my handwriting is quite messy in essay subjects but my english language and history teacher could read it and i got 9s so ....???

Reply 11

🌹Aumi🌹

Original post

by TwistedParadox

Hi I was just randomly reading this post and I need help to revise for english, I am also doing GCSE in 2025, but I am VERY bad at english. Like in my recent mocks I just abt scraped 6's in both lang and lit, it was very hard because we got basically every paper like lang 1 and 2 and lit 1 and 2, so it was hard to revise for subjects. I am not a big fan of english, can u pls give me some tips cuz I really want to get high grades in English like u for my real exams, PLZ SHARE TIPS for both lang and lit xx.

Reply 12

TwistedParadox

Original post

by 🌹Aumi🌹

Hi! In the year 10 summer I got a 5 in literature 😬, so I was shocked when I got an 8. From summer to November and even now I just did practice exam questions for each paper and let my teacher mark and give feedback. At the start the feedback was so brutal to the point where the teacher was practically shouting at me, but I took her feedback and kept practising! You can do it! xx

Reply 13

TwistedParadox

For literature you have to build a strong argument and keep coming back to it. 💪🏼

Reply 14

warneowr

Original post

by TwistedParadox

Hi!! Currently in year 11 and GCSEs are like 6 months away 😶. I do Macbeth and a Christmas carol for paper 1 and An inspector calls and power and conflict poetry. So.....
•What are your predictions for 2025?
•What are your strengths or weaknesses?
• What paper do you prefer?
If Tissue comes up for the poetry 💀💀💀

does anyone know how i can study the poems? i do power and conflict but i moved schools so my skl does worlds and lives so i wont have anyone to teach me power and conflict and ive forgotton everything from my old school abt poems