Eduqas GCSE Study Guide
Shakespeare, post-1914 prose and drama, 19th-century prose, and the Eduqas Poetry Anthology. Full public-domain texts on spec C720QS, with margin notes that explain what's actually going on.
Year 10–11 · Ages 14–16 · United Kingdom
Eduqas GCSE English Literature, spec C720QS, is run by WJEC for schools in England. It's the dominant spec in Wales and is also offered in parts of England, particularly in academies that want a slightly different shape from AQA. Two components, both closed-book, sat in May or June.
Component 1 covers Shakespeare and the Eduqas Poetry Anthology: 2 hours, 100 marks, 40% of the GCSE. Component 2 covers your post-1914 prose or drama text, your 19th-century prose text, and unseen poetry: 2h 30m, 100 marks, 60%. Eduqas calls them "components" rather than "papers", but they're sat as standard timed exams.
Eduqas is the only English GCSE board where Component 2 is longer than Component 1, and where unseen poetry sits at the end of a longer paper rather than as the third section of the shorter one. The longer Component 2 gives you more time per essay, but it also tests stamina more than the other boards.
Eduqas · spec C720QS
WJEC's English-branded spec. Common in Wales and English academies. Component 2 (60%) runs 2h 30m, longest of any GCSE board.
Section A: an extract-based essay on your Shakespeare play, then a whole-text question. Section B: comparison of two named poems from the Eduqas Poetry Anthology. Closed book.
Section A: an essay on your post-1914 prose or drama text. Section B: an essay on your 19th-century prose text. Section C: a comparison of two unseen poems. Closed book.
You study one play. Macbeth is the most-set GCSE Shakespeare in the country; Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest follow close behind. Whichever you're doing, the full text is here.
William Shakespeare
The most-set GCSE Shakespeare for a reason: short, dense, and basically a study in ambition and guilt. Goldmine for AO3 on Jacobean kingship, the supernatural and the divine right of kings.
William Shakespeare
Fate, family, love and violence. All the big GCSE themes in one play, with patterning so neat you can see it from space. Strong pick on AQA and Edexcel.
William Shakespeare
Power, colonialism and forgiveness on Prospero's island. A late romance that's surprisingly compact, and common on OCR and Eduqas.
William Shakespeare
Justice, mercy and prejudice. The historical context (early modern antisemitism) is tough, but handled well it pays off in AO3.
William Shakespeare
Wit, deception and gender expectations. Beatrice and Benedick are a gift if you like writing about character, dialogue and irony.
William Shakespeare
Rhetoric and political ambition. Antony's funeral speech is one of the cleanest persuasive set-pieces in all of Shakespeare, perfect for showing how language does work.
William Shakespeare
Disguise, desire, mistaken identity. A popular comedy choice on Edexcel and OCR if you'd rather not write about murder for two years.
William Shakespeare
Jealousy, race and manipulation. Set on a few specs as the modern-text option. Iago is one of the great GCSE villains and a goldmine for character work.
You study one. A Christmas Carol is the most-taught novel on AQA; Jekyll and Hyde and Frankenstein are close behind for context-rich essays. Pick yours below.
Charles Dickens
The most-taught GCSE novel: short, structurally tidy, and Dickens basically hands you the symbolism. Strong choice if you want clear AO2 patterning and rich AO3 on Victorian poverty and the Poor Laws.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Stevenson's gothic novella covering duality, repression, and fin-de-siècle science. Short, sharp, and the form-and-structure questions almost write themselves.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Shelley's framed narrative on creation, isolation and responsibility. Longer than the rest, but Romanticism, Galvanism and the abolition movement are genuinely interesting context that pays off in AO3.
Charles Dickens
Pip's coming-of-age through class, guilt and self-deception. The longest 19th-century option, but the Magwitch and Miss Havisham scenes are exam gold.
Charlotte Brontë
Brontë's first-person bildungsroman of independence, faith and Victorian gender. Sustained voice, perfect if you want a quote bank you can rely on.
Jane Austen
Austen on marriage, class and irony. Elizabeth Bennet is one of the most teachable narrators in the canon, and the free indirect speech is a treat for AO2.
George Eliot
Eliot's short pastoral on isolation and community. Set on Edexcel and significantly less daunting than her bigger novels.
H. G. Wells
Wells's late-Victorian alien invasion novel. Yes, really. Excellent for context on imperialism, science and end-of-century anxiety.
All public-domain poems from the Power and Conflict, Love and Relationships and Conflict anthologies. Reading the full collections each poem comes from is the move that lifts you from a 6 to an 8.
Wilfred Owen
Owen's war poems anchor the AQA Power and Conflict anthology, especially Exposure and Bayonet Charge. Reading the wider collection sharpens your unseen poetry instincts.
Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson
Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade is a Power and Conflict centrepiece. Reading it in full Victorian context makes the patriotism question much more interesting.
William Wordsworth
The Prelude extract sits in Power and Conflict. Wider Romantic context gives you AO3 ammunition that actually feels alive.
Baron George Gordon Byron Byron
Byron and the Romantic tradition more broadly: useful for unseen poetry pattern-spotting (form, voice, persona, dramatic monologue).
William Blake
Blake's London is an anthology staple. Reading the wider Songs of Innocence and Experience sharpens his political symbolism, and pairs cleverly with anything in the Power and Conflict cluster.
Component 2 is the longest paper on any English GCSE spec. Three sections, two and a half hours. That sounds generous until you realise you'll need around 50 minutes per section. Wear a watch, mark off your section transitions ahead of time, and don't let the post-1914 essay eat into your unseen poetry time.
On Component 1 Section B, the question prints two named anthology poems and asks you to compare them. Unlike AQA, you don't pick the second one yourself. This means your prep should be theme-based across the whole anthology rather than focused on individual pairings, since you can't predict which two will appear.
Eduqas Component 2 Section C compares two unseen poems. You've already done two long essays before you reach it. Plan to spend exactly 30 to 35 minutes here, no more. A short, structurally tight comparison scores better than a sprawling fourth essay attempt at the end of a long paper.
WJEC marker reports consistently flag "vague reference to technique" as the most common reason students cap out at Grade 6. If you say "the writer uses imagery", name the imagery (extended metaphor, conceit, visual or auditory imagery) and explain its effect. Specific terms used precisely outscore generic terms used often.
Eduqas (WJEC) GCSE English Literature is spec C720QS for England. Past papers and mark schemes are on the WJEC and Eduqas websites. Search "Eduqas C720QS past papers" or "WJEC GCSE English Literature past papers" to find them.
Component 1 (Shakespeare and Poetry Anthology) is 2 hours, 100 marks, 40% of the GCSE. Component 2 (Post-1914 + 19th-century + Unseen) is 2h 30m, 100 marks, 60%. Total exam time: 4h 30m, longer than any other English GCSE board.
The Eduqas Poetry Anthology is a fixed set of 18 poems studied across the two-year course. Unlike AQA or Pearson, there are no thematic clusters; everyone studies the same anthology. The Component 1 Section B question names two of these poems for you to compare. You don't choose the second poem yourself.
No. Both components are closed-book. Printed extracts are provided for the Shakespeare question, the 19th-century prose question, the post-1914 question, and the unseen poems. Quotations from anywhere else have to come from memory.
Almost. WJEC is the parent board that runs both the Welsh-language qualifications (offered as WJEC GCSE English Literature in Wales) and the English-language qualifications for England (branded as Eduqas, with spec code C720QS). The structure and texts are very similar but not identical, so make sure you're revising for the version your school sat for.
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