Paper 1 Reading: A Question-by-question Guide

Paper 1 is the reading exam, and it is the one component every 0500 candidate sits. You are handed an insert with three unseen texts and given two hours to prove that you can read closely: pick out exact detail, read between the lines, summarise without copying, analyse how a writer creates an effect, and then write in a new voice using ideas from what you have read. There is nothing to revise the night before, because the texts change every year. What you can prepare is the one thing that does not change: exactly what each question wants and how the marks are won.

This guide takes you through the paper question by question. You will see the precise mark split (four compulsory questions, each worth 20 marks, for 80 in total, of which 65 are reading marks and 15 are writing marks), what each task tests, the command words decoded, a timing plan that protects the high-tariff tasks, and worked model answers for the summary, the writer's effects question and the extended response. Learn the shape of the paper now and you walk in knowing exactly what to do with whatever texts appear.