Exam papers

Paper 1 is an examination using unseen non-literary texts assessed externally. You are supposed to write a guided textual analysis about one (SL) or both (HL) of the texts provided.

Each text comes with with a guiding question, which will be about a technical or formal aspect of the text.  You do not have to answer the guiding question, and you can propose your own line of argument about the text, it must be focused on a particular aspect that provides focus to the analysis. 
Passages for analysis may be complete pieces of writing or extracts from larger works, or from a visual text or an extract from a longer piece (e.g. advertisements, opinion columns, brochures, extracts, etc. Check the Subject Guide for more examples.
Paper 1 counts for 35% of the final grade, out of 20 marks for SL and 40 marks for HL.

Paper 2 consists of four essay questions (the same for SL/HL, and graded externally using the same criteria), only one of which must be answered during 1 hour and 45 min. You need to use two of the literary works not used in other assessments in the course for it.  Although the questions are bound to change from exam to exam, they will be broad in nature allowing a wide and diverse set of literary works to be used. 
Some sample questions, quoted from InThinking:
1. Referring to two of the works you have studied, discuss both how and why the text invites the reader to identify with situations, characters and/or ideas.
2. Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmospheres are conveyed and to what effect in two of the works you have studied.
3. Writers often choose words, phrases and names of characters and places not only for their literal meaning, but for further meanings that they may suggest to the reader. With reference to two of the works you have studied, discuss how such words and their associations contribute to your understanding and appreciation of the works.
4. How is “home” depicted in two of the works you have studied and what is its significance?
5. How do two of the works you have studied portray the struggle to be understood?
6. Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true in two of the works you have studied?
7. Discuss how two works you have studied present concepts of good and bad, not as absolute notions, but as a matter of individual perception.
8. Referring to two works you have studied, discuss how the author has created a convincing “world”.