English Literature | 9695 AS Level | May 2025 Exams | Live Class by Maryum Farrukh

We will cover the following topics in the live classes:

Set texts for examination in 2025

Paper 1 Drama and Poetry

Learners study two set texts, one from Section A and one from Section B.

Candidates answer two questions, one from each section.

Section A Drama

Errol John - Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

William Shakespeare - Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure - The Duchess of Malf

Tennessee Williams - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Section B Poetry

Maya Angelou - And Still I Rise

Simon Armitage - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

William Blake - Selected Poems from Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Paper 2 Prose and Unseen

Learners study one set text from Section A. For Section B, learners prepare to respond to an unseen text that may be poetry, prose or drama.

Candidates answer two questions, one from each section. 

Section A Prose

Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss

Stories of Ourselves, Volume 1 - Selected Stories (new selection from Volume 1 for 2024, 2025 and 2026)

Evelyn Waugh -  A Handful of Dust

Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad

Section B Unseen

Unseen text

Paper 3 Shakespeare and Drama

Learners study two set texts, one from Section A and one from Section B.

Candidates answer two questions, one from each section. 

Section A Shakespeare

William Shakespeare - Hamlet

William Shakespeare - The Taming of the Shrew

Section B Drama

Lynn Nottage - Sweat

Eugene O’Neill - Long Day’s Journey Into Night 

Wole Soyinka - Kongi’s Harvest

Paper 4 Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose

Learners study two set texts, one from Section A and one from Section B. They must study one poetry text and one prose text.

Candidates answer two questions. They answer one question from each section. One question must be on a poetry text and one question must be on a prose text.

Section A Pre-1900 Poetry and Prose

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice 

*Geoffrey Chaucer - The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

*John Donne - Selected Poems 

George Eliot - Middlemarch

Thomas Hardy - Far from the Madding Crowd 

*Walt Whitman - Selected Poems from Leaves of Grass (1891–1892)

Section B Post-1900 Poetry and Prose

*Louise Glück - Selected Poems from The Wild Iris

James Joyce - Dubliners

Toni Morrison - Beloved

*Gabriel Okara - Selected Poems from Collected Poems (2016)

Jean Rhys  - Wide Sargasso Sea

*Natasha Trethewey - Native Guard 

* Poetry texts are denoted by an asterisk. Candidates must answer one poetry and one prose question, each from a different section of the question paper.

Set poems and stories for examination in 2025

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise

 Paper 1, Section B Poetry

William Blake: Selected Poems from Songs of Innocence and of Experience

 Paper 1, Section B Poetry

Songs of Ourselves: The Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Poetry 

in English, Volume 2 (ISBN 9781108462280)

 Paper 1, Section B Poetry

Stories of Ourselves: The Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of 

Stories in English, Volume 1 (ISBN 9781108462297)

 Paper 2, Section A Prose

John Donne: Selected Poems

 Paper 4, Section A Poetry

Walt Whitman: Selected Poems from Leaves of Grass (1891–1892)

 Paper 4, Section A Poetry

Louise Glück: Selected Poems from The Wild Iris

 Paper 4, Section B Poetry

Gabriel Okara: Selected Poems from Collected Poems (2016)

 Paper 4, Section B Poetry