English

Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature (9ET0) is built around four components: drama, prose, poetry, and a coursework component comparing two texts of the student's own choosing. The drama component pairs a Shakespeare play with another drama text and requires engagement with a critical anthology, which is assessed directly rather than treated as optional background.

Edexcel's prose component is thematically organised — students study two novels linked by a theme such as science and society or the supernatural, one of which must be pre-1900. The comparative demand is real: examiners reward essays that argue a genuine line about the relationship between the two texts, and penalise those that simply describe one and then the other.