Paper 1 Questions 1 and 2: the unseen source

Section A opens with a one-mark multiple-choice question on a media term and a 12-mark analysis of an unseen print source, such as an advert or a magazine cover.
Reading an unseen source quickly for its design, layout, codes and representations, and using precise subject terms.
The 2025 question on the design and layout of an IKEA advert and the 2024 question on a How It Works magazine cover.
From 2027, AQA's papers use tick boxes for multiple-choice answers.
A question set out as AQA sets it, with its wording and marks, and a model answer with the level and mark an examiner would give and why, beside a weaker answer and what would lift it.
Sentence starters and a short checklist of the steps, for students aiming at Grade 4 and above.
The Close Study Products for 2027 and 2028 exams are His Dark Materials ('The City of Magpies') and Doctor Who ('An Unearthly Child'); the Daily Mirror and The Times; Marcus Rashford's and Kim Kardashian's online presence; Lara Croft Go, with Blackpink The Game for 2027 exams and Lego Fortnite for 2028 exams; the Galaxy, Represent and OMO adverts; the Tatler and Heat covers; Black Widow and I, Daniel Blake; the Arctic Monkeys and Blackpink videos; and Radio 1's launch and Kiss Breakfast. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood was set only for 2025, so past questions on it are practice only.
Back readings of class, gender and ethnicity with specific evidence from the products, as the mark schemes reward.

What you need to know