Othello exam questions — Eduqas GCSE English Literature C720
Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720
Othello exam questions
What you need to know
How the two Shakespeare questions work: a 15-mark question on a printed extract and a 25-mark essay on the whole play, the assessment objectives each rewards and the 5 marks for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures.
How to plan and structure both answers, using Othello as the worked example, with model answers and commentary.
Both questions set out as Eduqas sets them, with their wording and marks.
Component 1 Section A: both questions on the one play studied, closed book, in about an hour of the two-hour paper, about 20 minutes for the extract question and about 40 for the essay; the section is worth 40 marks.
The extract question: 15 marks, shared equally between AO1 and AO2, on what the characters say and do in the extract and how an audience might react.
Answering it: place the extract in the play in a sentence, track its beginning, middle and end, stay inside it rather than moving to other scenes, analyse words and stage directions closely, and consider the audience throughout.
Being ready for a version about the characters' thoughts and feelings at that point, as Eduqas set for another play in 2024, which needs the same close tracking.
The essay: 20 marks, shared equally between AO1 and AO2, for tracing a character, relationship or theme across the whole play, as in recent questions on Iago's deception, prejudice and suffering, plus 5 marks (AO4) for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures.
Answering it: choose key moments from the beginning, middle and end, use short quotations that can be analysed, follow turning points, and keep the argument on the question.
Context: Eduqas does not mark it (AO3) in the Shakespeare section, so mention it only where it helps an interpretation; long context paragraphs waste time.
Model answers to both questions, with the extract printed.
The band each model answer would reach and why, with a Grade 5 and a Grade 8 paragraph side by side.
The summer 2025 questions, an extract from Act 2 Scene 1 where Othello and Desdemona are reunited and Iago speaks his aside, and an essay on prejudice, and what the mark scheme and examiners reward for them.
How to avoid the commonest mistakes: answering the extract question on more than one play, retelling the plot, writing at length about context, naming techniques without saying what they do, and leaving capital letters off characters' names or shortening them.
