Component 01 Question 4: evaluating and comparing

Component 01 Question 4 (18 marks) on both texts: how far you agree with a statement about them, guided by three bullet points, two asking you to evaluate (AO4, 12 marks) and one asking you to compare (AO3, 6 marks), with quotations from both texts.
How the two mark grids are applied and added together, why evaluation and comparison can be woven through one answer, and why the question looks at what the texts present and how, without asking for close analysis of language.
Building on the similarities from Question 2 and the analysis from Question 3, keeping both texts in play throughout, and judging how far rather than simply agreeing.
The worked example uses two linked texts about hard journeys to a long-sought goal, both printed in the lesson: Text 1, from Isabella Bird's letters 'A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains' (1879), on her climb of Long's Peak, and Text 2, from Captain Scott's journal for the days in January 1912 when his party reached the South Pole.
What separates the levels, in our own words, and a model answer with the level and mark an examiner would give, and why.
A weaker and a stronger answer to the same task side by side, with what lifts the weaker one to the next level.
Sentence starters for the question and a short checklist of the steps, for students aiming at Grade 4 and above.

What you need to know