Part (b): exploring a second poem from the cluster — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
Part (b): exploring a second poem from the cluster
What you need to know
How part (b) works: one other poem from your cluster, chosen by you and written about from memory, on a theme linked to part (a), for 20 marks in about 30 minutes, with no comparison asked for.
What earns the marks: response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2), equally weighted, with no marks for context. Choose the poem from the same cluster as part (a): if the two parts are on different clusters, only the higher mark counts.
Picking the poem: one whose ideas fit the question closely, with a thesis planned before you write and short quotations learned for every poem in the cluster.
The worked example: the June 2024 Youth and Age question on differences between youth and age, answered on Thomas Hardy's Midnight on the Great Western, with a plan, a model answer of about 450 words, and the level and mark an examiner would give and why.
The part (b) questions OCR set for each cluster in June 2025 and June 2024, and the poems examiners saw chosen.
Common mistakes: answers that are too short or have too little quotation, comparing when no comparison is asked for, and writing about poems that are no longer in the cluster.
