What Paper 1 actually asks of you

Paper 1 is a 2-hour, 80-mark written paper. You answer four compulsory questions on three texts (Text A, Text B and Text C) which may be on a similar topic and total roughly 1400 words. Cambridge advises spending about 15 minutes reading the texts before you write.

• Question 1 — Comprehension on Text A (20 marks): a series of sub-questions, short answers, testing explicit and implicit meaning.
• Question 2 — Summary on Text B (20 marks): 2(a) a selective summary in your own words of no more than 120 words; 2(b) a short answer on attitudes and opinions.
• Question 3 — Short answers and language task on Text C (20 marks): sub-questions of different lengths, plus a language task of about 200–250 words.
• Question 4 — Extended response to reading on Text C (20 marks): about 250–300 words in a set text type.

Weighting: Paper 1 is 80% reading / 20% writing. Dictionaries may not be used, and you write your answers in the spaces on the question paper.

The five reading skills being tested

Every question on this paper draws on the same five reading skills. Cambridge lists them as R1–R5:

• R1 — demonstrate understanding of explicit meanings (what the text plainly says).
• R2 — demonstrate understanding of implicit meanings and attitudes (what it suggests, hints, implies).
• R3 — analyse, evaluate and develop facts, ideas and opinions, using appropriate support from the text.
• R4 — demonstrate understanding of how writers achieve effects and influence readers.
• R5 — select and use information for specific purposes.

Why this matters: if you can name which skill a question wants, you know what a good answer looks like. A question that says explain what the writer suggests is asking for R2; a question about words and phrases and their effect is asking for R4.

Explicit or implicit?

Question 1 — comprehension (Text A)

Question 1 is worth 20 marks and is broken into sub-questions of different lengths. Some ask for a fact from the text; others ask you to explain, suggest or work out what is implied.

• Use your own words where the question asks you to explain. Copying a whole sentence proves nothing.
• Watch the mark tally. A 3-mark sub-question wants three separate points — not one point written three ways.
• Answer the question that was asked. If it says give two reasons, give exactly two, clearly separated.
• Stay inside the text. Do not import your own opinions or general knowledge; every point must be traceable to the words on the page.

Question 2(a) — the summary task (Text B)

Question 2(a) is a selective summary: you are told exactly what to summarise (for example, the difficulties the writer faced). You write continuous prose of no more than 120 words, in your own words.

The marks split two ways: reading marks for selecting the right points, and writing marks for expressing them concisely, in your own words, in an organised way.

• Do hunt through the text and list every relevant point first, then write.
• Do use your own vocabulary — that is exactly what the writing marks reward.
• Do write it as continuous prose, not bullet points.
• Do not include examples, illustrations, quotations, statistics or your own comment: none of these earn a mark.
• Do not introduce points that are not in the text.

Concision trick: a whole clause can often become one noun. She had to walk for many hours because there was no transport of any kind available becomes the lack of transport forced long walks. Same point, a third of the words.

What belongs in the summary?

Question 2(b) — attitudes and opinions

Question 2(b) is a short-answer question testing your understanding of attitudes and opinions. It tests R2 (implicit meanings and attitudes) and R3 (analyse, evaluate and develop ideas with support from the text).

The examiner wants you to see the stance behind the words. A writer rarely announces I disapprove; instead they choose loaded words, sarcastic asides, or one-sided evidence.

• Look at word choice: crowd is neutral, mob is hostile, gathering is calm.
• Look at what is left out: a writer who lists only the benefits has taken a side.
• Look at tone markers: irony, exaggeration, rhetorical questions, understatement.
• Support your answer with a brief reference to the text — an attitude claim with no evidence is only half an answer.

Question 3 — short answers and the language task (Text C)

Question 3 has two halves. First, short-answer sub-questions on Text C. Then the language task: you write about 200–250 words explaining how the writer uses language to convey meaning and create effect.

You are directed to specific paragraphs of Text C and asked to select powerful words and phrases from them and explain the effect the writer creates.

Spot the difference.
Identifying (low marks): The writer uses the metaphor a river of steel.
Analysing (high marks): The metaphor a river of steel turns the traffic into an unstoppable natural force; river suggests a current too strong to cross, so the pedestrian seems trapped and powerless — and steel adds a hard, cold, industrial edge that removes any human warmth from the scene.

Which comment earns the marks?

Which question is this instruction from?

Tap an instruction, then tap the question it belongs to.

Question 4 — extended response to reading

Question 4 asks you to respond to Text C in about 250–300 words, writing in one of these text types: letter, report, journal, speech, interview or article. It is marked for reading (10) and writing (10).

The reading marks come from using the text well; the writing marks come from sounding convincingly like the form you have been asked for.

• Take on the role. If you are told to write as a resident, a witness or an official, hold that voice all the way through.
• Use ideas from across the whole text, not just the first paragraph — that is the R5 skill of selecting for a purpose.
• Develop the ideas: explain, expand, infer consequences. A response that only repeats the text stays in the middle band.
• Match the form. A speech addresses an audience directly; a report uses neutral, organised sections; a journal is reflective and private.

Common trap: writing a beautiful piece that ignores the text. The reading marks are half the question — every paragraph should be anchored in something Text C actually said.

Choosing the register

Technique to effect

Tap a technique on the left, then the effect it typically creates on the right. (These are the moves you name in the Question 3 language task.)

Timing and marks

Four questions, 20 marks each, in 120 minutes. Cambridge suggests about 15 minutes reading the texts, which leaves roughly 25 minutes per question.

• Read with a pen. On the first pass through Text B, underline anything that answers the summary focus. On Text C, mark the strongest verbs and images.
• Plan the summary before you write it. A quick list of points prevents the 120-word limit from ambushing you.
• Do not over-run Question 3. A few well-explained phrases beat a long list of named devices.
• Leave time for Question 4 — it carries the same 20 marks as everything else, and it is the one that needs a plan.

Remember: 15 of the 80 marks on this paper are writing marks — 5 in Question 2(a) and 10 in Question 4. They reward clear expression, deliberate organisation, and a range of vocabulary and sentence structures (and, in Question 4, language matched to purpose and audience). Re-read those two answers if you have three minutes spare.

Reading with purpose

The big ideas to know

You have now covered all four Paper 1 questions and the reading skills behind them. Press Finish to see your score.