What open text means

Paper 3 lasts 45 minutes and is worth 25 marks. You answer one question from a choice of two on one text, and relevant passages are printed on the question paper.

The distinctive feature: candidates may take their clean copy set texts into the exam room.

• Clean means clean. The copy must be unannotated — no notes, no highlighting, no sticky notes covered in essay plans. Check your centre rules before the exam.
• The book gives you accuracy, not answers. It guarantees your quotations are right. It does not do the thinking, and it does not create time.

The four assessment objectives (equally weighted, 25% each): AO1 show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts, supported by reference to the text; AO2 understand the meanings of literary texts and their contexts, and explore texts beyond surface meanings; AO3 recognise and appreciate ways in which writers use language, structure and form to create and shape meanings and effects; AO4 communicate a sensitive and informed personal response.

Set texts rotate. Cambridge publishes a new set-text list for each examination year, so this mini-lesson teaches the analytical skills for the genre rather than the plot of any one book. Apply every method here to your set text — the one your teacher has given you.

How the open text goes wrong

Examiners see the same two failures every year, and both are caused by the book.

• Failure 1 — the hunt. A candidate spends twelve of their forty-five minutes flicking through the play looking for the perfect line. The answer is then written in a panic.
• Failure 2 — the transcript. Long passages are copied out because they are there. Copying is not analysing, and quotation without comment scores nothing.

The rule that fixes both: plan your answer before you open the book. Decide your claims first; then use the text only to confirm the exact words for the quotations you have already chosen.

Using the text well

What to know before you walk in

Because the text is open, the preparation shifts from memorising to navigating.

• Know your six key moments — and know roughly where they are. Turning to the right act in ten seconds is the whole advantage of open text.
• Know the shape of the play — where the climax sits, what happens off stage, how each act ends.
• Know your themes and which moments prove them, so any question can be answered with evidence you already trust.
• Practise timed answers with the book shut, then check your quotations afterwards. That trains you to think first and look second.

Building the 25-mark answer

Twenty-five marks in forty-five minutes means roughly four to five developed paragraphs, an introduction that takes a position, and a conclusion that turns the argument one last time.

Keep quotations short. On an open-text paper the temptation is to prove you have the book. The examiner is not impressed by length — only by what you do with the words.

Quotation length

Good use, bad use, or preparation?

Tap a habit, then tap the box it belongs in.

Dramatic methods to reach for

The question will ask how the dramatist creates an effect. These are the tools you will name most often.

• Stage directions — movement, lighting, props, tone. They are text, and they are evidence.
• Dialogue rhythms — interruption, evasion, monosyllables, a character who suddenly speaks at length.
• Silence and pause — frequently the most eloquent line in a scene.
• Dramatic irony — what the audience knows and the character does not.
• Entrances, exits, and off-stage action — what the dramatist chooses not to show you.
• Structure — where the scene sits, and how the act ends.

Always finish the thought: not the dramatist uses dramatic irony, but because the audience already knows the letter was never sent, his gratitude is painful to watch — we are made complicit in a kindness that does not exist.

What the question is really asking

Method to effect

Tap a dramatic method on the left, then tap the effect it creates.

Forty-five minutes, spent well

• 0–3 min: read both questions properly. Choose the one you have evidence for, not the one that sounds nicer.
• 3–8 min: plan. Four claims, in order, each with the moment that proves it.
• 8–10 min: open the text only to confirm exact wording.
• 10–42 min: write. Introduction with a position; four developed paragraphs; a conclusion that says something new.
• 42–45 min: read it back. Fix the sentences that do not say what you meant.

Choosing your question: the better question is always the one where you can already name three pieces of evidence. Interest comes second to proof.

The clean copy rule

Choosing between the two questions

You get a choice of two questions. Choosing badly costs more marks than writing badly.

• Read both twice. Underline the effect each names — tense, moving, disturbing, revealing.
• Ask: can I name three pieces of evidence right now? If not for one of them, that question is not for you, however interesting it looks.
• Beware the question you like the sound of. Enthusiasm is not evidence.
• Decide in three minutes and commit. Switching at minute twenty is fatal on a 45-minute paper.

The clock

One scene, whole play

Even when the printed passage is short, the question is about the play. The strongest answers keep the whole text in view.

• Where does this moment sit? What has just happened, and what does the audience already suspect?
• What does it set up? A line that seems innocuous now may be the one the final act detonates.
• What pattern does it belong to? A gesture, an image or a phrase that recurs is the play thinking aloud.
• How would the play be different without it? The best test of a scene importance.

One sentence per paragraph connecting the extract to the wider play is usually enough to lift an answer out of the middle band.

The big ideas to know

You have now covered how to use an open text and how to build a 25-mark answer in 45 minutes. Press Finish to see your score.