english language creative writing grade boundaries

Grade Boundaries for AQA GCSE English Language (Explained for Students)

Here’s how to grade boundaries for AQA GCSE English Language yourself. Figuring out how to convert a mark into an actual grade can be very confusing! We’ve broken it down here for you so that it’s clearer and more manageable to see how you’re doing on practise questions and papers.

Here are a few things to remember:

• The old system of grading (A*-U grades) has now been replaced by levels 9-1.
• Level 9 is the highest and almost nobody gets it; it is the equivalent of an A** grade. A Level 8 translates roughly to an A*; Level 7 to an A and so on. For a “C” grade, this is now split between a Level 4 (low C) and a Level 5 (high C).
• You should aim for a Level 5 as a minimum example of a high grade; some further education courses do accept Level 4s instead of 5s so double check your course requirements if you’re unsure about the grade you need.
• For English Language, Paper 1 and Paper 2 are equally weighted, so you have to get good marks on BOTH papers to secure your overall grade. Question 5 on each paper is the most important question – make sure you’re good at it!

Thanks for reading! If you’re stuck on English Language and need some help, you can try out our full online video courses here :

AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1

AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2

We’ve made a full breakdown of each paper, including top mark example answers, a clear process to follow for each question and lots of practise extracts and mock papers so that you can feel fully confident going into the English exams!

BREAKDOWN OF GRADE BOUNDARIES

Each year, the boundaries differ a little because of something called ‘scaling’. This means that they may change by one or two marks up or down, depending on the difficulty of the exam. If you want to secure a grade, make sure your practise questions are in the middle of that grade level – don’t just scrape a L8 and expect to get a L8 in the exam, for example. You need to be confidently and regularly hitting the mid to high point of your target level to be sure of receiving that grade in the exam.

AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2, Question 2 Answer + Feedback from an AQA Examiner

GRADE BOUNDARIES AQA GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

Use the “PERCENTAGE” column to track your grades! You can figure out what level you’re working at for each question by converting your mark into a percentage.

You receive a 5/8 for Language Paper 1, Question 2. This converts to 62.5%, using the table below, it shows that you are on a L6 grade for this question.

You receive a 28/40 for Language Paper 2, Question 5. This converts to 70%, using the table below, it shows that you are on a L7 grade for this question.

Total: 160  (80 marks per paper)

LEVEL MARK PERCENTAGE

9 127 79.4 %

8 117 73.1%

7 108 67.5%

6 97    60.6%

5 86    53.8%

4 76    47.5%

3 56    35%

2 36    22.5%

1 16    10%

Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more help with AQA Language Paper 1, you can see our full course here .

This online course will give you a  question  by  question  breakdown of the exam, plus  high level example answers .

Enroll today  for access to comprehensive   PDF study guides that will   help you to  improve your grades.

You will receive:, – paper 1 overview, – section by section guides, – example answers.

Until September 30th, the course is available at a 25% discount , just use the code ‘ PAPER1 ‘ at checkout!

Buy the complete course now!

Or i f you’re looking for more help with aqa language paper 2, you can see our full course here ., enroll today  for access to  over 4 hours of engaging video content , plus comprehensive   pdf study guides to   help you  improve your grades., – paper 2 overview, – mock papers.

Until September 30th, the course is available at a 25% discount , just use the code ‘ PAPER2 ‘ at checkout!

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Grade Boundaries for AQA GCSE English Language Explained for Students

Subject: English

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

3 April 2023

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Here’s how to grade boundaries for AQA GCSE English Language yourself. Figuring out how to convert a mark into an actual grade can be very confusing! We’ve broken it down here for you so that it’s clearer and more manageable to see how you’re doing on practise questions and papers.

Teaching or studying AQA? Have a resource on us! View our FREE Descriptive Writing answer to see whether the complete bundle is right for you.

View our COMPLETE AQA Language Paper 1 BUNDLE here .

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AQA English Language Paper 1 - COMPLETE BUNDLE

A mega bundle of 18 AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1 resources, made by an AQA examiner and teacher. Suitable for teachers and students, available at a discount of 50%! If you're looking for the [LANGUAGE PAPER 2](http://https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12530173) bundle, click here. This bundle covers everything you need to teach or learn the AQA Language Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing to a high level. Contains both **example answers of varying levels** by students, and **full mark example answers** by an examiner. Try a resource for free to see whether this bundle is right for you: [AQA English Language Paper 1: Descriptive Writing Full Mark Answer A*/L9 Grade - Hot Air Balloon](http://https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12791828) This bundle contains **digital + printable pdf resources** that cover the following: OVERVIEW - An introduction to the paper + SECTION A RESOURCES: - Section A: Breakdown - Section A: Q1 + Q2 Example answers - Section A: Q3 Full Mark Answer + Examiner Feedback - Section A: Q4 Breakdown + High Grade Essays - Section A: Full Mark Answers + SECTION B RESOURCES: - Section B: Breakdown - Section B: Creative Writing Practise Questions - Section B: Q5 Creative Writing Plan - Section B: Descriptive Writing B/L6 Answer (Storm) - Section B: Descriptive Writing B / L6 Answer (Island) - Section B: Descriptive Writing A*/L9 Answer (Hot Air Balloon) - Section B: Descriptive Writing Full Mark Answer (Pyramids) - Section B: Narrative Writing A*/L9 Answer (Old Man) - Section B: Narrative Writing A*/L9 Answer (Lake Narcissus) - Section B: L8 / A* Grade Student Response *BONUS MATERIAL: - Full Mock Paper 1: The Old Curiosity Shop - Creative Writing Practise Questions: Descriptive + Narrative Prompts - AQA English Language Grade Boundaries: Explained - Argumentative Essay Example Answers + Feedback - Grade Boundaries Explained for Students Enjoy! If you need further help, please take a look at our English Language and Literature [VIEW OUR SHOP HERE](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/ntabani)

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GCSE English Language grade boundaries

This page outlines the GCSE English Language Grade Boundaries for AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas exam board.

Each year the exam boards endeavour to make sure that exam papers are designed to be no easier or harder to achieve a particular grade than previous years. This does mean that each year the percentage required for each grade changes slightly depending on how hard the exam paper is. And so, Oxford Revise has collected all the grade boundaries for the last 5 years of exams, giving you an idea of what percentage you will need to achieve to get a specific grade.

Grade boundaries for your subject are not published before the exams take place. Boundaries are set after exams have been completed and papers have been marked.

Check below for AQA, Edexcel or Eduqas exam board and see what was required in previous years for English Language.

AQA GCSE English Language

Edexcel gcse english language, eduqas gcse english language.

Creative Writing Lesson Plans: Week One

Looking for creative writing lesson plans? I am developing creative writing lesson ideas! 

I’ve written and revamped my creative writing lesson plans and learned that the first week is vital in establishing a community of writers, in outlining expectations, and in working with a new class.

What are some good creative writing exercises?

Some good creative writing exercises include writing prompts, free writing, character development exercises, and fun writing games.

The first week, though, we establish trust—and then we begin powerful creative writing exercises to engage young writers and our community.

How can add encouragement in creative writing lesson plans?

I’ve found students are shy about writing creatively, about sharing pieces of themselves. A large part of the first week of class is setting the atmosphere, of showing everyone they are free to create. And! These concepts will apply to most writing lesson plans for secondary students.

Feel free to give me feedback and borrow all that you need! Below, find my detailed my day-by-day progression for creative writing lesson plans  for week one.

Creative Writing Lesson Day One: Sharing my vision

Comfort matters for young writers. I’m not a huge “ice breaker” type of teacher—I build relationships slowly. Still, to get student writing, we must establish that everyone is safe to explore, to write, to error.

Here are some ideas.

Tone and attitude

For day one with any lesson plan for creative writing, I think it is important to set the tone, to immediately establish what I want from my creative writing students. And that is…

them not to write for me, but for them. I don’t want them writing what they think I want them to write.

Does that make sense? Limitations hurt young writers. My overall tone and attitude toward young writers is that we will work together, create and write together, provide feedback, and invest in ourselves. Older kiddos think that they must provide teachers with the “correct” writing. In such a course, restrictions and boundaries largely go out the window.

Plus, I specifically outline what I believe they can produce in a presentation to set people at ease.

The presentation covers expectations for the class. As the teacher, I am a sort of writing coach with ideas that will not work for everyone. Writers should explore different methods and realize what works for them. First, not everyone will appreciate every type of writing—which is fine. But as a writing community, we must accept that we may not be the target audience for every piece of work.

Therefore, respect is a large component of the class. Be sure to outline what interactions you find acceptable within your classroom community.

Next, as their writing coach, I plan to provide ideas and tools for use. Their job is to decide what tools work for their creative endeavors. My overall message is uplifting and encouraging.

Finally, when we finish, I share the presentation with students so they can consult it throughout the semester. The presentation works nicely for meet-the-teacher night, too!

After covering classroom procedures and rules, I show students a TED Talk. We watch The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie. My goal is to show students that I don’t have a predetermined idea concerning what they should write. This discussion takes the rest of the class period.

Establishing comfort and excitement precedents my other creative writing activities. Personalize your “vision” activities for your lessons in creative writing. Honestly, doing this pre-work builds relationships with students and creates a positive classroom atmosphere.

Creative Writing Lesson Day Two: Activating prior knowledge

Students possess prior knowledge concerning creative writing, but they might not consider that. Students should realize that they know what constitutes a great story. They might not realize that yet. An easy lesson plan for creative writing that will pay off later is to activate prior knowledge. Brainstorm creative, memorable, unforgettable stories with students. Share your thoughts too! You will start to build relationships with students who share the same tastes as you (and those that are completely different!).

Activation activity

During this activity, I want to see how students work together, and I want to build a rapport with students. Additionally, activating prior knowledge provides a smooth transition into other creative writing activities.

This creative writing activity is simple:

I ask students to tell me memorable stories—books, play, tv shows, movies—and I write them on the board. I add and veto as appropriate. Normally doing these classroom discussions, we dive deeper into comedies and creative nonfiction. Sometimes as we work, I ask students to research certain stories and definitions. I normally take a picture of our work so that I can build creative writing lessons from students’ interests.

This takes longer than you might think, but I like that aspect. This information can help me shape my future lessons.

With about twenty minutes left in class, I ask students to form small groups. I want them to derive what makes these stories memorable. Since students complete group and partner activities in this class, I also watch and see how they interact.

Students often draw conclusions about what makes a story memorable:

• Realistic or true-to-life characters.
• Meaningful themes.
• Funny or sad events.

All of this information will be used later as students work on their own writing. Many times, my creative writing lessons overlap, especially concerning the feedback from young writers.

Creative Writing Lesson Day Three: Brainstorming and a graphic organizer

From building creative writing activities and implementing them, I now realize that students think they will sit and write. Ta-da!  After all, this isn’t academic writing. Coaching creative writing students is part of the process.

Young writers must accept that a first draft is simply that, a first draft. Building a project requires thought and mistakes. (Any writing endeavor does, really.) Students hear ‘creative writing’ and they think… easy. Therefore, a first week lesson plan for creative writing should touch on what creativity is.

Really, creativity is everywhere. We complete a graphic organizer titled, “Where is Creativity?” Students brainstorm familiar areas that they may not realize have such pieces.

The ideas they compile stir all sorts of conversations:

• Restaurants
• Movie theaters
• Amusement parks

By completing this graphic organizer, we discuss how creativity surrounds us, how we can incorporate different pieces in our writing, and how different areas influence our processes.

Creative Writing Lesson, Days Four and Five: Creative Nonfiction

Students need practice writing, and they need to understand that they will not use every word they write. Cutting out lines is painful for them! Often, a lesson plan for creative writing involves providing time for meaningful writing.

For two days, we study and discuss creative nonfiction. Students start by reading an overview of creative nonfiction . (If you need mentor texts, that website has some as well.) When I have books available, I show the class examples of creative nonfiction.

We then continue through elements of a narrative . Classes are sometimes surprised that a narrative can be nonfiction.

The narrative writing is our first large project. As we continue, students are responsible for smaller projects as well. This keeps them writing most days.

Overall, my students and I work together during the first week of any creative writing class. I encourage them to write, and I cheer on their progress. My message to classes is that their writing has value, and an audience exists for their creations.

And that is my week one! The quick recap:

Week One Creative Writing Lesson Plans

Monday: Rules, procedures, TED Talk, discussion.

Tuesday: Prior knowledge—brainstorm the modeling of memorable stories. Draw conclusions about storytelling with anchor charts. Build community through common knowledge.

Wednesday: Graphic organizer.

Thursday and Friday: Creative nonfiction. Start narrative writing.

Students do well with this small assignment for the second week, and then we move to longer creative writing assignments . When classesexperience success with their first assignment, you can start constructive editing and revising with them as the class continues.

These creative writing activities should be easy implement and personalize for your students.

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Are you interested in more creative writing lesson ideas? My Facebook page has interactive educators who love to discuss creative writing for middle school and high school creative writing lesson plans. Join us!

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Programmes & Qualifications

• November 2023
• November 2022
• November 2021

Grade threshold tables

• Cambridge IGCSE November 2023 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE June 2023 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE March 2023 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE November 2022 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE June 2022 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE March 2022 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE November 2021 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE June 2021 exam series grade threshold tables
• Cambridge IGCSE March 2021 exam series grade threshold tables

Grade thresholds explained

We publish grade thresholds after each exam series. A grade threshold is the minimum number of marks that a candidate needs to obtain a particular grade in a paper or in a subject. Before reading the grade threshold document, there is some important information you need to know about how we set the thresholds.

How do we set grade thresholds?

A grade threshold is the minimum number of marks that a candidate needs to obtain a particular grade in a paper or in a subject. These thresholds are decided after each examination has been taken and marked. The aim in each year (or examination series) is to set each threshold in just the right place to ensure that it is no more difficult and no less difficult to obtain that grade than it was in the previous year.

To fulfil that aim we have to lower the thresholds from one examination to another if we find that the questions in a paper have been more difficult than last time (or raise the thresholds if we find the questions have been easier). This is to be fair to candidates from one series to another.

How to interpret our grade threshold tables

The table in the grade threshold document shows the thresholds taken in a particular examination series for each paper or other component that we marked (so not for teacher-marked components, for example).

The table also shows the thresholds used for the options available. An option is a permitted combination of papers or other components that make up the overall qualification. In the simplest cases, we can just add up the component thresholds to get the option threshold.

Sometimes it is more complicated:

• We may have to apply a weighting factor to the thresholds before we add them together in order to match what it says in the syllabus about the weight that we give to each paper.
• Once we have set the grade thresholds for each paper, we add them together to produce grade thresholds for the syllabus (or syllabus option for syllabuses with more than one route of assessment). The sum of the threshold marks for each paper takes into account the contribution that each paper makes to the syllabus. A small reduction to the grade threshold may be made at the higher grades to allow for the fact that a candidate may not be required to achieve a particular grade on every component in order to achieve that grade at syllabus level.
• Grade A* does not exist as a component grade. The A* threshold at option level is calculated looking at the position of the A and B thresholds as a starting point.
• For AS Level components, small adjustments may be made to the marks awarded for some versions of the paper, and to the component thresholds, in order to neutralise any differences in the difficulty of the versions taken in different countries, and so make sure that all candidates face an equal demand.

Marking and grading

Assigning grades to candidates' work is a complex process. We have put together a guide and a video to show how we ensure that all candidates taking our exams receive fair and accurate results.

• Syllabus overview
• Past papers, examiner reports and specimen papers
• Published resources