Are students going to be penalized for going over the word limit?

You will see from the mark schemes that there is no specific penalty for writing beyond the word limit – the length guide is given to ensure candidates know how much they are expected to write. This should also help them with time management. This is the case for all Writing tasks across the syllabus, whether on Paper 1 or Paper 2.

We would always recommend that candidates adhere to the guidance on length, but if they do find that they run out of space a continuation booklet can be used and will be marked.