Paper 2, Section B Poetry: If candidates write on poems that are not listed as set texts, will they receive credit?

As is standard on 8695, candidates’ responses will be awarded holistic marks in relation to how well they fulfil the criteria outlined in the Mark Scheme: consequently, any individual elements of the essay (e.g. references to poems not listed in the syllabus) are not awarded marks directly but are instead considered as part of an overall response. The same applies to Section C Prose, if a candidate responds to a short story which is not part of that year’s selection from Stories of Ourselves.