How to Answer the Paper 2 Drama Questions

• Question A = the passage-based question. You get a printed extract and must analyse it closely, then link it out to the whole play.
• Question B = the essay question. No printed passage — you must range across the whole play from memory, choosing your own evidence.
• Both questions are worth 25 marks, take 45 minutes, and are marked against the same four Assessment Objectives (AO1–AO4) — none is worth more than another.
• The single biggest reason students lose marks: not sticking to the exact focus of the question. Every paragraph must answer it, not just "be about the play."
• Quotations are a tool, not a trophy — you must explain how and why a quotation creates its effect, not just drop it in.
• Because these are plays, not novels or poems, you must talk like someone watching a performance: use "audience," "act," "scene," "stage," "playwright" — and treat stage directions as seriously as dialogue, because they are literally the writer's own instructions for what happens on stage.
• A reliable structure works for both: Introduction (thesis using the question's wording) → 4–5 chronological, evidenced paragraphs → Conclusion (a fresh "So overall…" statement, not a repeat).
• Avoid the four classic essay-killers: retelling the story, feature-spotting (naming a technique with no analysis), generic topic sentences, and long historical context detours (context isn't separately assessed on this IGCSE).

What it actually is

Question A gives you a printed passage (an extract) from your chosen play, right there on the exam paper. You must pick the correct set of pages for the text you've studied — an easy but costly mistake is answering on the wrong play's passage by accident, so always double check the title at the top of the page.

It's worth 25 marks, tests all four Assessment Objectives, and you get 45 minutes. Crucially, the question will always ask you to explore how the writer achieves a particular effect — dramatic, revealing, entertaining, memorable, and so on. That focus word is the single most important thing on the page.

The suggested timing (don't skip this — it's a strategy, not a suggestion)

What skills you're actually being tested on (AO1–AO4)

Reading like a drama student, not a novel reader