AQA A-level English Language and Literature

How Dracula is examined. A printed extract, then a choice of two questions: “Explore the significance of… in the novel. You should consider: the presentation of… in the extract below and at different points in the novel; the use of fantasy elements in constructing a fictional world.” [35 marks]. Open book (clean, unannotated copies). AQA’s Literature A (7712) does not set Dracula.

Browse the AQA 7707 question records. Exact question excerpts, shortened prompts and report-based summaries are labelled separately. Open the original paper for the complete instruction, extract and rubric.

Read each year’s questions before its feedback. The wording labels distinguish recorded excerpts from summaries that still need checking against the paper. General-paper and unseen-passage comments are identified separately; a report may not discuss every question listed.

Report: report (mirror). Source details.

Questions in this series. The recorded wording below is labelled as an excerpt or a summary; use the original paper for the complete instruction and any supplied passage.

What the examiners reported

• Successful responses stayed on the question, discussed how narrative point of view is built and what it does, moved from the extract to other points in the novel, and integrated genre and context.

• Weaker responses spotted features without exploring meaning, made unsupported assertions, and drifted into general remarks about the genre.

• On Renfield, students who connected Seward’s recording technology and narrative stance to the reader’s response did best; few used critical readings.

• Contextual comments were often “not well embedded in the student’s line of argument”.

• A clear grasp of voice and perspective, established early, gave answers a firm basis.

Report: report, pp. 8–11. Source details.

Questions in this series. The recorded wording below is labelled as an excerpt or a summary; use the original paper for the complete instruction and any supplied passage.

What the examiners reported

• Q05 Mina and Jonathan (p. 10): some wrote only about a stereotyped husband and wife, rather than “the different roles she embodies and the inversion of gender roles”.

• Useful contexts seen (p. 11): Mina as the New Woman, religious belief, gender roles.

• General (pp. 8–10): “significance” means explaining why Stoker presents something, as well as what, where and how; analyse narrative point of view (letters, journals); weave in Gothic conventions rather than listing them in the introduction; choose precise moments from elsewhere in the novel. Weak responses said little or nothing about narrative point of view – a striking gap for a novel told entirely through documents.

No report was found for November 2020. Reports for other series (e.g. 2022) exist but have not been summarised here.

• June 2023, Q5 – mark scheme, pp. 23–24. Mina’s first-person (homodiegetic) viewpoint and the epistolary form; her care-giver role and Jonathan’s reliance on her. AO3: Christian values and marriage; late-19th-century change in women’s roles; earlier Gothic; 21st-century readings. Suggested moments: ch. 12 (Mina’s letter), ch. 13 (seeing Dracula in London), ch. 23 (Jonathan on Mina). Source details.

Open the candidate-answer catalogue for links, reported marks, page references and what to learn from each response.

• AQA “Student responses with examiner commentary”, Section B, Dracula response, pp. 2–3 – pack. No mark; a short excerpt. The pack heads it “Question 4”, but it answers specimen Q05 on Lucy’s physical state (specimen paper). What lifts it: Lucy’s change is built from several narrators (Mina’s hedged account, Seward’s clinical one), so form is part of the argument; the commentary praises integrated points on genre, fantasy and the representation of women, and criticises vague terms such as “imagery”. Source details. Source details.

• No further Dracula candidate response has been located in the sources reviewed for this guide. This does not establish that none is available. Check the board’s current public and teacher-only resources.

AQA treats context as part of explaining significance: why Stoker shapes a moment as he does. Contexts of production (Christian values, changing roles for women, earlier Gothic) and of reception (21st-century readings) are both credited, but only when embedded in the argument and tied to narrative technique. Genre conventions count as context and should be used, not listed.

Open the board’s assessment-materials library. The source register records individual reports, mark schemes and access notes. Sources for studying and teaching Dracula.

Return to Chapter C · Past-question catalogue · Candidate answers