Learn from board-published candidate answers

Texts: Dracula + Dorian Gray. Reported mark or description: 40/40.

Find it: 87–93 (comm. p. 93). Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: A defined argument about menace, developed through paired strands and differences between the novels. Read the commentary alongside the script.

Use this response for its method, not as factual authority for speculative biography or the Count’s supposed relationship to Vlad. Van Helsing’s praise of Mina is recorded by Seward; the speaker and recorder are different.

Texts: Dracula + Beloved. Reported mark or description: 33/40 (17 + 16), Level 4/5 border.

Find it: 80–85. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: Closely integrated quotations and focused comparison can strengthen an initially straightforward argument.

Texts: Dracula + Dorian Gray. Reported mark or description: 40/40 (20 + 20).

Find it: 37–40 (comm. p. 64). Open Script 7 at PDF page 37 in the Estate reader. Source details.

What to look for: An alternative argument about menace and the self. Study the structure without treating every contextual assertion as established history.

Use this response for its method, not as factual authority for speculative biography or the Count’s supposed relationship to Vlad. Van Helsing’s praise of Mina is recorded by Seward; the speaker and recorder are different.

Texts: Dracula + Dorian Gray. Reported mark or description: 21/40 (10 + 11), Level 3.

Find it: 32–36 (comm. p. 64). Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: A useful comparison with stronger scripts: identify where contextual description needs a sharper literary argument.

Texts: Dracula + Dorian Gray. Reported mark or description: 40/40.

Find it: 144–149 (comm. p. 150). Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: A conceptual opening that distinguishes different kinds of power and uses context to develop the comparison.

Use this response for its method, not as factual authority for speculative biography or the Count’s supposed relationship to Vlad. Van Helsing’s praise of Mina is recorded by Seward; the speaker and recorder are different.

Texts: Dracula + Dorian Gray. Reported mark or description: 40/40.

Find it: 54–56 (comm. p. 56). Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: Gothic convention placed at the centre of a comparative argument about the supernatural.

Texts: Dracula + Twelfth Night. Reported mark or description: High-achieving (mark not recorded here).

Find it: 67–77. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: An example of sustained comparison across prose and drama. The research records the examiner’s description, not a numerical mark.

Texts: Dracula + Frankenstein. Reported mark or description: No mark (one paragraph).

Find it: 9. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: One paragraph, useful for defining the question’s terms and establishing a comparison. It is not a complete marked essay.

Use this response for its method, not as factual authority for speculative biography or the Count’s supposed relationship to Vlad. Van Helsing’s praise of Mina is recorded by Seward; the speaker and recorder are different.

Texts: Dracula. Reported mark or description: No mark (excerpt).

Find it: 2–3. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: A short specimen response showing how narrative viewpoint contributes to an argument about Lucy.

Texts: Dracula. Reported mark or description: High-scoring.

Find it: Word document. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: A high-scoring discussion through a literary perspective, from the pre-2023 task format.

Texts: Dracula. Reported mark or description: High-scoring.

Find it: Word document. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: High-scoring passage responses on power, from the revised examination format.

Texts: Dracula. Reported mark or description: High-scoring.

Find it: Word document. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: High-scoring passage responses on obsession and narrative method.

Texts: Dracula + Interview with the Vampire. Reported mark or description: 14–11 band (mid).

Find it: Understanding Standards site. Open the board publication. Source details.

What to look for: A dissertation example that helps show why the precision of a self-set research question matters. The cited overview gives a mark band rather than the exact mark.

First read the question, then identify the thesis, the use of quotations, the comparison or narrative analysis, and what the examiner actually praises. Compare a stronger and a middle-band response where available. Use the board’s published document; the Estate does not reproduce candidates’ scripts.

The Pearson 2024 social-status example captioned as Dracula is excluded because the script discusses The Little Stranger. The AQA specimen pack’s Dracula extract is labelled Question 4 but answers the Lucy question in specimen Question 5. Check the question and text as well as the heading.

Chapter E: the Estate’s nine example essays and preparations · Chapter C.

No candidate script for this qualification has been retrieved in the current collection. See the course guide for report commentary and the official assessment library. This does not establish that no script is available.

No candidate script for this qualification has been retrieved in the current collection. See the course guide for report commentary and the official assessment library. This does not establish that no script is available.