Cambridge AS & A Level Literature in English 9695/12 is the May/June 2026 Paper 1 (Drama and Poetry), variant 2, an AS Level component. It lasts 2 hours, is worth 50 marks and you answer two questions: one on a play from Section A and one on a poetry text from Section B, 25 marks each. Every set text offered an (a) essay on the whole text or a (b) close reading of a printed extract or poem, so the main decision on the day is which of the two suits you. This guide covers all sixteen options and explains how the official mark scheme places an answer. The paper and its mark scheme are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of all four 9695 papers from this series, see A Level Literature in English 9695 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

9695/12 at a glance

Rubric: answer two questions in total, one from Section A and one from Section B. All questions are worth equal marks.

Question	Set text	(a) Essay	(b) Passage	Marks
1	Albee: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Ways Albee makes families significant	George in an Act 2 extract	25
2	Errol John: Moon on a Rainbow Shawl	Desire and its effects	How tension is created in Act 3, Scene 2	25
3	Shakespeare: The Tempest	Miranda through her relationships	Alonso and his companions, Act 2, Scene 1	25
4	Webster: The Duchess of Malfi	Different kinds of conflict, and their effects	Bosola and Ferdinand, Act 3, Scene 1	25
5	Angelou: And Still I Rise	The natural world in two poems	Attitudes to work in One More Round	25
6	Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience	Social injustice in two poems	The situation in A Little Boy Lost	25
7	Plath: Ariel	Effects of settings in two poems	The journey in Getting There	25
8	Songs of Ourselves, Volume 2	Journeys in two poems	Edward Taylor’s Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold	25
	Total (one Section A and one Section B answer)			50

Question-by-question walkthrough

How every question is marked

The 9695/12 mark scheme gives no content for any individual question. Every entry says the same thing: mark according to the levels of response marking criteria. So the way to read this paper is to know the grid well.

• Six levels, best fit first. Level 6 “perceptive and assured” (22–25), Level 5 “confident and thorough” (18–21), Level 4 “sound and competent” (14–17), Level 3 “straightforward and partial” (10–13), Level 2 “basic and limited” (6–9) and Level 1 “generalised and restricted” (1–5). The examiner places the whole answer in the level whose qualities it shows most of, then picks a mark within it.
• Four objectives, equally weighted. AO1 is knowledge and understanding, including relevant context; AO2 is analysis of how the writer’s choices of language, form and structure shape meaning; AO3 is informed personal response; AO4 is a relevant, structured, supported argument. Each level has a strand for each, and the examiner weighs all four together.
• What changes up the levels. References to the text move from limited, to competent, to secure, to developed. Analysis moves from basic to competent to thorough to perceptive. Structure moves from paragraphs that may not link, to linked paragraphs, to logical progression with effectively linked paragraphs.
• Narrative is a ceiling. Level 3 allows “occasional reliance” on summary or paraphrase, and Level 1 describes knowledge that may be narrative-based. Examiners have a Narrative annotation for exactly this.
• No single right reading. The scheme says the descriptors are not hurdles, that answers must not be penalised for leaving out a particular focus, and that examiners should meet candidates on their chosen ground as long as it is relevant to the passage or text and the question.

Section A: Drama

Question 1: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee)

• 1(a), families: discuss some of the ways Albee makes families significant. Range across the play and explain why families matter, rather than listing every family mentioned.
• 1(b), George in Act 2 (Walpurgisnacht): George, speaking “like a father”, tries to give Nick a warning about the quicksand he is walking into and offers him a “survival kit”. Nick laughs at him, mocks his talk of making contact, and turns on him with sudden aggression. George replies with a speech aimed past Nick about building a civilisation only to hear the trumpet of judgement sound an insult, and Nick applauds mockingly. The question asks for close attention to dramatic methods and their effects: the stage directions on tone and volume, the shifts from quiet to shouting, the pauses and silences, and the gap between George’s elevated speech and Nick’s derision are all material.

Question 2: Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Errol John)

• 2(a), desire: explore how John presents desire and its effects, again with close attention to dramatic methods. Think about what different characters want and what wanting it costs them or others.
• 2(b), tension in Act 3, Scene 2: an evening extract from late in the play. The task is how John creates tension, so focus on how the scene builds and releases it through dialogue, action and staging, rather than on what happens.

Question 3: The Tempest (William Shakespeare)

• 3(a), Miranda through her relationships: discuss how Shakespeare presents Miranda through her different relationships. Her relationships with Prospero, Ferdinand and Caliban give natural structure, but the focus must stay on what each one shows about her.
• 3(b), Alonso and his companions, Act 2, Scene 1: Gonzalo chatters about how fresh their clothes still look since the wedding of Alonso’s daughter in Tunis, while Antonio and Sebastian mock him. Alonso wishes he had never married her there, since on the way home his son was lost. Francisco describes seeing Ferdinand swim strongly towards the shore, but Alonso insists he is gone. Sebastian then blames the king for the whole loss, and Gonzalo rebukes him for rubbing the sore instead of bringing the plaster, while Antonio and Sebastian keep up their puns. The contrast between Alonso’s grief, Gonzalo’s kindness and the two courtiers’ cruel wit is the core of the scene; dramatic methods include the asides and interruptions, the prose and verse, and Francisco’s vivid speech.

Question 4: The Duchess of Malfi (John Webster)

• 4(a), conflict: in what ways, and with what dramatic effects, Webster presents different kinds of conflict. The word “different” asks you to distinguish types, for example within a family, between classes or within a single character.
• 4(b), Bosola and Ferdinand, Act 3, Scene 1: Ferdinand assures the Duchess of his love and her innocence, then reveals in an aside, once she has gone, that he thinks her guilty. Bosola reports the rumour that she has had three children by an unknown father and suggests sorcery; Ferdinand scorns the idea and blames her blood instead. He plans to force a confession that night with the false key Bosola has obtained, but refuses to tell Bosola his intent. When Bosola tells him he flatters himself, Ferdinand thanks him, saying he has only ever paid flatterers until now. Look at the power balance, the secrecy and the irony of a spy praised for honesty.

Section B: Poetry

Question 5: And Still I Rise (Maya Angelou)

• 5(a), the natural world: compare how Angelou presents the natural world in two poems. “Compare” means the two poems should be discussed in relation to each other, not one after the other.
• 5(b), One More Round: analyse how the poem presents attitudes to work. Voice, sound and rhythm are part of how the attitude is conveyed, so analyse form as well as content.

Question 6: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (William Blake)

• 6(a), social injustice: discuss how Blake presents social injustice in two poems from the selection.
• 6(b), A Little Boy Lost: a child tells his father that he cannot love anyone more than himself, comparing his love to a bird picking up crumbs. A priest seizes him by the hair, denounces him from the altar for setting reason up as judge of holy mystery, and he is stripped, chained and burned while his parents weep in vain. The poem ends by asking whether such things are done on Albion’s shore. The question asks about the situation, with close attention to poetic methods: the ballad-like quatrains, the irony of everyone admiring the priest’s “care”, the repeated weeping and the final question are all worth analysing.

Question 7: Ariel (Sylvia Plath)

• 7(a), settings: discuss the effects of Plath’s choice of settings, with reference to two poems.
• 7(b), Getting There: comment closely on how Plath presents the journey in the extract, which opens with the speaker asking how far it is. Pay close attention to poetic methods: imagery, sound and how the movement of the lines conveys the journey.

Question 8: Songs of Ourselves, Volume 2

• 8(a), journeys: in what ways, and with what effects, two poems from the selection explore journeys.
• 8(b), Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold (Edward Taylor): a wasp numbed by a cold northern wind warms herself in the sun, rubbing her legs and hands and holding her head. The speaker then builds a series of “as if” comparisons, imagining her head as a book of wise precepts and her body as an apothecary’s shop, before she flies home with thanks. The task is the writing and its effects in presenting the wasp: the rhyming couplets, the close physical detail, the human vocabulary given to an insect and the elaborate comparisons that credit her with reason.

Where the marks are on 9695/12

Part	What you write	Marks
Section A: Drama	One (a) essay or (b) passage answer on one play	25
Section B: Poetry	One (a) essay or (b) passage answer on one poetry text	25
	Total	50

• All four assessment objectives are equally weighted in both answers. There is no separate mark for knowledge or analysis; a level is decided by the whole answer.
• Both sections mark methods. Section A passage questions ask for dramatic methods; Section B questions ask for poetic methods. A response that explains what happens without how it is written stays in the lower levels on AO2.
• The poetry essays set a number. All four Section B (a) questions asked for two poems.

How to self-mark 9695/12 with the mark scheme

1. Check the rubric. One drama answer and one poetry answer, and for each text either (a) or (b), not both.
2. Read the whole answer before choosing a level. Decide which of the six levels it fits best, then place it within the band. Judge all four objectives together.
3. Use the key adjectives. Is your analysis basic, competent, thorough or perceptive? Are your references limited, competent, secure or developed? Be honest about which word describes your work.
4. Mark narrative. Underline every sentence that retells the plot or paraphrases the poem without analysis. More than an occasional sentence holds an answer at Level 3 or below.
5. Check methods. For a drama answer, count the comments on staging, stage directions, dialogue and audience effect. For a poetry answer, count the comments on form, sound and imagery.
6. Check the structure. Do your paragraphs link and build an argument towards the question, or are they a list of points? AO4 rewards logical progression.

Sit 9695/12 as a timed mock

The paper allows 2 hours for two equal answers.

Block	Marks	Time
Read the options for your two texts and choose (a) or (b)	–	5 minutes
Plan the drama answer	–	8 minutes
Write the drama answer	25	45 minutes
Plan the poetry answer	–	8 minutes
Write the poetry answer	25	45 minutes
Check both answers against the question’s key words	–	9 minutes

Other May/June 2026 9695 papers

• 9695 Paper 22 (Prose and Unseen)
• 9695 Paper 32 (Shakespeare and Drama)
• 9695 Paper 42 (Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose)

Practise and download

• Download 9695/12 and its mark scheme on the Learning Portal →
• All 9695 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free A Level Literature in English quiz

Need help with a 9695 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an A Level Literature in English tutor →

Frequently asked questions

What is the rubric for 9695 Paper 12 May/June 2026? +

Answer two questions: one from Section A (Drama) and one from Section B (Poetry). For your chosen text you answer either the (a) essay or the (b) passage question. Each answer is worth 25 marks, so the paper is out of 50 and lasts 2 hours.

Which set texts were on 9695/12 in 2026? +

Section A had Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, Shakespeare's The Tempest and Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. Section B had Maya Angelou's And Still I Rise, Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plath's Ariel and Songs of Ourselves, Volume 2.

How many poems do the 9695/12 poetry essays need? +

Two. Every Section B (a) question on this paper asked you to write about two poems from the selection: the natural world in Angelou, social injustice in Blake, settings in Plath and journeys in Songs of Ourselves.

Does the 9695/12 mark scheme list points for each question? +

No. Every question is marked 'according to the levels of response marking criteria', a six-level grid out of 25 that covers four equally weighted assessment objectives. There is no text-specific content in the mark scheme.

What are the mark bands on 9695/12? +

Level 6 is 22 to 25, Level 5 is 18 to 21, Level 4 is 14 to 17, Level 3 is 10 to 13, Level 2 is 6 to 9 and Level 1 is 1 to 5. A mark of 0 is for work with no relevant ideas or evidence.

Where can I download 9695/12 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge AS & A Level Literature in English 9695 past papers page.

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