level 2 english essay questions

NCEA Level 2 English Exam essay questions

2 March 2022

6 minutes to read

• 01. Focus on your planning and you’ll have a great foundation!
• 02. Pick your arguments. You frame your argument with what’s important.
• 03. It’s time to unpack that essay question.
• 04. Lets dive into the 2020 exemplar more: Close reading of the text
• 05. Come to master embracing the unknown with unfamiliar texts
• 06. T.E.X.A.S will help your essay structure!
• 07. Needing more help? Try Superprof!

You’ve made it through NCEA Level 1 exams before and no doubt powered through those essays, burrowing a hole at your desk from your menacing pen grip. NCEA Level 2 is similar to Level 1, but naturally it is a bit of a step up for you. You will be honing and crafting your writing skills in a series of essays. You’ll also seek to nail those questions that are asked of you. Remember that how you answer that question matters! The more you unpack and fully comprehend what they are asking you- the better. What are the ways to best combat sweating away, nervously and anxiously staring at those exam questions? Together, we will go through some of the best ways to answer these and break it down into some easily manageable steps.

Wondering why English is a  good skill for your career? Check this blog out here If you are needing some assistance with writing essays, then you can take notes from this.  Maybe you are wanting to have an overview of the whole year ? How about some tips and tricks for navigating your internals

Focus on your planning and you’ll have a great foundation!

You can have internalized a great deal of the text’s that you have studied and even committed a number of quotes to memory, but if you have not planned you are in for a shock. It’s paramount that once you get into that exam room that you set aside at least 5 minutes of planning time. Think about the crux of that question, what exactly are they asking of you? Get out your highlighter and go over those key points that they are wanting to know.  How can you plan you ask? Well, visual or not one of the tried and true methods is to make yourself a brainstorm addressing your main points. You might even want to jot down all your wonderful examples and evidence as soon as you get into the exam room. Make sure you write down underneath how these help to answer the question. Remember to plan, you don’t want to spend more than five minutes on this. Think brief, think bullet points. Get your points down quick. If you seek out some planning time early you could be on your way to achieving a higher mark potentially as you have been thoughtful and forward-thinking in your approach.

Find out about NCEA  level 2 English annotated exemplars here.

Pick your arguments. You frame your argument with what’s important.

English as a subject gives you a great deal of freedom in the sense that you can be extremely malleable with your answers. It’s all about your interpretations and how you engage with the text. As long as you provide insightful and relevant pieces of evidence you are on your way to creating a great argument for your essays. In contrast, Maths and Science often have specific correct answers where there is only one way to answer the question. There’s much more wriggle room with English as a topic. How are you going to articulate to the examiner that your argument is convincing and valid? By providing examples and using strong language with a high degree of perception. Take the marker on an exploration with all your points and then bring them home with your interpretations and conclusions.

It’s time to unpack that essay question.

In a 2020 exemplar, a student talks about the 1991 novel Regeneration, written by Pat Barker. Here the question selected was to

“Analyze how ideas were presented to be thought provoking and relevant? Ideas may refer to character, theme or setting.”

There are two parts to this question, one answering the thought-provoking element and the next asking if the ideas are relevant. In your first year of NCEA English, you will learn that the ‘describe’ aspects of questions are for obtaining an achieved mark. On the other hand the ‘explain’ sits in the excellence territory. This will become more clear as your progress throughout your NCEA experience. So answer the question with an explanation in mind.

Lets dive into the 2020 exemplar more: Close reading of the text

The student talks about language features as a means of understanding the question. This gives the answer a bit more weight as language features help to illustrate the points more. So lets get into the book, shall we? Language features used in Regeneration were first-person narrative, vernacular language, allusions and direct speech. These all helped in illustrating what it was like for physicians in World War 1. They also address the impact on masculinity and the ideals that surround this. Also showing through the language features that it's not simply physicians that are affected by war, but everyone.  Here the student has addressed the question directly and explained what the contents of the essay will be about. Through the character of Dr Rivers, who is a psychiatrist we see the changing attitudes of this profession. We are constantly shown through Dr Rivers's eyes through third person what he is going through, hearing his thoughts and feelings surrounding the shell-shocked patients. The student gives the example that the compassion Rivers feels puts him in a moral quandary. He wants to help rehabilitate the soldiers to serve his country but also cares about their health and does not want them to return to go back into war. It appears that his duty is contradicting his personal opinions.

Come to master embracing the unknown with unfamiliar texts

Similarly, like visual and written text, the unfamiliar text is all about that million-dollar question. Remember to brainstorm before jumping into answering the question also. Even though you don’t have preconceived ideas like written and visual text, you still have all the coursework throughout the year to prepare you with nailing the exam. Try reading the question a few times to really get to the crux of exactly what it is asking you. Remember to highlight and bullet point key ideas and phrases that you can use for your evidence later on. Just a note to also remember those language features, they will come in handy with formulating your argument.

T.E.X.A.S will help your essay structure!

How you structure your words in your essays matters and we are going to dive into some techniques on how to tackle just that.  To pass your NCEA level 2 English exam you will need to be well versed in everything about essays. How can you go about this? Let's jump into the T.E.X.A.S method.  This method is going to help you really formulate your points in an easy to understand concise and detailed manner. Right at the start of the method, we dive into our sentence first with   ‘Topic sentence’. This  is all about saying what the purpose of the paragraph is. Why on earth are you writing this today? Give us the details as to your 'why'. We then have    ‘Evidence’. How are you going to back up the claim that you have just made? ah yes, by providing some much-needed evidence. To do this you will need to place relevant quotes and examples throughout your essay. Up next is  ‘eXplain’ where you need to provide some linking sentences from your thesis. What does this example demonstrate?

If you are heroically aiming high for that excellence, then you will be wanting to talk about the Author’s purpose . This will be where you unpack the author's intentions and unveil what was important to them in writing the book or directing the movie.   ‘Summary’ is then there to tie everything up nicely all together in a ribbon of conclusions.  You will go over all the main points that you have addressed in your essay body and apply some judgements to them to make an educated conclusion about the author/director and the world of the book/film. It's also a great idea to only stick to 3 paragraphs for your essays, integrating 1 to 2 pieces of evidence throughout each paragraph. If you end up mastering the T.E.X.A.S method you’ll be more likely to pass your NCEA Level 2 English externals. You can even use these tips when writing your internals like formal writing and speech-making also.

Needing more help? Try Superprof!

Are you wanting some more hands-on approach to writing the best essay you can write? Maybe you're feeling stuck with how your progress is going in class? Or perhaps even you just think you are needing some more guidance with those menacing exams at the end of the year? In any case, have a log on to Superprof, which is an online tutoring website that specializes in helping to get you to the next level of your NCEA Level 2 English journey. The first lesson is free so there is really a strong incentive to get involved and have a look to see if tutoring is right for you. There are hundreds of tutors, each there for you to help with providing extra resources, insights into exam writing, practical tips and just simply some extra support for when you’re feeling swamped from all the things you need to do. Log on to Superprof today and start learning how to absolutely nail those NCEA Level 2 exams and internals!

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Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing Examples and Guide Revision

Functional skills english level 2 writing examples and guide, functional skills english level 2 writing examples.

You may know all of the facts there are to know about your writing exam : how long to spend on each question, the style of writing needed for certain text types. But , knowing this and being able to complete the exam  successfully  are two different things .

Instead, the key to success is to practice .

To help you with this, we have created a helpful example booklets for each of the main exam boards.

Each booklet contains four writing task examples , based on the style of the real exam, and modelled on past papers. In addition they also include handy reminders of the skills which need to be demonstrated in your answer.

You can access these by using the links below , but here is a taster of the practice questions available for each exam board…

Start your N CFE Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing practice  now by clicking on the following link:

NCFE Writing Task Examples Booklet

Start your AQA Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing practice now  by clicking on the following link:

AQA Writing Task Examples Booklet

Start your Edexcel Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing practice now by clicking on the following link:

Edexcel Writing Task Examples Booklet

Start your City and Guilds Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing practice now by clicking on the following link:

City and Guilds Writing Task Examples Booklet

Start your Open Awards  Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing practice  now by clicking on the following link:

Open Awards Writing Examples PDF

Where do I begin?

When first approaching your Functional Skills English Level 2 exam , it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information you need to learn. 

However, here at Pass Functional Skills we have teams of experts dedicated to helping you pass each component.

Be it Functional Skills Level 2 Reading , Functional Skills Level 2 Writing , or your Speaking , Listening , and Communication Exam , we have what you need!

The writing section of your   Functional Skills English Level 2 Exam requires a different skill set to the reading section.

Rather than analysing someone else’s text, you must craft your own, using the guidelines provided in each question.

The type of text you must write will vary from exam board to exam board, but the skills tested in each are the same .

You know where you want to end up : passing your F unctional Skills English Level 2 Exam .

The question is, how do you get there, and where are you now, at the beginning of your learning journey ? 

Let’s take a look …

Where am I now?

We know that determining the areas of the exam you struggle with, and lose  important marks in, is absolutely key .

To help you with this, and to reach your end goal of passing your exam, we created the   Functional Skills English Level 2 subject knowledge assessment , to figure out your unique strengths and weaknesses .

To access to the subject knowledge assessment , go to our website’s dedicated page, linked here , or sign up for our online course .

The assessment contains specially selected questions modelled on the exams themselves, and chosen from our comprehensive topic list . This ensures that key subject areas are targeted, and you receive the most accurate skills assessment possible.

By completing the subject knowledge assessment you will take the next step along the path to English Functional Skills exam success, and make the most of the valuable time you have to spend on revision .

Once you have completed our subject knowledge assessment test , you can take the data compiled specifically for you, and apply it to the rest of your learning process. This will help you to not only pass, but to succeed in your exam .

How can I improve?

Whilst the skills needed for the reading paper can be practiced by reading and analysing texts, (for example Edexcel , City and Guilds or AQA ), the same is not necessarily true for the writing task . 

Rather than looking at questions or sources as with your Reading Exam , your Writing Exam will be easier if you are familiar with the format. For this, past papers are invaluable. This is because they provide you with an idea of the scenarios and information you will be given in the exam.

The writing section of the English exam for F unctional Skills Level 2 is where you will use all the skills from the Reading Exam. Whilst you were previously analysing and breaking down texts, you are now building one yourself.

This is a separate and specific skillset . Looking at past papers is an invaluable way to familiarise yourself with what you will be faced with in the exam. The topics and exam sources which your Reading Exam paper are focused on will not necessarily be relevant to the final task, but it can be helpful to complete reading past papers. This is because looking at how other authors have structured their texts, makes you more familiar with the structure and style of text types.

To find the correct past papers for your exam board, follow the links below:

          Edexcel               City and Guilds               AQA               Highfield             NCFE             Open Awards

Top Tip Time

Although it can be tempting , remember that you shouldn’t focus only on the topics you feel the most comfortable with.

Practice makes perfect , so keep doing lots of practice exams online and physical papers to perfect the topics you find difficult .

This will benefit you much more in the exam than only practising areas you are already confident in !

On different areas of our website, you will be able to find an online version of our exam guidebook , which includes handy tips and tricks, to help you to ace your exam. 

Functional Skills English Exam Guide Booklet

This guidebooks contain all of the basic information you need to successfully complete your exam. It contains a specific section for each component of your Level 2 English Functional Skills qualification. This includes examples of questions from the Reading and Writing components, and explaining what each component requires.

The task itself…

Whilst you will always be tested on your writing skills , this will always be done in one of several ways.

You will be asked to write a functional text, which in this case means a text with a specific purpose :

•  to persuade
•  to describe .

Understanding how to write a report , a letter , an article , or any other text is essential to being confident in the Functional Skills English Level 2 exam , as these will be the main text types you will need to write. 

In the   Functional Skills English Level 2 course and the revision pages created by our team, you can learn about presentational features , writing style , tone and language features . You will also learn  why they are important to use when creating your own versions of these texts .

You should consider all of these elements when you are writing your text in your writing exam. You will be asked to produce two texts, each with a different purpose, and with different contexts and audiences for you to keep in mind.

Remember the key rules , that formal texts such as persuasive or informative letters and emails generally use fewer language features than informal texts.

Informal texts can also persuade, but they rarely inform. Instead, they are usually designed to get a specific reaction from the reader, and therefore don’t often contain information alone. Instead, they usually describe, discuss, or argue.

Watch out for these different textual requirements in your exam, and head to our guide book to find out more .

What’s next?

There are many things you can do in your daily life to improve your ability to select the correct presentational features, language features, style, and tone for texts.

These can include reading newspaper articles, emails, online blogs, and, finally books. Immersing yourself in reading is the best way to become comfortable with the formatting of specific text types .

Strengthening your understanding of what is appropriate for varied contexts and audiences is made easier by doing this.

In this way, you can prepare yourself as much as possible for your upcoming exam .

You can also find explanations of what is required for each of the text types you may be asked to produce on the following topic pages …

• Writing: Why are you Writing?
• Writing: Assessing Your Audience
• Writing: Context
• Writing: Tenses
• Writing: Grammar
• Writing: Perfecting your Punctuation
• Writing: Form, Presentational and Language features
• Writing: Organisational Markers

Additional pages on individual topics which are covered in more detail are the following …

• Writing Style and Tone
• Language features
• How to Organise Your Text

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Six writing ideas for level 2.

A stimulating set of ideas for letter writing (problem parking, TV standards, traffic, nasty neighbours) and essays (being an MP, climate change). Each topic has ideas for discussion (and often planning tips).

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O-LEVEL PAST YEARS COMPOSITION QUESTIONS

In our ‘O’ Level English Enrichment Programme, we ensure that our graduating students are ready to ace the English Language examination. It is a race against time to prepare for the ‘O’ Levels, hence our programme focuses on teaching and reinforcing our students’ essay writing skills, comprehension answer precision, summary writing and oral examination techniques. All W@W secondary teachers spare no effort in coaching our students how to tackle popular examination essay topics.

HALL OF FAME

Janice glanced worriedly at her wrist watch. The time was already ten past seven. She had twenty minutes to make it to school on time. The sky was overcast. A slight drizzle rained down like a mist. It started raining cats and dogs as Janice reached the bus stop. She had ignored her mother’s advice to take an umbrella with her. She wondered how she was going to make itto school in the rain.

Jovan Ang, Primary 2

Rulang Primary School

It was an idyllic Saturday morning. Fluffy white clouds hung in the clear cerulean sky. Granny Lucy was tottering to the market. Her heart was filled with light-hearted cheer and her mouth curled into a smile. She was looking forward to preparing a feast for her grandchildren, who were coming for dinner that night.

Kew Ling Wei, Primary 3

Raffles Girls’ Primary School

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Practice paper 2s.

What do Paper 2 exams look like? What kinds of questions appear on the Paper 2 exam? The links below shows several Paper 2-style questions. Feel free to 'make a copy' of these Google Docs and edit them for your own purposes. The documents will change continually, as the IB makes more information and past papers available. 

Study the questions in the Practice Paper 2s. What kinds of trends and patterns do you notice? If you were to make a prediction about the kinds of questions that will appear on this year's exam, what would you predict?

Compare the questions from the Practice Paper 2s to the Areas of Exploration. How are they similar or different? Check out the page on the 7 concepts from this course. How do these questions encourage you to explore these concepts ?

The Practice Paper 2s consist of four questions. Actual IB Paper 2 may not be organised this way, but these practiced questions are designed to help you prepare for the following types of questions: 

The first question is about a stylistic or structural feature. These types of questions lend themselves well to Criterion B: analysis and evaluation. If the feature is about 'narrative perspective', for example, you may want to write body paragraphs on related features, such as flashbacks, dialogue and characterisation. As always, connect form to meaning, while answering the question. 

The second question is intentionally difficult. The IB has been known to include questions that require deeper understanding of literature and contexts. Questions about how the meaning of a work has evolved over or how the author 's life has influenced the work are difficult if not impossible to answer. If you do not feel confident exploring answering these types of questions, avoid them! 

The third question is often about some kind of conflict or struggle. These struggles may be between competing concepts , such as 'new' and 'old', or juxtaposed settings, like 'rural' and 'urban', or characters, such as 'men' and 'women'. As you prepare your works, consider conflict, paradox and juxtaposition. You may be able to do something with these ideas or your Paper 2 response. 

The fourth question in the Practice Paper 2s relates to an abstract concept, such as justice, faith, home, wealth or identity. These may or may not be related to one of the 7 concepts from the course: identity, communication, creativity, representation, transformation, perspective or culture. Discussing literary works in relation to these concepts is good preparation for Paper 2. 

Even though you will not know the essay questions before the exam, you can still prepare for the exam. You can practice connecting works, by making diagrams like the diagram on this page . You can practice unpacking P2 questions , using activities like the one on this page . You'll notice on both pages that novels, plays and graphic novels tend to work well for Paper 2 responses, as question often ask about setting, events, characters, conflicts and other literary features of these literary forms. 

Related pages

• Paper 2 instructions
• Guide and outline: Areas of exploration
• Guide and outline: Concepts
• Paper 2 example: The Great Gatsby and The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Breakout English

First (FCE) Essay Questions

The essay task at Cambridge B2 First (FCE) level might be one of the first times learners encounter a truly formal writing task. At the previous level, B1 Preliminary (PET), all the writing tasks are relatively casual and informal. This is where the First Certificate writing forces candidates to prove they really know how to organise and deliver a robust formal text. However, at the end of the day, the FCE essay is a reasonably approachable task with can be overcome with a clear plan and plenty of practice. Here, we’ve got three questions on different FCE essay topics that are all common at B2 level. If you’re not sure how to write a good essay, try our how to improve an essay post.

FCE Essay topics

There are quite a range of possible topics at FCE level. However, some of them lend themselves better to writing tasks than others. Remember, a writing task always needs to have elements that can be compared to each other, which can be either complimentary or contrasting.

These are some of the FCE essay topics which a most likely to come up:

• The environment
• Education and work
• Culture and customs
• Leisure activities
• Health and fitness

It’s a good idea to look at all of these topics in depth. Study vocabulary related to the topic and consider where you stand on different issues. In a class, you can do a vocabulary lesson followed by a class debate. Then follow up the debate with an essay question on the same topic as homework.

Common mistakes when writing an essay

At B2 level, exam candidates are often still crossing the boundary into being efficient user of English. While they may have a range of grammar and lexis to draw on, they may not always use it to good effect. As a teacher, you may encounter adult learners who haven’t written anything academic in decades. Likewise, you’ll find younger teens who haven’t yet had to produce a cohesive text in their academic careers.

In my experience, these are the biggest mistakes B2 level students make when writing an essay for the FCE exam:

• Not including your own idea – One of the requirements of every First essay question is to include your own idea. It says it right there in the task. However, some people understand this to mean they have to include their opinion. While you should include your opinion, that’s not why is say “your own idea”. Every essay should include three content points. Two of those are provided in the question and one more must be provided by the writer.
• Paragraphs that are too long or too short – The word limit for the FCE essay question is quite short (140-190 words). This means writers have to be quite concise and get to the point quickly. Each paragraph will probably only contain 2-4 sentences. That said, 1 sentence paragraphs are never acceptable, especially when it’s one big long rambling sentence. Neither are 6 sentence paragraphs which leave you no words for other parts of your text.
• Over-personalisation – Your FCE essay includes an element of opinion. In fact, the task explicitly asks you if you agree with a certain statement. However, that doesn’t mean you should fill the essay with 1st person pronouns and personal anecdotes. An essay is an academic text which should use objective evidence to support your point of view.
• Lack of conclusion – Sometimes people write an essay that perfectly evaluates 3 different content points and then finishes with a statement that says all points are equal. This is a mistake. The question asks you whether you agree with a statement. Your conclusion should clearly express where you stand on the issue. Don’t be wishy-washy!
• Trying too hard – The best First (FCE) essays are simple, to-the-point, well-structured and cohesive. Your essay isn’t going to change the world, so don’t go overboard. Once you’ve got a structure that works, rinse and repeat with different topics until you can consistently produce a well-polished text.

The materials

Here are three First (FCE) essay questions. They have been designed using typical FCE essay topics for B2 level. Use them to practise and improve in preparation for the Cambridge B2 First exam.

IB English Paper 2 Explained

Free introductory guide to IB English Paper 2 by IB45 and IB7 graduates.

This guide will explain IB English Paper 2 and what you need to ace the exam come May or November, when the IB Gods throw you this (seemingly) insurmountable task.

If you don't know all about Paper 1 already, do check out LitLearn's amazing guide  for IB English Paper 1. Paper 1 is all about on-the-spot thinking and  adrenaline-pumping analysis . What about Paper 2?

Well, IB English Paper 2 is  all of those things , plus extensive preparation . But don't fret! I survived Paper 2, and so have many others before you. All you need is a couple sprinkles of guidance from a seasoned Paper 2 veteran (ahem).

Meet your instructor Jackson Huang, Founder of LitLearn. His mission is to make IB English as pain-free as possible with fun, practical lessons. Jackson scored an IB45 and was accepted to Harvard, Amherst, Williams Colleges, and full scholarships to University of Melbourne & Queensland.

What is IB English Paper 2?

You're in the exam room. You stare at the page and wipe the sweat from your forehead and try to focus on the words on the page:

"We are all prisoners of ourselves.” Discuss how the sense of imprisonment shapes the meaning and the effect on the audience of at least two texts you have studied."

A Paper 2 exam consists of four of these prompts. From these options, you choose one prompt and write a 1000 to 1300-word essay on it.

How long do you get? 1 hour 45 minutes for both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL) students.

In these 1000 to 1300 words, your task is to write a comparative essay , which — you guessed it — means comparing similarities and contrasting differences between the texts you've studied in class for Paper 2 (i.e., poems, novels, plays or short stories) .

Now that you understand what a Paper 2 essay involves, let's jump into how to properly answer one of these IB English Paper 2 prompts.

How to answer a Paper 2 Question

Let's stick with the above example about the theme of “imprisonment”.

First, see that philosophical quote at the start of the prompt? It's there to spark ideas, to get the juices flowing in your brain. You don't have to refer to it directly unless the questions explicitly asks you to do so. So the take-away message here is to not be ‘imprisoned' by the philosophical quotes at the start of the prompts.

Second, notice the command term “discuss”. This is usually replaced by words like “evaluate”, “analyse”, “examine”. Don't worry about it too much : it doesn't mean anything too important, because at the end of the day you still have to analyse, you still have to compare, and you still have to contrast.

The key of the prompt

The part after the command term is the most important part of the prompt:

"[…] how the sense of imprisonment shapes the meaning and the effect on the audience […]"

Here the “sense of imprisonment” — the key of the prompt — tells us exactly what we need to write about in the essay.

Can you find the key in this next prompt?

"Compare and contrast the effectiveness of the use of irony in two or more texts you have studied."

Notice the command term “compare and contrast” and the important part after it. The key of this prompt is “ the use of irony “.

Get comfy with morphing stuff

More often than not, our texts do not contain anything explicitly related to the prompt's key, say, the theme of “imprisonment”.

Pay attention to this next paragraph…

The secret to scoring a 7 in IB English Paper 2 is to get very comfortable with bending, morphing and twisting your texts and/or the prompt so that they are as compatible with each other as possible.

There are two ways that this can be achieved:

1. Morphing existing ideas in your own texts to fit the prompt

While Jane Sherwood's (some random character) nostalgia in your Incredible Text 1 may not directly relate to “imprisonment”, you could twist the character's nostalgia into the idea that emotions can trap or “imprison” an individual in a treasured memory or a past experience.

Nostalgia and imprisonment seem like unlikely brothers at first, but with a bit of justification they look almost like identical twins.

2. Redefining the prompt (reasonably)

The key of the prompt can often be vague . For example, there was a real IB exam prompt that asked whether “male characters were more interesting than female characters.” What does “interesting” even mean?

The IB Gods are inviting you to constrain the topic in a way that works for your texts specifically. You could write in the first sentence of your introduction:

"Interest, an important part of dramatic works, is often generated by emotional conflict and the subsequent creation of tension." "

Here I have restricted the broad topic of “interesting” to the more clearly-defined topic of “emotional conflict” because this redefinition works well for the texts I've studied for IB English Paper 2. You should do the same.

In reality, you have to morph both your texts and the prompt in order to reach a snug fit between the two. Getting to this point, which all happens during the planning stage, is the most difficult part of the Paper 2 process because it requires you to know your texts so well that you can apply the ideas in your texts to different situations.

How many texts to compare and contrast?

Before we continue with this introductory guide, we need to address the age-old question of how many texts should we compare and contrast in an IB English Paper 2 comparative essay?

In the old syllabus, you had the choice to compare and contrast up to three texts.

Luckily, in the new syllabus (First assessment 2021), you don't have to make a choice: the IB requires you to compare and contrast just two texts . One less decision for you to make!

However, you are still recommended to prepare three texts, so that you have 3 possible combinations of texts to answer your prompts (Texts 1 & 2, Texts 1 & 3 and Texts 2 & 3).

Now that we agree on how many texts to compare and contrast, let's see how we can make the texts work together.

Choosing the best points across your two texts

There's an easy way, and there's a hard way.

If you want a score of 5 or below , you can simply think of two points to answer the prompt for Text 1 and two other points to answer the prompt for Text 2. Then, slap them together into different paragraphs, regurgitate some shallow comparison and contrast, and call it a comparative essay. That doesn't sound very sophisticated, does it?

On the other hand, if you want a score of 6 or 7 , you'll need to use a lot more brainpower and insight. The points that you choose for your two texts are very important, in terms of how the points relate to each other and to the prompt. The points need to have enough overlaps that similarities can be analysed, but not too much similarity because you also want to contrast differences.

What ends up happening is you enter an algorithm — a set of steps, sort of like a recipe — where you repeatedly attempt to find good points for the prompt, gradually morphing them while re-defining the prompt itself, until you reach a good plan for your Paper 2 essay.

What does a good plan generally look like?

• Your re-defined prompt has not strayed far, or at all, from the original prompt.
• The points for Text 1 fit well with the prompt.
• The points for Text 2 fit well with the prompt as well as the points your chose for Text 1.

The million dollar question is: How do we get to this optimum stage where the prompts and the texts and married so harmoniously ? The answer is brainstorming.

In these Pro lessons from our study guide, we go into detail about the exact strategies for brainstorming for Paper 2 under exam conditions, choosing the right Paper 2 essay structure, and writing a strong Paper 2 thesis.

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How to best prepare for Paper 2

We've talked a lot about the skills and questions necessary to tackle an IB English Paper 2 prompt, but all of that happens during the exam itself. What can we do before Paper 2 to put ourselves in the best position?

• (Really) understanding your text
• Choosing great quotes for your Paper 2 (covered in a later lesson )
• Practice past Paper 2 exams

Let's go through Steps 1 and 3.

Understanding your text

IB English Paper 2 tests skills that require a deep understanding . First, to compare and contrast effectively, you need to know your texts well enough that you can find similarities and differences in the micro-details and in the macro themes, in the characters and in the techniques. Second, in order to adapt the ideas in your text to the prompt , you need to know how far you can stretch those ideas while maintaining their validity.

Without a deep understanding, you're dead in the water.

In our Paper 2 Preparation guide, we tell you exactly how to prepare your Paper 2 knowledge and notes, down to the specific questions you should be able to answer. The preparation is organized into Level 1 to Level 4 to give you a structured study roadmap for Paper 2. That way you don't get overwhelmed.

No sign up or credit card required.

Practising Past Paper 2s

The most challenging part of Paper 2 is bringing together three aspects:

• The quotes you've memorised
• Your analysis skills
• Your ability to adapt the quotes and ideas to a new prompt that you've never, ever encountered before

Grabbing that 7 in IB English Paper 2 requires that you are solid on all three fronts . You cannot just practice each of these aspects individually. Practising to plan and write Paper 2 responses ensures that you practise this core trifecta of skills together, all at once.

Practising past Paper 2s was the core of my IB English Paper 2 preparation schedule. It helped me to memorise quotes, learn which quotes are better than others, and learn certain pairs of themes, characters and techniques that work well in my texts for comparison and contrast.

By practising Paper 2s extensively, you increase your awareness of what works (and what doesn't) for your texts. Hence, the main thing you have to worry about on the day of your exam is the prompt itself--the only variable that you cannot control.

In the Paper 2 study guide, we have an exemplar IB English Paper 2 essay from a past exam: See the exemplar essay .

Question​bank

Paper 1 Practice Exams

Past Paper 1 Solutions

Paper 2 Guide

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