📖 English · AS 91472 · 3.1

Written text essay: respond critically to written texts

External 4 credits Literary techniques Excellence criteria Essay structure

The written-text external: a critical essay responding to a question about your studied text(s) (novel, drama or poetry). Same skill as the visual essay, technique, effect, and wider meaning, but with literary devices. Slot in your own text and quotations.

Reference sheet →

Practice

Recall it first, then use it — testing yourself builds the memory, where rereading the notes above only feels easier.

Recall and application shuffled together — you have to work out what each item wants before you can answer it, which is the part the exam actually tests. Both kinds feed the same spacing schedule, so anything you miss comes back sooner.

Say the answer out loud before flipping — that attempt is where the learning happens, even when you get it wrong.

Exam-style only. Instant feedback, shuffled each attempt, best score saved on this device.

What actually comes up

You choose your own studied text and one of EIGHT given statements to argue against — there is no fixed scenario, so nothing below is content to memorise about a specific book. What repeats, and is worth knowing in advance, is the SHAPE of the eight choices: every year mixes the same handful of categories (character, relationships, setting, structure, language, change/lessons, ideas/society, symbols), so a student who has one strong argument prepared per category can match almost any year's list.

Across 4 years

4 questions · 12 parts 4 Achieved 4 Merit 4 Excellence

The pattern — what to prepare

Topic	Appears in	Grade level	What to practise
A CHARACTER statement (behaviour, flaws, or challenging expectations/beliefs)	3/3 years	A–E	Prepare one strong argument about a flawed, challenged, or expectation-defying character in your text — this category has appeared every year.
A STRUCTURE or beginning/ending statement	2/3 years (2024 twice — start/end, and structure)	A–E	Know how your text's opening and ending relate, and what its structure (chronology, framing, withheld information) reveals.
A SETTING statement	3/3 years	A–E	Have one argument ready about how your text's setting shapes its ideas or mirrors the reader's own world.
A LANGUAGE / symbols statement	3/3 years	A–E	"Literary-technique reference" section — a well-chosen symbol or a specific language pattern, with the sentence patterns supplied there.
A CHANGE / lessons, or RELATIONSHIPS, or IDEAS-and-society statement	4/4 years, at least one of the three	A–E	Prepare a fallback argument about what changes across your text, or what it argues about society — these three categories fill the remaining slots most years.
An identical three-descriptor grade ladder, whatever the statement chosen	4/4 years, word for word	—	"What the grades require" — learn the ladder once; it does not change no matter which of the eight statements you pick.
A statement rewarding "unexpected" or distinctive language use	4/4 years	A–E	"Literary-technique reference" — have one specific, well-analysed language pattern ready, not just a generic list of devices.
The wider connection to human experience/society named explicitly in the Excellence descriptor	4/4 years	E	"Connecting to human experience, society, and the wider world" — specific and tightly tethered beats a vague, deletable gesture.

2022 Eight statements 3 parts

The 2022 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

The Task

Write an essay on at least one written text you have studied, in response to ONE of the eight statements. Discuss the extent to which you agree, responding critically by making a close analysis of the text(s).

1. In a worthwhile text, we gain hope from the quality of the relationships in it.
2. Recognisable settings in a text make us reconsider the world we live in.
3. Characters become convincing by the way they deal with complex decisions.
4. Readers discover new truths when language is used in unexpected ways.
5. The lives of unusual characters give us meaningful perspectives on our own reality.
6. The most significant ideas in a text are revealed in the detail.
7. A text that matters challenges us to examine our own lives.
8. A good text has one key moment that leads to significant learning.

achieved A structured essay, a relevant critical argument responding to the statement, showing engagement with the text, with details from the text included. Achieved
merit A convincing, coherent argument, evidence woven in to support the points, showing familiarity and engagement with the text. Merit
excellence A sophisticated, insightful or original argument, judiciously chosen evidence woven in to expand it, and the argument linked to other aspects of the text or to human experience, society, and the wider world. Excellence

2025 Eight statements 3 parts

The 2025 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

The Task

1. Characters who behave badly make us think deeply.
2. Changes that take place in a text teach us valuable lessons.
3. Relationships that are challenging lead us to important discoveries.
4. Interesting settings encourage us to re-examine our own environment.
5. Carefully crafted language provokes new understandings.
6. Writers develop important ideas in order to critique society.
7. The fate of heroes helps us understand the world.
8. Effective symbols communicate significant ideas.

achieved A structured essay, a relevant critical argument responding to the statement, showing engagement with the text, with details from the text included. Achieved
merit A convincing, coherent argument, evidence woven in to support the points, showing familiarity and engagement with the text. Merit
excellence A sophisticated, insightful or original argument, judiciously chosen evidence woven in to expand it, and the argument linked to other aspects of the text or to human experience, society, and the wider world. Excellence

2024 Eight statements 3 parts

The 2024 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

The Task

1. Worthwhile texts use language in unusual ways to deliver ideas.
2. The start of a significant text only makes complete sense at the end.
3. We gain important lessons from the way characters' lives intersect.
4. Effective texts use distinctive settings to portray challenging ideas.
5. A great text uses structure to reveal truths about humanity.
6. Characters who challenge our expectations are worth our time.
7. Powerful texts present ideas that help us to rethink our lives.
8. Well-chosen language leads to enjoyment for the reader.

achieved A structured essay, a relevant critical argument responding to the statement, showing engagement with the text, with details from the text included. Achieved
merit A convincing, coherent argument, evidence woven in to support the points, showing familiarity and engagement with the text. Merit
excellence A sophisticated, insightful or original argument, judiciously chosen evidence woven in to expand it, and the argument linked to other aspects of the text or to human experience, society, and the wider world. Excellence

2023 Eight statements 3 parts

The 2023 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

The Task

1. The strengths of a character are revealed in the way they deal with their own flaws.
2. Convincing settings help us to understand the key message of a text.
3. We see our world more clearly in a text that uses effective symbols.
4. The key relationships in a text take us on a hopeful journey.
5. Changes that take place between the start and end of a text help us to understand it.
6. Powerful lessons in a text can be found in unlikely places.
7. The skilful use of language in a text reveals ideas that enlighten the reader.
8. The characters who matter most in a text are those who challenge our beliefs.

achieved A structured essay, a relevant critical argument responding to the statement, showing engagement with the text, with details from the text included. Achieved
merit A convincing, coherent argument, evidence woven in to support the points, showing familiarity and engagement with the text. Merit
excellence A sophisticated, insightful or original argument, judiciously chosen evidence woven in to expand it, and the argument linked to other aspects of the text or to human experience, society, and the wider world. Excellence

The eight statements are never announced in advance and the exact wording changes every year, but the SET of categories they are drawn from is stable — walk in with one flexible, evidence-backed argument per category (character, setting, structure, language/symbol, change/relationships/society) rather than one argument prepared for a single guessed statement.

Past exams & resources

Past exams & marking schedules, AS 91472 (last 5 years)
Year	Exam paper	Marking schedule
2025	Exam paper	Marking schedule
2024	Exam paper	Marking schedule
2023	Exam paper	Marking schedule
2022	Exam paper	Marking schedule
2021	Exam paper	Marking schedule

⏱ Timed opens the paper and starts a countdown matching the exam length. Official NZQA PDFs. If a link 404s, that year’s paper may sit under a slightly different code: browse the NZQA subject page.

NZQA, English L3 (91472) exams & exemplars Past exam papers, assessment schedules & exemplars NZQA, English subject page Standards, specifications & clarifications