Summary-Of-2026-Exam-Changes-aqa

AQA have just announced some small but important changes to their GCSE English Language exams from 2026 onwards. These changes only apply to students sitting their exams the summer of 2026 and beyond, so if you are sitting your exams in May/June 2025, or resitting in November 2025, these changes do not apply to you.

Why have AQA made these changes?

AQA have made these changes to improve the clarity of the exam questions and the mark schemes. They have not changed the overall structure of the papers: there are still the same number of marks and the same assessment objectives allocated to each question. Except for Paper 1 Question 1, there is no change to how students are expected to answer the questions. The updates to the mark schemes are designed to help teachers and examiners better understand what earns marks in each question.

When will the changes take place?

Further information

To see what these changes look like, please go to:

• 2026 Changes: Paper 1

• 2026 Changes: Paper 2

We will be updating all of our AQA GCSE English Language revision resources later this year to reflect these changes.

Also watch out for Smartmark, our AI marking tool, coming soon for AQA GCSE English Language!