What AQA is
AQA — the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance — is England's largest GCSE awarding body and a registered educational charity. They write the syllabus, set the papers, mark them, and award grades for around 60 GCSE specifications and roughly 50 A-level specifications. They're regulated by Ofqual.
Subjects AQA dominates
AQA holds the largest entry share for several core subjects:
- GCSE English Language and Literature — AQA's flagship pair. The Literature paper covers a Shakespeare text, a 19th-century novel, modern prose/drama, and an unseen poetry comparison. Set-text choices vary year to year (Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls, Animal Farm are common pairings).
- GCSE History — broad spec covering medieval, early modern, modern British and international history. AQA's source-based questions reward students who can analyse historical evidence in depth.
- GCSE Religious Studies — AQA owns a dominant share. Their A-spec covers two religions in depth.
- GCSE Sociology and Psychology — most state-school sociology and psychology courses use AQA.
- GCSE Sciences (Combined / Triple) — AQA is the largest provider for both Combined Science and the separate Biology / Chemistry / Physics GCSEs.
At A-level, AQA leads in History, Sociology, Psychology, English Literature, Geography, and Business. Maths and Sciences at A-level have a more even split between AQA, Edexcel, and OCR.
AQA paper format conventions
A few conventions that recur across AQA papers:
- Extended-response weighting — AQA papers tend to weight extended- answer (essay) questions heavily. English Literature has 6+ mark essay questions worth 30+ marks; History has source-evaluation and explanation questions worth 16+ marks each.
- Source-based questioning — particularly in History, Religious Studies, and Sociology. Students need to engage with provided text/image sources and weave analysis through their answers.
- AOs (Assessment Objectives) labelled — AQA mark schemes are transparent about which AO is being tested by each question. Tutors familiar with the board coach explicitly to AO targeting.
Past papers and resources
Everything is on aqa.org.uk:
- Past papers (typically 5+ years available per current spec)
- Mark schemes for each paper
- Examiner reports — the post-exam analysis of how students performed
- Full specifications for each subject
- Sample assessment materials when specs change
Examiner reports are particularly underused by parents. They're a clear summary of where most students lose marks and exactly what high-mark answers look like — useful both for revision strategy and for tutors structuring their coaching.
Choosing an AQA-specialist tutor
Things to ask when messaging a tutor about AQA:
- Which AQA spec code have they taught most recently? (e.g. 8300 GCSE Maths, 8700 GCSE English Language, 7042 A-level History.)
- For text-based subjects (English Literature, History): which set texts have they covered?
- How do they coach AO-targeted writing for AQA mark schemes?
- Do they use AQA examiner reports as a coaching tool?