Paper 2 · Section A · Topic Knowledge

Do you actually know the topics?

Directed Writing is only hard if you have nothing to say. The task nearly always lands on one of ten big theme areas — and students who understand the debate behind a theme write far better answers than students who only learn exam technique.

This is not an exam-technique quiz. Every question checks whether you genuinely understand a theme: its key terms, the arguments on both sides, and how to spot a weak claim. Ten of the thirty questions cover angles that have never appeared in a past paper — predictions you should be ready for.

30Quick questions
3 per theme10 themes
10New-angle questions
≈4 minTo finish

The ten theme areas you'll be checked on

🎯 Standard — a core idea in the theme 🔮 New angle — predicted, not yet used in a paper

Answer with the mouse or the 1–4 keys, then press Enter for the next question. Don't overthink it — if you're unsure, that itself tells you which theme to read up on.