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IGCSE · Cambridge (CIE) · 0408

Choose drama coursework under the 2028–2030 rules

Use drama for both essays · Recognise that one or two plays are permitted · Distinguish required text quality from advised breadth

Cambridge IGCSE World Literature 0408 · 2028-C1-TEXTS
Exam scope and assessment notes

0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2028, 2029, 2030. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA teaching and practice, with fictional examples labelled. Other well-supported literary readings can be valid. Model answers are for self-checking and do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Full set-text reading and text-specific teaching, complete timed papers and qualified literature-teacher assessment remain unfinished. Coursework must be the candidate’s own work, assessed through the centre and moderated by Cambridge.

Before you begin

  • Confirm your exam year and centre-selected full texts. Coursework and both papers are compulsory; private candidates cannot enter 0408.

Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.

Quick readiness check

What should support a claim about a literary text?

What you will learn

  • Use drama for both essays
  • Recognise that one or two plays are permitted
  • Distinguish required text quality from advised breadth

Drama for both tasks

The revised portfolio has one critical essay and one empathic essay, both based on drama. A student may use the same complete play for both, or use different plays. The approximate length guidance is 1000 words for the critical essay and 800 for empathy. Do not carry the old prose-plus-drama requirement or old different-text prohibition into this cycle.

Centre-approved demand and breadth

Texts must be suitable in scope and demand and cannot be simplified or abridged. The syllabus advises choosing texts from different parts of the world from the Paper 3 list to broaden study; this advice is not the same as the old portfolio’s mandatory two-text cultural distinction. Coursework essays must demonstrate understanding of the complete play and be written electronically with the full title. The small fictional scenes here are insufficient as coursework source works.

Sources for this lesson

Pause and explain

In 2029, must the critical and empathic essays use different plays?

Put the idea to work

Worked example

For 2029, a student proposes the same approved complete play for a critical essay and an empathic essay. Does the old different-text rule forbid it?

Show the worked solution
  1. The revised syllabus allows the same or different drama texts.
  2. The distinct critical and empathic tasks still have to be appropriate and show whole-play understanding.

Answer It is permitted under the revised text rule, subject to centre approval and all remaining requirements.

Try a topic test

Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.

Test this topic →

From guided practice to a new situation

Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.

1 · Guided

A 2028 portfolio proposes a critical essay on a novel and empathy on a play. What needs changing?

Give me a hint

Both essays now use drama.

Compare my reasoning
  1. The novel is the wrong form for the critical task.
  2. Choose a suitable complete play, which may be the same play as the empathic task.

Replace the critical novel with an approved drama text.

Look for these in your work

  • Use the revised form
  • Allow the same-play option
2 · Independent

A 2030 learner studies one complete approved play for both essays. Is the number of plays itself a gap?

Give me a hint

The syllabus permits one or two.

Compare my reasoning
  1. One play is allowed for both tasks.
  2. The essays must still address different task types and the complete text appropriately.

No; one play can be sufficient under the stated text rule, with the other requirements still applying.

Look for these in your work

  • Do not invent a two-play minimum
  • Check the actual tasks
3 · Transfer

A class proposes a short scene from this site as the whole coursework text. Explain why it does not meet the preparation requirement.

Give me a hint

Compare a scene exercise with a complete demanding work.

Compare my reasoning
  1. The syllabus requires whole-drama understanding at suitable scope and demand.
  2. A short fictional exercise has too little material and is not a centre-approved substitute.

Use a suitable complete play; the site scene is only a practice exercise.

Look for these in your work

  • Respect full-work demand
  • Keep model practice separate

Common mistakes

  • Use drama, not a novel, for both tasks.
  • Treat advice and compulsory rules distinctly.
Recall without your notes

What can you explain now?

In 2029, must the critical and empathic essays use different plays?

Compare with the explanation

No; the revised syllabus permits the same or different drama texts.

The old different-text rule should not be imposed on the new cycle.

After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.

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Make it stick

In 2029, must the critical and empathic essays use different plays?

If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.

Keep learning World Literature

Course scope and assessment

238 original lessons provide 714 guided, independent and transfer tasks, plus 431 reading-tracker and long-response prompts. Twenty skill and route entries, three year-specific Cherry Orchard entries, two Anowa entries, three Crocodiles entries, one 2027 Little Foxes entry, two year-specific Volume 1 poetry entries, one historical 2025 Volume 2 poetry entry and three year-specific Volume 2 story entries link teaching. Anowa has ten lessons through the Prologue and all three phases, with thirty staged tasks and ten original developed responses. Complete primary reading locators support analysis of the contested community frame, partnership, enslavement, the children, remembered dream, separation and ending. The protected play is linked rather than reproduced; editorial BECE material is not reused. Both eligible 2025–2026 Anowa rows link the whole-play pathway. Twenty-eight lessons teach the Author’s Note and all six country chapters of In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, with eighty-four staged tasks and sixty original developed responses. Four workshops teach passage analysis, whole-book argument, layered voice and retrieval/revision. All three complete 2025–2027 book entries link the whole-book pathway; the existing supplemental route remains available without adding another counted requirement. The public reflowed reading is linked rather than reproduced, with edition limits explicit. Twenty-two Little Foxes lessons teach all three acts for 2027, with sixty-six staged tasks and forty-eight original developed responses. Hospitality, silenced voices, the mill, financial negotiation, the proposed marriage, Horace’s return and refusal, the bonds, Birdie’s disclosure, withheld help, the final bargain and Alexandra’s decision are taught through actual stage directions and dialogue locators. Four workshops develop passage analysis, whole-play argument, stagecraft and corrective retrieval. SET-2027-2 links the full sequence; the existing supplemental route remains available without inflating counted requirements. The protected acting script is linked rather than reproduced; exact centre-edition wording and revisions must be checked. The Cherry Orchard has an 18-lesson whole-text sequence with five actual Julius West excerpts and three argument models. The 2026–2027 poetry option has teaching for all fourteen members, three complete public-domain poems and close-reading, comparison and retrieval workshops. Twenty-four lessons teach all ten 2026–2028 Stories of Ourselves Volume 2 members, with named reading and writing sequences and evidence, passage-context, essay and ten-member retrieval workshops. Two complete public-domain narratives, nineteen actual prose extracts and Katie’s complete twenty-line poem within Besant’s prose story support close reading and whole-story writing. The Shrinking Shoe follows the original 1895 prose and its five sections; the embedded poem is not a Paper 2 set poem. All three eligible ten-story selection rows link the complete pathway. Wodehouse and Woolf use brief quotations and original commentary with complete reading sources; their full texts are not reproduced here. Twelve lessons teach twelve compulsory 2028–2030 Volume 3 poems, with thirty-six staged tasks and twenty-four developed-response prompts. The Dutt and Kingsley excerpts and Cissoko’s exact translation still need verified reading and teaching; full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so all three complete poetry rows remain unlinked. Fourteen lessons teach seven 2029–2030 Volume 3 stories with thirty-five developed-response prompts. Twelve actual older primary excerpts support four stories; Achebe, Desai and Danticat use original commentary with complete primary reading links rather than reproducing their protected texts. A separate partial-member pathway supports The Necklace, The Model Millionaire, Sultana’s Dream, The Interlopers, The Sacrificial Egg, Sale and New York Day Women without linking either complete ten-story row. The three other members and full-selection workshops remain unfinished. Read the full centre-selected works and protected anthology; check edition differences, including Weissenhorn’s older Necklace translation. The historical 2025 poetry pathway teaches all fourteen members through eighteen lessons, fifty-four staged tasks and fifty-one developed-response models. Three complete public-domain poems remain printed with line breaks; eleven protected poems use complete primary reading links and original commentary. Four workshops teach close analysis, whole-poem argument, preparation comparisons and specific retrieval of all fourteen members. The complete SET-2025-5 option links this sequence; the historical supplemental route remains without increasing counted requirements. Archival Cambridge and WJEC papers supply primary poems, not reused questions or later-year assessment rules. Centre-edition differences remain explicit. Forty-six lessons provide original teaching and practice for nine historical 2025 story members: The Doll’s House, The Gold Watch, A Visit, A Walk to the Jetty, In the Mountains, Mrs. Sen’s, Promenade, The Plantation and The Paper Menagerie. Together they provide one hundred and thirty-eight staged tasks and one hundred and one developed-response models. A Visit uses complete primary reading visually checked across printed pages 306–310. Promenade follows the complete seven-page narrative on printed pages 416–422; its four lessons trace bodily control, wordless meetings, the interrupted circuit and changed final walk. Mrs. Sen’s has six lessons through the complete story, with eighteen staged tasks and thirteen developed-response models. Teaching follows the collection scan from its unnumbered opening through printed p.135, with food, letters, recordings, separate journeys and the changed final care arrangement. The Plantation has five lessons, fifteen staged tasks and eleven developed-response models through all four numbered sections, visually checked against printed pages 423–429 through the final dawn bird-call. In the Mountains has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the final invitation to eat. The complete publisher transcription supports scene-based reading; automated-text errors and subscription access remain explicit, and original printed pages were not visually verified. A Walk to the Jetty has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the complete six-page retype’s final berth. Reader annotations and the appended question are separate; the complete publisher version has wording differences, so exact quotations require the approved edition. The centre edition remains required for exact quotations. The protected stories are linked, not reproduced. The partial member pathway is supplemental; Words and full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so SET-2025-6 stays unlinked. Fifteen year-specific prescribed-work entries remain unfinished; complete centre-selected coursework reading also needs substantive text-specific teaching. The 51-entry map is a StudyForA preparation map, not official numbered syllabus sections or a percentage of student mastery. Written practice is self-checked and is not officially marked. Full timed papers and qualified literature-teacher assessment remain unfinished. Fictional exercises are labelled separately from actual excerpts; alternative well-supported readings can be valid. Centre-authenticated coursework and Cambridge moderation are separate from self-check practice.

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