Ten-story pathway · read the full selection and build an evidence record
Use the correct 2026, 2027 or 2028 selection · Record voice, development and ending for every story · Separate preparation resources from assessed performance
Exam scope and assessment notes
0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2026, 2027, 2028. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA teaching and practice for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Stories of Ourselves Volume 2 Paper 3 option. Read all ten prescribed stories in your centre-selected anthology. Teaching is available for all ten stories: twenty named reading and writing lessons plus four full-selection workshops. Complete reading and independently supported writing are still required. The protected anthology is not reproduced in full. Public-domain texts and selected extracts are primary transcriptions; Wodehouse and Woolf use brief quotations and original commentary with linked complete reading sources. These are not Cambridge examination passages; punctuation and spelling may differ from the anthology. Models do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Other supported interpretations can be valid. Qualified teacher assessment and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. This is not the different 2025 Volume 2 selection or the 2029–2030 Volume 3 selection. Listed stories are not eligible for 2026–2027 coursework, and the revised 2028 coursework requires drama.
Before you begin
- Confirm your exam year is 2026, 2027 or 2028 and your centre selected this ten-story option. Read the complete story before the analysis and writing lesson. All ten members need preparation; 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 the correct 2026, 2027 or 2028 selection
- Record voice, development and ending for every story
- Separate preparation resources from assessed performance
Start an evidence record
- Read the complete story before analysing. Use the linked primary source for any portions not printed here.
- Write your response before opening the model. Explain the effect of your textual evidence.
- Check references and quotations against the complete story in your centre’s anthology.
Original self-check practice, not Cambridge examination passages, marked examination scripts or coursework submissions. Models illustrate an argument; they are not the only valid interpretation. Read all ten selected stories. Teacher judgement and full timed assessment remain unfinished.
A record beyond plot
Choose one story after reading it completely; fill in the actual locations from your edition.
1. Create an evidence record linking a beginning, a turning point and an ending to a possible argument. Include one limit or complication.
Compare after trying
For the Wodehouse story a record could connect Bertie’s claims to perception with the visit’s misunderstanding, the reunion at lunch and Jeeves’s later admission. It should identify the location of each, explain the gap between formal rank and practical knowledge, and retain the sequence of disclosure.
A complication is that the engagement does not demonstrate a future happy marriage: that is Jeeves’s expectation. A finished record adds verified wording or precise references from the learner’s own edition; this example shows a structure, not a completed reading certificate.
Why this response fits
- Check events and the order of information against the whole work.
- A useful record explains effects and boundaries rather than merely naming three scenes.
Choose an option, then prepare every member
This ten-story Volume 2 option is the same in 2026, 2027 and 2028. The surrounding assessment changes in 2028, but its membership does not. A student choosing a different eligible Paper 3 work does not have to study this anthology too. Once this option is chosen, all ten prescribed stories require reading and preparation. The 2025 Volume 2 option and the 2029–2030 Volume 3 option have different members; a shared volume name or subject label is not sufficient to identify the right selection.
Build a record that can be checked
For every member identify narrator or framing voice, central situation, a turning point, the ending and at least two precise references. Beside each reference explain a method and its effect on a possible question. Include a complication: an accusation that is not proved, a character’s limited interpretation or a future only predicted. Record location by chapter, section or distinctive scene, and verify wording against the centre’s anthology. A title tick or remembered plot is not yet a supported argument.
Read before relying on a model
The pathway provides twenty named reading and writing lessons and four workshops. Its actual public texts and extracts, brief quotations and original commentary support study; they do not reproduce the entire protected anthology or replace the complete readings. Try each response before revealing a model, then return to the story to test it. A different interpretation can be strong if it accounts for relevant detail and contrary evidence. Self-checking supports revision; it does not award marks, certify mastery or replace a teacher’s assessment.
Sources for this lesson
- Cambridge World Literature 0408 · 2025–2027 · Version 2
- Cambridge 0408 · revised 2025–2027 component weightings
- Cambridge World Literature 0408 · 2028–2030 · Version 1
- Walter Scott · Death of the Laird’s Jock · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Charles Dickens · George Silverman’s Explanation · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Oscar Wilde · The Nightingale and the Rose · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Arthur Conan Doyle · The Copper Beeches · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Margaret Oliphant · A Story of a Wedding Tour · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Walter Besant · The Shrinking Shoe · original prose, In Deacon’s Orders (1895), Internet Archive scan
- Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) · Gabriel-Ernest · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- M R James · A Warning to the Curious · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- P G Wodehouse · Indian Summer of an Uncle · complete primary reading source, American Literature
- Virginia Woolf · Lappin and Lapinova · complete primary reading source, A Haunted House, Project Gutenberg Australia
Pause and explain
Does choosing this story option permit preparation of only a favourite three members?
Worked example
What does a record for the Wodehouse story need beyond “Jeeves arranges lunch”?
Show the worked solution
- Locate the reunion and the later disclosure separately.
- Record who knows Maudie’s identity at each point.
- Explain how delayed knowledge changes the apparent purpose of the meeting.
Answer An evidence record preserves sequence, perspective and the reason a detail matters, rather than compressing them into plot.
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.
A learner read seven of the ten selected stories. What remains?
Give me a hint
Count reading, then distinguish it from understanding.
Compare my reasoning
- Ten minus seven leaves three unread stories.
- The seven read still need evidence-led study and writing.
Read the remaining three and practise across all ten; do not convert reading count into a mastery percentage.
Look for these in your work
- Count correctly
- Separate reading and mastery
Improve “The Woolf story is about rabbits”.
Give me a hint
Record identity, change and the ending.
Compare my reasoning
- Distinguish the rabbit king from the white hare.
- Trace shared play, protective use and final withdrawal.
Record how the private identities sustain intimacy and how the later failure of shared participation closes it.
Look for these in your work
- Retain the distinct identities
- Explain development
A 2029 plan imports these ten titles because it also says Stories of Ourselves. What must change?
Give me a hint
Check the year and volume, not just anthology series.
Compare my reasoning
- The 2029 option uses Volume 3 and another ten-story list.
- Keep this pathway restricted to 2026–2028.
Replace the stale membership with the official 2029 selection and prepare its actual members.
Look for these in your work
- Use the correct edition
- Use the correct year
Common mistakes
- Keep 2025 and 2029–2030 selections separate.
- A complete site pathway does not prove complete student reading.
What can you explain now?
Does choosing this story option permit preparation of only a favourite three members?
Compare with the explanation
No; prepare all ten prescribed stories in the option.
Choice operates between eligible options, not by deleting members from the chosen anthology.
After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.
Your review choice appears on Today. Sign in to sync it across devices.
Make it stick
Does choosing this story option permit preparation of only a favourite three members?
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.