Apparently this is what I've gathered from the goss I've heard from Lit examiners:
There will NO longer be two passage analyses for the exam. Instead, you have two sections, which are as follows:
TASK A – Literary perspectives: Assessment will be based on a written response to a statement related to one selected text.
TASK B – Close Analysis: Assessment will be based on a written response to passages from one selected text.
The exam will still be two hours with 15 minutes reading time. In the course, you will do for U3 two sacs Adaptations and Transformations and a creative, whereas in U4 there will be three sacs: one on literary perspectives worth 50 marks, and the other two on close passage analysis (two texts), weighing at 25 marks each.
I'm actually thankful that they've done this, because I've always enjoyed the literary perspectives part of the curriculum -- but I would've liked it a little more if it was an article of a critic's point of view (but then again, that would be torture for some). The only minus I can think of with this arrangement is that it might limit students' choice of texts for the EOY, as the texts you do for U4 pretty much determine what you'll be doing for the exam. What's your opinion on this?