Paper 1 requires certain skills. Not only must you understand the text(s), but also you have to express your ideas in a well-structured guided textual analysis. Like any skill, writing a guided textual analysis can be perfected with time and practice. Although the exam is 75 minutes at SL and 2 hours and 15 minutes at HL, there will have been hours of preparation beforehand to refine these skills. 

We recommend you look at the pages in this section for activities that develop Paper 1 skills. You will find pages on how to to comment on tone and how to write about the denotation and connotation of words and images to name a few.   

Furthermore, if you are looking for a quick overview on how to approach Paper 1, you may want to check out our page on Paper 1 tips. It also helps to look at sample responses from previous exams, using the assessment criteria.