HKDSE English Paper 1 Drill Guide: Choosing Between Part A, B1 and B2

Choose the route before the clock starts

Paper 1 pairs a compulsory Part A with a choice between B1 and B2, all inside a fixed clock, so the first decision is the route, not the passage. B1 is easier with a lower ceiling; B2 is harder with a higher one, and the choice should follow your last three papers rather than the mood of the day. Short answers need wording lifted from the text; long answers need two steps, the evidence and why it supports your claim. Keep Part A under forty minutes, protect time for the Part B long answer, and reserve the last five for blanks.

About 120 minutes: 40-45 for Part A and 70-75 for Part B. Part A answers usually require inference across sentences, so copying one sentence tends to earn half marks; Part B rewards using the data, so every point must cite a figure or fact from the materials.

Subject-specific weighting for this timetable: Weeks 1-3: Part A only in thirty-five minutes, logging just two things per error, whether the answer could not be located or was located and written too vaguely. Weeks 4-6: three papers each on B1 and B2, the same passage tried both ways, then a written note on which route pays better per minute. Weeks 7-9: timed papers with the forty-minute boundary enforced, every long answer written as evidence then reasoning. Weeks 10-12: unseen years, the last five minutes spent on blanks and spelling rather than rewriting finished answers.

Three columns: the item and its type (locating information, inference, vocabulary, long answer); whether the loss was mislocation, vagueness, a misquoted line, or the clock; the repair, naming the paragraph to re-pair or the vague sentence to rebuild as evidence plus reasoning. Three losses of one kind takes the next week.

The item types and the A/B route structure have been stable for years, so five to eight years covers short answers, inference and long answers; passages change yearly, so older papers are practice for technique and timing, with requirements checked against the current paper description.

Is this page a mock paper or a drilling guide?
This is the HKDSE English Language Paper 1 Reading drilling guide: assessment structure, drill order, a 12-week timetable, pacing, common mark losses and the error-log method. For questions with answers, use the HKDSE English Language Paper 1 Reading mock papers linked under Related.

By topic or by year first?
By topic. Eight to ten years of the same topic back to back is what exposes repeating errors; going straight to whole papers just repeats the same batch under time pressure.

How should the error log be written?
Do not copy out questions. Per error record four things: question reference, which step failed (concept, wording, calculation), what the mark scheme requires, and the correct action next time.

How should B1 and B2 be chosen?
With data, not mood. Convert your last three full papers into percentages and take the higher route; if they are close, take B2, whose ceiling leaves more room to improve.

How long should a long answer be?
Long enough to answer: usually three or four sentences with a position, the evidence, and how the evidence supports it, plus a concession if needed. Length without focus loses more than a tight answer.

Related: practice area · Paper 3 drilling guide · Chinese Paper 1 mock