The short version: This is the whole unit under exam conditions, twice: two unseen texts, two separate guided analyses, 2 hours 15 minutes.
How the time splits
Choose the order
About 5 minutes to read both texts and choose the order.
Each text
About 65 minutes per text: annotate, thesis, three evaluated linked paragraphs, conclusion.
5 minutes to choose, then about 65 per text
You've learned every move; timed practice is where they become automatic — and, at HL, where you learn to do it twice in a row.
Set a real 2h15 for two texts. Read both once and pick your order, then give each text the split you practised (≈15 plan / 45 write / 5 check). Work each guiding question into its own thesis, cluster your annotations, evaluate as you go, link every paragraph back, and — above all — finish both. The second analysis is where tired students slip, so practise it under the same clock.
The exam-day routine (HL)
Choose (~5 min)
Read both texts and guiding questions once; start with the one you see a thesis for fastest.
Text 1 (~65 min)
Annotate & plan (~15), write an intro and three evaluated, linked paragraphs (~45), conclude & check (~5).
Switch (~1h10)
Close Text 1 with its conclusion and move on, even if you could say more.
Text 2 (~65 min)
The same routine on a fresh page: its own thesis, its own paragraphs, its own conclusion. If it is the harder text, it still gets its full time.
The key move: Run the whole two-text routine to time: choose → Text 1 (15 / 45 / 5) → switch → Text 2 (15 / 45 / 5). Practise it until the shape is automatic, and always finish both.
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Why it matters in the exam: Timed practice is the single best preparation for the real unseen texts.
What timed practice does
- It trains pacing
- It forces a complete structure
- It turns the method into a habit you can rely on when the real unseen texts appear
- Every criterion (A–D) is rehearsed — twice, once per analysis
Text 1 of a timed HL session — a worked plan for this unseen opening (guiding question: How does the writer present the sea?): “The sea does not rage. That is a thing we say to make ourselves feel chosen, as if it noticed us enough to be angry. It simply arrives, and rearranges, and leaves, indifferent as arithmetic, and we build our little towns at its edge and act surprised.”
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Then Text 2: At about 1h10 you close the sea analysis with its conclusion and turn the page. Text 2 — say, a charity advert with the guiding question How does the writer persuade the reader to donate? — gets its own ~15-minute plan from scratch.
Text 2's fresh plan
- A new thesis (e.g. the advert turns a distant crisis into a personal debt the reader can repay)
- New clusters
- Three new paragraphs
- Don't compare it with the sea text: each analysis is marked on its own
Watch out: Under time pressure, the temptation is to start writing immediately — or to rush Text 2's plan because Text 1 ran long. Don't. Each text gets its own ~15-minute plan, and it's the first thing panic tries to skip.