Edexcel AS Modules January 2008 Exam Technique
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Edexcel AS modules: January 2008
Some last minute hints and tips with the AS Politics January modules just days away.
Prior planning and preparation
By this stage you should hopefully have all of your notes in your file organised into some sort of clear order parallel to what’s in the syllabus.
Careful reading of past papers is extremely important since there are unlikely to be any surprises in the exam, i.e. the question topics and format will be almost the same as what has been set previously.
Looking through your notes make sure that you could confidently answer as many questions as possible if the exam was ‘open book’. If you can’t do this then you have to fill in any gaps since it is unlikely that you will be able to pluck an answer out of thin air in the exam hall.
One of the key things you should bear in mind when checking the contents of your file with the past questions is that Edexcel is an examples based course, so wherever possible provide an example to back up your points. Indeed try to give more than one if you can since the quality and depth of examples are what examiners use to differentiate between good and very good answers. On a related note, a little bit of exposition/detail with your example can add marks. For instance, rather than just stating an example of a pressure group you should try to explain what they campaign for and any recent activity.
Once you are reasonably satisfied that you have your notes in order you may want to go through any essays you have done throughout the year and see if there are any patterns in where you have gone wrong; do you have a habit of answering one side of the question, or do you have time management issues? If so, try to keep these in mind when setting about the task that will essentially determine what grade you get: practising answers under timed conditions.
There really is no secret to exam success. Doing lots of past papers is the best thing you can do to help yourself. The concepts and ideas in Politics at AS level are probably not the most challenging you have encountered. But what is a challenge is committing the breadth and depth of material to memory. Occasionally I get requests to provide private tuition or am asked by parents if I think that their son or daughter would benefit from a tutor. I know it is slightly different in the case of Maths and Sciences, but I think a far better answer is for students to do extra exam practise and get their teachers to mark the papers.
How much time you devote to each AS paper will depend on your individual workload. Some students will have as many as a dozen modules this month (including retakes) whilst some may only have one. But if you can find the time then aiming to have 4 or 5 attempts at a full question paper is a reasonable target.
Try also to get your answers to a similar standard. Often candidates will provide a very good answer on one topic (usually pressure groups in Unit 1 and Prime Minister/Cabinet in Unit 2) but be much weaker on their second question.
Answer technique
Each sub-question in the AS papers places different demands on candidates. For part (a) - which is essentially a test of the breadth of your subject knowledge - you should make two short points with examples. Try not to spend too long on this part since it only carries 10% of the overall mark allocation.
Part (b) questions in units 1 and 2 often specify 3 points, so answers are differentiated by the quality and range of examples. Looking at pressure groups again (always the most popular topic on Unit 1) if you were asked about typology and therefore discussed insider/outsider groups then you could develop your points by seeking to explain why some groups are insiders and some outsiders. If the question doesn’t specify 3 then I find that going for range rather than depth is successful.
For part (c) in units 1 and 2 be conscious of the need to tackle both sides of the question – answers do not have to be perfectly balanced in terms of the number of arguments, but do have to show an attempt, e.g. 5 for and 2 against is equally as acceptable as 4 for and 3 against
Time management
Note that 60% of the total marks in units 1 and 2 are carried by the last question. For this reason you should obviously devote more time to this part than (a) and (b).
As I alluded to above it is tempting to spend too long on part (a) - especially since the exam booklet provides a full page for the answer. But with only 5 marks up for grabs, keep in mind that if you haven’t said what you want in a few lines then a full page of writing is unlikely to add much.
If you approach the questions in the order set, timing is 3 minutes, 9 minutes, and 18 minutes.
So this equates to 12 minutes and 42 minutes after the exam starts.
If you want to try and play it safe and tackle the big questions first then adjust accordingly.
Similarly on Unit 3 you may want to tackle (c) and (d) first. A normal time guide (allowing 5 minutes reading time) goes: 5, 10, 17, 23. But (a) and (b) are difficult to do well on so you may want to try and make sure that you don’t spend too long on them by doing the big questions first. If you do this then there is a 45 minute rule: 5 minutes reading, then attempts at (c) and (d) leave you 15 minutes for (a) and (b).
Note also that for part (a) in Unit 3 you must add something to the extract in the form of an explanation, or examples.
For part (b) it is half marks for use of the extract and half marks for own knowledge, i.e. 2 points from the source and attempting to bring 2 of your own related points
This is an edited version of the exam hints and tips contained in tutor2u’s bestselling AS Edexcel revision guide:
http://www.tutor2u.net/acatalog/Edexcel_AS_Politics_ExamBuster.html
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