Improving your grades

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Improving your grades in AS and A2 Sociology
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Common myths

• The exams will be harder this year
• The grade boundaries will be higher
• Examiners have to fail so many
• Examiners often make mistakes
• Examiners dont make mistakes
• My script was probably marked wrongly
• Its impossible to get an A
• Revising doesnt work for me
• I work better if I leave it to the last minute.

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No-one wants you to fail

• Markers are teachers and examiners
• Many are parents
• They went through this process themselves
• They want the examination to be fair to everyone
  equally
• They do their best to help you through the system
• The rules are there for everyone

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People are disappointed because

• They dont appear to know the work
• They havent prepared fully
• They dont write enough
• They dont understand the examination process
  itself
• They have poor exam technique
• They organise their time badly in the examination

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What do examiners want?

• Evidence of basic knowledge about the course
  content
• Evidence of understanding of the questions
• Well-planned answers that are relevant to the
  question
• Good English and clear writing

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Activity

• What are the assessment objectives that you are
  working towards?

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Focus on AO1

• You need to be able to
• Refer to studies and research
• Refer to knowledge about British society
• Refer to theory

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Focus on AO2

• You need to be able to
• Answer the question directly
• Use evidence to support your points
• Make clear judgements on the value of your
  evidence.

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(No Transcript)
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Rule 1

• Revise and understand your work.

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Examiners follow a set of rules

• All questions go through a rigorous checking
  process
• All questions relate directly to the
  specification
• All markers apply the same mark scheme.
• The markscheme uses assessment objectives that
  are in the specification

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This document is in the specification. Band 4
will be grade A and B answers. You will need to
be at the very top of Band 1 or the bottom of
Band 2 to get into the grade boundaries
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Rule 2

• Look at the specification

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Examinations are

• Set by practicing teachers
• Checked by teachers
• Marked by teachers
• In addition teachers are, by their nature, people
  who are very good at passing examinations.

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Dont try this trick!

• Dont know.
• Had cp teacher.

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Rule 3

• Listen to your teacher view her as a friend.

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Activity

• Write down the first five words you think of when
  you think of examinations.

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Dont panic

• Lots of students are totally panicked by
  examinations.
• This is normal everyone gets spooked.
• Examiners will take this into account.
• All marking is positive you will not have marks
  deducted for errors
• The more you know about the examination, the less
  scary it is

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Rule 4

• Calm down, take exercise, avoid caffeine and
  control your negative emotions.

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Activity

• Think of as many possible examination questions
  as you can on the topic of ethnic inequality.

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Questions

• There are only so many questions that can be
  asked.
• Examiners repeat themselves
• Most questions that require evaluation will focus
  on
• How?
• Why?
• Whether?

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Rule 5

• Look at past papers, mock papers, markschemes.

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Read this
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Handwriting

• Bad handwriting is rude to the examiner.
• The examiner is under instructions to read every
  word and to translate if necessary.
• This doesnt make them happy at all.
• In addition, there are mark bands that take
  spelling into account.

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The quality of written communication is very good
with few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation
or grammar
The quality of written communication will be
limited, with frequent errors of punctuation,
spelling and grammar
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Rule 6

• Write good English and use sociological language.

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Time planning

• Each question is allocated a number of marks
• The examination is for a limited time.
• Many candidates write for a very long time on c)
  questions and leave d) questions done very badly.
• This leads to scrappy work and errors.

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Examples

• Of course, Marxism is bad for society.
• Family diversity is caused by having too many
  families.

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Rule 7

• Plan your time in the examination.

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Command words

• Explain develop a description, show detail,
  talk about how and why, give reasons or examples
• Identify pick out the main points
• Outline and explain pick out the most important
  points and then talk about reasons or examples
• Discuss talk about all sides of an argument.

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Instructions

• Using the extract above refer to the stimulus
  item in some way
• Using relevant examples mention studies or facts

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How to upset the marker
Ignoring the instructions
Misreading the question
Irrelevant answers
Twisting the question
Going off on a tangent
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Rule 8

• Answer the question.

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The Golden Rules

• Revise and understand the work
• Look at the specification
• Listen to your teacher view her as a friend.
• Calm down, take exercise, avoid caffeine and
  control your negative emotions.
• Look at past papers, mock papers, markschemes.
• Write good English and use sociological language
• Plan your time in the examination.
• Answer the question