Improving your grades

in GCSE 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 don’t make mistakes• My script was probably marked wrongly• It’s impossible to get an ‘A’• Revising doesn’t 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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Rule 1

Revise and understand your work.

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People are disappointed because

• They don’t appear to know the work

• They haven’t prepared fully

• They don’t write enough

• They don’t 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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Rule 2

Look at the specification

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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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Rule 3

Listen to your teacher; view her as a friend.

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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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Don’t try this trick!

‘Don’t know. Had c**p teacher.’

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Rule 4

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

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Activity

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

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Don’t 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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Activity

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

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Rule 5

Look at past papers, mock papers, markschemes.

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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 6

Write good English and use sociological language.

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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 doesn’t make them happy at all.• In addition, there are mark bands

that take spelling into account.

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Rule 7

Plan your time in the examination.

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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 8

Answer the question.

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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

Irrelevant answers

Twisting the question Going off on

a tangent

Ignoring the instructions Misreading

the question

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The Golden Rules

1. Revise and understand the work2. Look at the specification3. Listen to your teacher; view her as a friend.4. Calm down, take exercise, avoid caffeine and

control your negative emotions. 5. Look at past papers, mock papers,

markschemes.6. Write good English and use sociological

language7. Plan your time in the examination.8. Answer the question