OCR GCSE Sociology Unit 3 (Pre-release paper) 2016 (B763)

Have you had a class mock on it based on what your teacher thinks it will be on?

For the essay, you basically just have to talk about (say the question was ethics) "the ethics of the investigation 2 were pretty dire, here's why" and then afterwards talk about how you'd improve it! I'll be more helpful in the morning but for now hope this helps!

No we didnt do a mock.

I did a practice paper on unit 1 i got 50/60 (marked by my teacher)
I lost 2 marks on the first 12 marker about research methods.
And 6 marks on the other marker.
(and another 2 marks on one of the other questions)

Could you give any tips for improvement please? and could the neatness of my hand writing effect the marks i get in the essay? because i included a lot of info on the research method 12 marker and still got 10/12,

and how do i answer the 12 marker in the pre release?
And how do you get the full 2 marks on the definintion questions in the pre release exam (E.g. what is quantitative data - are you supposed to give an
example with it?

sorry for the list of question, and thank you so much for the help!!!

Hi, don't worry about the huge list of questions, I'll do my best!

The maximum mark I've ever got on a unit 1 essay is 10/11 out of 12, so I have the same kind of level as you! The examiner doesn't care about handwriting, as long as it is readable, you should be fine. SPAG marks don't come from handwriting, only from just that, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

It's hard to get good marks on the basics paper essay, but just remember that you HAVE to bring in 3 agents of socialisation to get full marks. Say the question was "Education is the most effective agent of socialisation", you'd have to talk about why it was, and then, say, why the Family and the Media are better.

In the prerelease essay, you'll get a question that is specific to the prerelease, so practising is hard. If it asks you to talk about both investigations, ALTERNATE THE PARAGRAPHS, talk about investigation 1 for one paragraph, then investigation 2, then 1 again, because if you only mention one and it asks for both you are capped at half marks, no matter how good you are.

You literally just have to do what it asks you. For example, if the question was "Talk about the ethics in investigations 1 and 2" you would need to say why Investigation 2 was god awful, then compare it to investigation 1 saying why it is much better. Just remember, it will give you bullet points to talk about to help you! Aim for 6 points, but do as many as you can in the time!

As for short answer unit 3 questions, 1 mark questions require just a name, and 2 marks requires a name and an explanation or an example, or even better both!

You'll probably be asked to come up with a hypothesis or conclusion for one of the pieces, wherever there wasn't one!

I hope this helps! I'm sure Monday will go great! Good luck!

Thank you soo much!!!!!
My teacher said that the essays (12 markers) tends to be marked subjectively which is the reason why it was marked low. He said that the flow of the writing affects the mark you get...

I think i lost a lot of marks because i only mentioned less than 2 agents :P .

Basically, have a look at some past papers: http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse-sociology-j696-from-2012/ it will give you an idea of the structure..

You will have some short answer questions which, often, you will have to quote directly from the prerelease, so you need to know your way around the prerelease quite well. There are three sections, Section A is on investigation 1 and section B is on Investigation 2. You will almost 100% be asked for advantages and disadvantages of Questionnaires and Covert Non-participant observation, because that is what is used. You'll also be asked to define some key terms related to research methods.

You'll probably be asked some "identify and explain" questions related to the key bits of the investigations too.

Hope this helps!

Thank you
Also what are the main problems in investigation 1 and in investigation 2 and will there be a question where they would ask about both of the investigations in one question.

The essay could ask about both at the same time, and ask you to compare them! Investigation 1 had no conclusion, it's secondary data was mostly irrelevant, and the questionnaire had ethical problems such as asking for a name, and then asking questions that were inappropriate for the researchers age, like asking if people do drugs or smoke (underage). By virtue of asking that question with those as answers, you have knowledge of crime that you aren't reporting, meaning you are breaking the law yourself. People are also unlikely to declare this since they have put their name to it (questioning the validity). Also, the responses were really narrow with no potential for 'other'. The questionnaire was poorly written with irrelevant questions, and it didn't specify units, so the amount could be per week or per month, and in pounds or pence (obviously we know it was pounds it still needs to be said).

The piece of data in Investigation 1 which was about asking parents how much pocket money they got (from mumsnet I think) had problems. Since mumsnet is most likely to have an audience of middle class women, it isn't representative of all people, and also the Mums on there will likely be trying to show off, by saying they got lots of pocket money, this questions the validity. Only one comment had a year attached to it, meaning that the data means nothing in relative scale because of inflation, £1 in 1960 was worth much more by 1980! This means that the buying power of the people was all different for the same amount of money!

You also will probably get a question about secondary data. This means you will HAVE to talk about how much of Investigation 1's data was "selected", meaning that the researcher is putting his own opinion on the research in his research, possibly trying to influence the result and prove his hypothesis right. Much of his secondary data was irrelevant, the aims weren't really met by it.

Investigation 2, obviously, was unethical as hell! You will have to know the ways something can be unethical! Also, like the source from Channel 5 was a poor choice because they sensationalise so much! This means that the source is probably invalid. The childline survey was mostly irrelevant, and his research was not only subjective, but also unreliable, and unethical. It was, however, likely to be valid.

Hope that helps, good luck tomorrow!

I am freaking out about the pre release paper

Thank you so much!!!
This helped me a lot, this is more than what I had learned in my lessons.
Also good luck for tomorrow!

You don't know how much I want research to be over too! Then I can throw the prerelease away! Bring on Thursday after this!

Good luck!!
Just hope i manage my time well on the essays :P

Don't worry! I think it's the easiest paper because, for the most part, you have the answers in front of you! Just think that many of the answers that add up to approx. 1/3 of the paper are actually just quotes or simple research things! You'll be fine! It may seem as if you can't remember the things that mattered in the prerelease in the exam but I'm sure you will!

Thanks, just to say the exam went so much better than expected, missed out one 2 marker and didn't conclude my 12 marker but I found the other questions to be incredibly easy so I am relieved!