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Classics AQA classical civilisations

How did people find the classics exam today?

I did the Women in Athens and Rome and the paper was good but the time was terrible. I ended up bullet pointing some of my essays.

Liked the question on Euphiletus and the Roman question was also rather good.

The Odyssey will be just as good hopefully!

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I did Greek Sculpture and Architecture. I did pretty well I think, the 20 and 30 markers were quite nice. :smile: I'm panicking slightly though as I referred to Nike of Paionios as Aphrodite of Paionios for the entire exam. :frown: Hoping the examiner will just mark as if I meant Nike though.
Reply 2
I did Women in Athens and Rome today as well, I though t the essay questions were great but I'm worried as I messed up on the 1 mark questions at the beginning even though I know the Euphiletus source so well :frown: What were your answers? I really don't want to resit this exam as I'm predicated an A for it!
I did this today and thought it was a really nice paper! The timing was very hard though...must remember not to spend too long on the first questions for the next paper! For Euphiletus, I said that the affair started at his mother's funeral and then for the 3 mark question I said that he went to the men's houses and asked them to join him, that they found Eratosthenes standing naked oin the bed (!) and that he didn't kill him but offered for him to pay a fine instead :smile:
Did anyone else do Athenian democracy? I was pretty pleased with Section One but the thirty markers in Second Two were both horrible questions. Also, the timing is harsh, I was writing right up 'til the last minute and I'm pretty sure my writing was illegible.
Reply 5
I thought the 3 mark question was pretty ambiguous, so even though I knew that Euphiletus gathered a crowd of men, I put about his wife locking him in their bedroom, then him asking why the doors were creaking in the night and her replying that she went to get a lamp from the neighbours. Looking back, these were stupid answers haha :frown:
I agree about the timing in the Classics exam. Pretty much on par with the wrist destroyer than is A level history.
Original post by emilyhogg95
I thought the 3 mark question was pretty ambiguous, so even though I knew that Euphiletus gathered a crowd of men, I put about his wife locking him in their bedroom, then him asking why the doors were creaking in the night and her replying that she went to get a lamp from the neighbours. Looking back, these were stupid answers haha :frown:


I think your answers were slightly before the section they were asking about :/ But it is only 3 marks, so hopefully won't affect your grade! It's so bad that the first questions that are meant to be easy are the hardest!
Reply 8
Original post by MrsOrlandoBloom
I think your answers were slightly before the section they were asking about :/ But it is only 3 marks, so hopefully won't affect your grade! It's so bad that the first questions that are meant to be easy are the hardest!


I agree, I am sure that it is in reference to how they caught Eratosthenes. He creeped out the house. Knocked on the neighbours houses, gathered an angry mob then returned to the bedroom. The first people saw him lying on the bed. The later people saw him standing naked on the bed.

How did you find the 10mark on citizenship and husbandship?
Original post by AfterTheStorm.
Did anyone else do Athenian democracy? I was pretty pleased with Section One but the thirty markers in Second Two were both horrible questions. Also, the timing is harsh, I was writing right up 'til the last minute and I'm pretty sure my writing was illegible.


I liked the paper personally however I thought the term 'How Far-reaching was....' was highly subjective :s-smilie: But, just got to hope for the best :cool:
Original post by CJRO
I agree, I am sure that it is in reference to how they caught Eratosthenes. He creeped out the house. Knocked on the neighbours houses, gathered an angry mob then returned to the bedroom. The first people saw him lying on the bed. The later people saw him standing naked on the bed.

How did you find the 10mark on citizenship and husbandship?


Yeah I realised once I got out of the exam, really annoying :frown: I hope it doesn't bring me down or anything, this exam is the one I wanted an A in! Can't tell you how frustrated I am with myself. I liked the 10 mark actually, I thought all the essay questions were good
Original post by Enter name here...
I liked the paper personally however I thought the term 'How Far-reaching was....' was highly subjective :s-smilie: But, just got to hope for the best :cool:



That seemed to throw a lot of people off... I assumed at the time they were asking how effective/democratic the reforms were, so answered it based on that but in hindsight I'm not sure that was the right thing to do. Oh well.
Reply 12
Are most classicists doing 'The Odyssey' paper tomorrow? I am thinking Xenia and then something on Polyphemus or another monster for the context.
Nah, I've got the Iliad. I did Odyssey for GCSE though.
Original post by CJRO
Are most classicists doing 'The Odyssey' paper tomorrow? I am thinking Xenia and then something on Polyphemus or another monster for the context.


I'm doing it tomorrow- I would never question guess but that indeed is a liable option :smile:
Reply 15
How did you all find the exam?
The questions were quite vague but answerable. Time was an issue again. Then the heat was dire in our hall :frown:
Original post by CJRO
How did you all find the exam?
The questions were quite vague but answerable. Time was an issue again. Then the heat was dire in our hall :frown:


Same, the heat was unbearable

I did the Odyssey, and the Penelope and Books 9-12 questions

I thought the Penelope literary techniques question wasn't very nice though there was very little to write about in the passage apart from Homer conveying emotions. :confused:

The other questions and the essay were quite nice though, I thought the extended answer on Penelope was a breeze and the essay was quite nice.
Sorry if this is the wrong section, but did anybody sit the AQA AS Classic exam today? On Athenian imperialism?
The questions...were just horrible. I panicked so much when I flipped open the booklet. Where was the embassy in Sparta at the Mytilenian debate...I had no clue /sigh.

I hate the fact they only give you an hour and a half to write 3 A-grade level essays too, it's really harsh. I was writing even when the examiner asked us to put our papers to the side xD
Reply 18
Yeah, there are so few of us classicists all exams here. Really I would be grateful for a little longer, I had to bullet point about half a page of ideas at the end of the exam. I did the Phaecians question and the stories book 9-12. I actually liked the Arête and Nausicaa question as we have a really good teacher so she had discussed it all with us.
To be quite frank, it's poor how much time they give us. They could at least consider giving even 5-10 minutes of planning time.

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