[Village Whisper]

(Original post by dancinginrainbows)
In terms of UMS marks, 80% is an A. So you need just less than what you got last year as the years are equally weighted. However, the raw marks you need are probably more like 70% going by the grade boundaries from last year.

Oh okay, that's not too bad then. I'm not completely sure about the whole UMS concept, but 70% sounds do-able Thanks.

(Original post by Dansat)
What's everyone using to revise? Is it just me or is the lacewing textbook horribly long-winded and hard to read

Actually, I've been finding the Lacewing too brief! It seems like we've spent multiple lessons on one thing, then I look it up in the Lacewing book and there's only a paragraph. His AS book was much better, I think. But other than Lacewing, I've literally just been using my class notes. My teacher is a bit obsessed with hand-outs and power-points I think, which was annoying during the course 'cause all that paper gets heavy, but now I'm actually really grateful for them.

Which topics are you doing? I'm doing mind and religion, so if you've got either of them I could maybe help out a bit with my notes from certain topics.

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by Junaid16)
Is Philosophy at A2 CONSIDERABLY harder than at AS? if so why?

I think that depends on what you mean by "considerably". To be honest, though, I reckon it is quite a lot harder. For AS there're 4 topics, i.e. 2 per paper, but A2 only has 2 topics plus one philosopher. I think that should give you an idea of how much more complicated the topics are, really. There's basically just way more stuff to learn within each topic, and a lot more -isms (in mine, at least). Too many -isms gets very confusing very quickly.

I'd have dropped philosophy at the end of last year, if I hadn't been so desperate to drop english lit.

Then again, I guess it depends on whether or not you like philosophy a lot. If you do, it'll be easier to learn and manage. If not, yeah I'd say it's considerably harder.

[Junaid16]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
I think that depends on what you mean by "considerably". To be honest, though, I reckon it is quite a lot harder. For AS there're 4 topics, i.e. 2 per paper, but A2 only has 2 topics plus one philosopher. I think that should give you an idea of how much more complicated the topics are, really. There's basically just way more stuff to learn within each topic, and a lot more -isms (in mine, at least). Too many -isms gets very confusing very quickly.

I'd have dropped philosophy at the end of last year, if I hadn't been so desperate to drop english lit.

Then again, I guess it depends on whether or not you like philosophy a lot. If you do, it'll be easier to learn and manage. If not, yeah I'd say it's considerably harder.

Thanks, this was really helpful I do English Literature aswell, why did you hate it so much?

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by Junaid16)
Thanks, this was really helpful I do English Literature aswell, why did you hate it so much?

It wasn't so much the subject as the way it was taught. I mean, I love reading a lot, but the way you have to analyse everything just annoyed me. We did Pride and Prejudice for the exam (with the Rossetti poems), and I feel it kinda ruined the book for me. I know it's loads of people's favourite book, and I can sort of see why, but the way we went through chapter by chapter analysing the way they speak and behave etc. made me lose interest in the actual storyline, if that makes sense. I'd never read it before, though luckily I managed to watch the film version with Keira Knightley at Christmas, 'cause if I hadn't I honestly don't know what I would've done about the essays. I just hoped that the film stayed fairly true to the book, because I actually only finished reading it for the first time the day before the exam I know, it's terrible, but I got an A in the exam and an A overall, so that was good! And lucky, I s'pose.

Oh, and it also didn't help that I hated one of my teachers right from the start, and the other one was really nice but completely useless at actually teaching us stuff...

Sorry, that turned out way longer than I thought, sorry if I bored you

[dancinginrainbows]

(Original post by heartsandminds)
Am I the only one who has exams before philosophy ones?

I don't think I'm going to be able to focus on it untill the 17th now.

URGHH!

Nope, I'm also planning to pretty much start on the 17th. I have History this week and two Maths next week, and Maths needs a LOT of attention So Philosophy is being practically ignored at the moment (I did some a while ago and have watched a few lectures and stuff but that's all)

(Original post by Village Whisper)
It wasn't so much the subject as the way it was taught. I mean, I love reading a lot, but the way you have to analyse everything just annoyed me. We did Pride and Prejudice for the exam (with the Rossetti poems), and I feel it kinda ruined the book for me. I know it's loads of people's favourite book, and I can sort of see why, but the way we went through chapter by chapter analysing the way they speak and behave etc. made me lose interest in the actual storyline, if that makes sense. I'd never read it before, though luckily I managed to watch the film version with Keira Knightley at Christmas, 'cause if I hadn't I honestly don't know what I would've done about the essays. I just hoped that the film stayed fairly true to the book, because I actually only finished reading it for the first time the day before the exam I know, it's terrible, but I got an A in the exam and an A overall, so that was good! And lucky, I s'pose.

Oh, and it also didn't help that I hated one of my teachers right from the start, and the other one was really nice but completely useless at actually teaching us stuff...

Sorry, that turned out way longer than I thought, sorry if I bored you

This was pretty much me last year :P I didn't read all of Pride and Prejudice (however I don't see why people like it) and hated the lessons. I love reading, I loved a lot of the poetry, but I hate English. The most annoying bit, and I know I sound like a prick when I say it, is that I got a high A anyway. Could do with that for my other subjects

[TheButtylicious]

(Original post by KwamiOdoom)
Not advisable imo, you'd be better off learning his arguments and not reading the book at all. I think I have some electronic resources for Mill so I'll see what I can do.

Have you not read 'On Liberty' at all then?

[KwamiOdoom]

(Original post by TheButtylicious)
Have you not read 'On Liberty' at all then?

No I have. And of course it's better to have read the book so if you think you can read it in time while looking at the arguments etc. then do it. But if you can't do both then just reading the book won't help whereas learning the arguments and reading extracts will prepare you for the essays.

That's just what I think, you should do what you think is best.

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by dancinginrainbows)
This was pretty much me last year :P I didn't read all of Pride and Prejudice (however I don't see why people like it) and hated the lessons. I love reading, I loved a lot of the poetry, but I hate English. The most annoying bit, and I know I sound like a prick when I say it, is that I got a high A anyway. Could do with that for my other subjects

Nah, in comparison to Atonement which I did for the coursework, I see why they like it, though it's not really my thing. They're all too polite and stuff, and then they all get in a flap because one of the girls is acting "inappropriately" towards the men or something. I haaaaated Atonement. Well, actually, I hated Briony, which made me hate the whole book. Anyway.

Haha, well I don't know how you managed that. You must've been really good at the analysis and stuff. I literally just got an A, right on the boundary. I was actually really annoyed at that, 'cause my useless-but-nice teacher said I'd got a "good" mark for my coursework with her...I got 14/15 (I think) for my other coursework, so I would've got an A rather than a B in the coursework if only she'd said something...

Oh dear, that was another rant. Oops, sorry

[mirandaandhector]

(Original post by heartsandminds)
Am I the only one who has exams before philosophy ones?

I don't think I'm going to be able to focus on it untill the 17th now.

URGHH!

I have History (10th) and 2 Geography (14th and 17th) before philosophy. I also have biology on the same day as Mill! - lots of content for all 4 subjects, but I am planning on constructing large mind maps/revision sheets for each subject over the course of this week as a starting point (plus a focus on History)

[dancinginrainbows]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
Nah, in comparison to Atonement which I did for the coursework, I see why they like it, though it's not really my thing. They're all too polite and stuff, and then they all get in a flap because one of the girls is acting "inappropriately" towards the men or something. I haaaaated Atonement. Well, actually, I hated Briony, which made me hate the whole book. Anyway.

Haha, well I don't know how you managed that. You must've been really good at the analysis and stuff. I literally just got an A, right on the boundary. I was actually really annoyed at that, 'cause my useless-but-nice teacher said I'd got a "good" mark for my coursework with her...I got 14/15 (I think) for my other coursework, so I would've got an A rather than a B in the coursework if only she'd said something...

Oh dear, that was another rant. Oops, sorry

Ah, I did Othello and A Streetcar Named Desire for coursework, which were okay. Streetcar was actually quite good since I wrote about madness. And we did The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and since I'm maths-obsessed that was bearable too I really have a mental block against Jane Austen now though. And yeah, it's always been my best subject by far, and I took it because of that, which is always a silly idea. However I do think that now I've stopped having the essay practice in it, I have got a bit worse at writing essays for other subjects... maybe I should try one again

[Dansat]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
Oh okay, that's not too bad then. I'm not completely sure about the whole UMS concept, but 70% sounds do-able Thanks.




Actually, I've been finding the Lacewing too brief! It seems like we've spent multiple lessons on one thing, then I look it up in the Lacewing book and there's only a paragraph. His AS book was much better, I think. But other than Lacewing, I've literally just been using my class notes. My teacher is a bit obsessed with hand-outs and power-points I think, which was annoying during the course 'cause all that paper gets heavy, but now I'm actually really grateful for them.

Which topics are you doing? I'm doing mind and religion, so if you've got either of them I could maybe help out a bit with my notes from certain topics.

I'd agree the AS one was much better, didn't have a problem with that. Im doing political and moral, thanks anyway though! Suppose we're reading different sections.

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by dancinginrainbows)
Ah, I did Othello and A Streetcar Named Desire for coursework, which were okay. Streetcar was actually quite good since I wrote about madness. And we did The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and since I'm maths-obsessed that was bearable too I really have a mental block against Jane Austen now though. And yeah, it's always been my best subject by far, and I took it because of that, which is always a silly idea. However I do think that now I've stopped having the essay practice in it, I have got a bit worse at writing essays for other subjects... maybe I should try one again

Madness sounds like an interesting thing to write about. I can't even remember what I wrote about. I read The Curious Incident a while ago 'cause my younger sister read it at school, and because of the Sherlock Holmes title reference. I thought it was okay, but I suppose books about stuff like that are going to be a bit confusing if you don't know all about Asperger's or austism, or whatever he had.

I always loved English, it's kinda sad that I got to dislike it so much. I agree about the essay practice though, I found the AS philosophy essays easier because we did so much in English. Hopefully the exams this year (my post-it note countdown says 13 and 15 days ) will be more-than-bearable, but maybe that's too optimistic...And I haven't done any essay practise since our class essays, which were the past questions for all the papers so far. Oh well.

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by Dansat)
I'd agree the AS one was much better, didn't have a problem with that. Im doing political and moral, thanks anyway though! Suppose we're reading different sections.

Ah, oh well. I kinda wish I was doing moral instead of religion, since we did that at AS. It'd have been easier, I think. But then I guess my teachers thought it'd relate to Decartes more.

[Simone.xox]

(Original post by dancinginrainbows)
There's a while to go yet, just read some mark schemes and try some

Theres's only one past paper though, and I think I've done it.
I hate it when there's only one, can't make an educated guess as to what might come up

[Dansat]

(Original post by dancinginrainbows)
There's a while to go yet, just read some mark schemes and try some

If have a mark scheme for the specimen paper, or any other past papers it would be really appreciated!

[deenlaybrown]

(Original post by Dansat)
If have a mark scheme for the specimen paper, or any other past papers it would be really appreciated!

http://www.xtremepapers.me/AQA/index...ir=Philosophy/

The website above has philosophy past papers from 2003

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by Dansat)
If have a mark scheme for the specimen paper, or any other past papers it would be really appreciated!

http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/human...hp?id=10&prev=

Just select a month/year and the question papers/mark schemes show up.

[Dansat]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/human...hp?id=10&prev=

Just select a month/year and the question papers/mark schemes show up.

Thanks, that paper wasn't up last time I checked. Anyone got the specimen paper?

[Dansat]

(Original post by deenlaybrown)
http://www.xtremepapers.me/AQA/index...ir=Philosophy/

The website above has philosophy past papers from 2003

Thanks, not seen these old spec papers before

[AnBan]

Hey, I'm doing Politics, Morality and Nietzsche.

Really want an A, so slightly concerned that the exam is now fast approaching!! Is anyone else aiming for an A? Also, if anyone has any essays I could take a look at, would be much appreciated. I can e-mail some of mine, even though they are rather bad at this stage!