GOVP4A - Government of the USA AQA 16th June

Hello, I was just wondering how many of you were taking the subject for A2 and what subjects are you revising for?
I'm doing Congress and the Executive for this exam.
How did everyone find todays exam also? (I did GOVP3A) I found Electoral Process quite hard but Voting Behaviour a godsend.

Reply 1

Popat21

Original post by pollyyyy

Hello, I was just wondering how many of you were taking the subject for A2 and what subjects are you revising for?
I'm doing Congress and the Executive for this exam.
How did everyone find todays exam also? (I did GOVP3A) I found Electoral Process quite hard but Voting Behaviour a godsend.

Hi, I am doing this! I've revised all of them but Supreme Court in less detail as it's fairly simple! I'm hoping that questions about EXOP and the federal bureacracy don't come up...

Reply 2

Bobbler

Hi I'm doing Supreme Court & Constitution cuz I am obsessed with the Constitution & find them pretty easy :colondollar:

plus im on my way for an A* so I thought it'd probably be best to do the smallest subjects I'm most confident in haha!

Reply 3

pollyyyy

OP

Ah I'm cramming just 2 because I'm silly. I find Congress and the Executive easy and they link pretty well, hopefully! I'm quite nervous.

Reply 4

Ben F

10

I told myself I'd do 3 but I think I'll focus on just Constitution and the Supreme Court - I can do those two pretty easily (I hope!) Anyone know what came up in the past exams?

Reply 5

04jharrison

Im doing Congress, Executive and Constitution i hate the Judiciary to many cases to remember :P

Reply 6

anoif_

How did everyone find this exam?

Reply 7

James Snowdon

I found it pretty good to be honest. I did the Constitution and Supreme Court.
The only thing I'm a bit worried about was that many SC Essay was a bit lacklusture, I didn;t think there was much to argue about really.
Constitution question was great, although perhaps I could have focused more on the Check and Balances.
The questions were pretty great though!

Reply 8

mcozza

Original post by James Snowdon

I found it pretty good to be honest. I did the Constitution and Supreme Court.
The only thing I'm a bit worried about was that many SC Essay was a bit lacklusture, I didn;t think there was much to argue about really.
Constitution question was great, although perhaps I could have focused more on the Check and Balances.
The questions were pretty great though!

I had the opposite problem. I only mentioned checks and balances. What else did you mention? The Supreme court I assume?

Reply 9

James Snowdon

Original post by mcozza

I had the opposite problem. I only mentioned checks and balances. What else did you mention? The Supreme court I assume?

Well I suppose my answer was mainly about checks and balances but I didnt go through them serperatly, I just spoke about gridlock and a struggle for power but then counteracted that with the argument that Americans appriciate that the government has to find a middle group, shown through split ticket voting etc.

Didnt' really mention the Supreme Court :s

Reply 10

pk550

10

Original post by James Snowdon

I found it pretty good to be honest. I did the Constitution and Supreme Court.
The only thing I'm a bit worried about was that many SC Essay was a bit lacklusture, I didn;t think there was much to argue about really.
Constitution question was great, although perhaps I could have focused more on the Check and Balances.
The questions were pretty great though!

Same, did these two topics because they were virtually intertwined.

The Constitution question was themed around Checks and Balances. As long as you did enough for arguing that they hindered and then that they did not hinder effective government, with a solid conclusion you should get an A.

Reply 11

James Snowdon

Original post by pk550

Same, did these two topics because they were virtually intertwined.

The Constitution question was themed around Checks and Balances. As long as you did enough for arguing that they hindered and then that they did not hinder effective government, with a solid conclusion you should get an A.

Yeah I thought my answer was pretty good tbh, I'm just trying to find the negatives

I need 60/80 for an A to get in Uni so fingers crossed :smile:

What about synopticity? Did anyone get much in? Im really not sure what is required tbh.

Reply 12

pk550

10

Original post by James Snowdon

Yeah I thought my answer was pretty good tbh, I'm just trying to find the negatives

I need 60/80 for an A to get in Uni so fingers crossed :smile:

What about synopticity? Did anyone get much in? Im really not sure what is required tbh.

Synopticity was okay - for the Separation of Powers, you could compare it to the UK's fusion and then link it to how the UK has far less Checks and Balances and talk about how premiers have been accused of being 'elective dictators' or how 'executive dominance' has occurred.

For the Supreme Court question, you could have stated how there is less scope for the Judiciary in the UK to protect civil rights and liberties as there is no Constitutional Sovereignty, but Parliamentary Sovereignty. Could have also mentioned that there's no Bill of Rights to protect, but how the HRA 1998 has brought them into the 'political thicket' slightly more.

Reply 13

Teh User

8

Thought this went OK actually. I did the Constitution and Congress. I didn't like the first question on the Supreme Court but I could have blagged it and Bureaucracy is an instant turnoff despite the second question being OK for the Executive. It was a toss up between Congress and the Court and Congress won as I like Advice and Consent and talking about party discipline/influences on Congress.

Reply 14

Numberwang

12

Original post by James Snowdon

Yeah I thought my answer was pretty good tbh, I'm just trying to find the negatives

I need 60/80 for an A to get in Uni so fingers crossed :smile:

What about synopticity? Did anyone get much in? Im really not sure what is required tbh.

Hi James,

That's exactly what I need I think - judging by last year's grade boundaries anyway...because that would give me 84/100 to scrape an A

This is what I've had so far:-
Unit 1 - A (80/100)
Unit 2 - A (81/100)
Unit 3 - B (75/100)

As for synopticity, the Congress 30 mark question I feel was the easiest to use synoptic links (made reference to UK's hybrid legislature and executive meaning not voting along party lines can lead to not having a chance of being promoted to Cabinet, or alternatively being demoted from a Cabinet position! - a deep contrast to the US's separation of powers)

Room for synopticity also in the 10 markers - I referred to recruitment in the UK compared to US in the judicial independence in the Supreme Court topic.

Did anybody do the same questions as me? I did Legislature and Judiciary...and how do we all feel we did?

Personally I felt I've done well in the Supreme Court on the whole, but I wasn't so good on the Congress 10 marker (only wrote 3/4 of a page and wasn't greatly detailed), but the 30 marker Congress went quite well though I ran out of time so I couldn't conclude (though I'd already written 2 and a half pages so hopefully will still get a decent mark).

Reply 15

James Snowdon

Original post by PJMillar

Hi James,

That's exactly what I need I think - judging by last year's grade boundaries anyway...because that would give me 84/100 to scrape an A

This is what I've had so far:-
Unit 1 - A (80/100)
Unit 2 - A (81/100)
Unit 3 - B (75/100)

As for synopticity, the Congress 30 mark question I feel was the easiest to use synoptic links (made reference to UK's hybrid legislature and executive meaning not voting along party lines can lead to not having a chance of being promoted to Cabinet, or alternatively being demoted from a Cabinet position! - a deep contrast to the US's separation of powers)

Room for synopticity also in the 10 markers - I referred to recruitment in the UK compared to US in the judicial independence in the Supreme Court topic.

Did anybody do the same questions as me? I did Legislature and Judiciary...and how do we all feel we did?

Personally I felt I've done well in the Supreme Court on the whole, but I wasn't so good on the Congress 10 marker (only wrote 3/4 of a page and wasn't greatly detailed), but the 30 marker Congress went quite well though I ran out of time so I couldn't conclude (though I'd already written 2 and a half pages so hopefully will still get a decent mark).

Hmm well perhaps I've got the maths wrong? I got:

Unit 1: 100/100
Unit 2: 74/100
Unit 3: 71/100

I thought this was UMS marks but is there a difference between UMS and %?

Reply 16

Teh User

8

Original post by James Snowdon

Hmm well perhaps I've got the maths wrong? I got:

Unit 1: 100/100
Unit 2: 74/100
Unit 3: 71/100

I thought this was UMS marks but is there a difference between UMS and %?

60/80 is 75% raw marks, you can't easily convert it as if it's a crap paper the UMS goes down and if it's easy it goes up.

I've got

Unit 1: 84/100 UMS A
Unit 2: 100/100 UMS A
Unit 3: 85/100 UMS A

Since an A is 320 UMS and I have 269 UMS I need 51 UMS, around half marks but could be different. I'd quite like an A*, that need 95 UMS though. You need 75 UMS it seems, a middle B and around 3/4 of the marks depending on how the rest of the country did.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 17

Numberwang

12

Original post by James Snowdon

I found it pretty good to be honest. I did the Constitution and Supreme Court.
The only thing I'm a bit worried about was that many SC Essay was a bit lacklusture, I didn;t think there was much to argue about really.
Constitution question was great, although perhaps I could have focused more on the Check and Balances.
The questions were pretty great though!

What did you mention? This was how I structured mine...

Intro - explaining Supreme Court's constitutional authority to protect rights/liberties, from Bill of Rights, as Founding Fathers wanted to hold an overweening executive accountable

para 1 - rights of racial minorities - Brown v Board of Education (54), de jour segregation, then even more liberal from Burger court when in 71 de facto segregation was made illegal

para 2 - freedom of religion - more evidence that the Supreme Court has played a big role in protecting rights & liberties - however I mentioned that Wallace v Jaffree (85) went too far and compromised 1st Amendment (freedom of speech)

para 3 - gun control - that strict constructionalists (Rehnquvist and Roberts) have protected the right to bear arms - mentioned however that the Constitution is ambiguous..more liberal justices interpret it as only applying for the militia

para 4 - abortion - most striking evidence that in recent years rights and liberties are being less protected, i.e. the repeal of Roe v Wade (1973) - supported by recent court decisions on 'unreasonable searches'

Conclusion - that rights and liberties have been protected well by liberal justices (Warren and Burger) but less well by conservative ones...

P.S. How did you do yours, and what did you say for the 10 mark question on Supreme Court??

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 18

Numberwang

12

Original post by James Snowdon

Hmm well perhaps I've got the maths wrong? I got:

Unit 1: 100/100
Unit 2: 74/100
Unit 3: 71/100

I thought this was UMS marks but is there a difference between UMS and %?

Well, it depends on the grade boundaries...the raw marks will inflate depending on the performance in the country as a whole...

Here, check out last June's for Government & Politics...grade boundaries were very low...

http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/ums_converter_a2.php?id=04

Reply 19

Teh User

8

Original post by PJMillar

Well, it depends on the grade boundaries...the raw marks will inflate depending on the performance in the country as a whole...

Here, check out last June's for Government & Politics...grade boundaries were very low...

http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/ums_converter_a2.php?id=04

Damn you, now I'm playing with that to find out my previous raw marks.

GOVP4A - Government of the USA AQA 16th June

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