[tinytadpoletim]

Which topics is everyone revising for both units? I've decided to steer well clear of The Judiciary and Party Policies...

[LETSJaM]

(Original post by tinytadpoletim)
Which topics is everyone revising for both units? I've decided to steer well clear of The Judiciary and Party Policies...

Judiciary, Parliament, Constitution GP02

Elections & Pressure Groups GP01

<3 x

[tinytadpoletim]

(Original post by LETSJaM)
Judiciary, Parliament, Constitution GP02

Elections & Pressure Groups GP01

<3 x

I'm doing elections and pressure groups for unit 1 as well, they seem to be the standard choice

I hate the judiciary topic So was going to do Parliament, constitution and the PM + cabinet...

Anything you've found particularly difficult/easy to revise yet?

[JasmineCarter]

Does anyone has any essay plans for the Judiciary and the UK Constitution topic ?

[BaconFTW]

Here's a prediction;
The 25 marker in Unit 1 for elections will be on the effects of proportional systems, or on assessing the benefits of proportional systems.
The 5/10 mark questions wil probably be about STV or SV or the efficacy of elections in promoting democracy.

But, y'know, I've probably gotten it wrong on all accounts.

Counter-intuitive as it is, I've found that parties is the easiest topic in the first unit to gain high marks on. Examples are extremely easy to weave in and it's the one area which gains by far the most exposure in the media.

Shame about Unit 2, it seems way too easy for them to screw you over by dumping you with a bad question.

Ah well, there's at least two opportunities to retake. I feel so much better when I realize that. It's brilliant. Yay for the crappy, cheatable exams system, and uni's that are largely apathetic.

[curlyboff]

Hey Guys,

I'm doing both Units this month, because my school is *so* delightful, they sub timetabled Politics so we only get two hours a week, so we actually skipped the judiciary and political parties!

My current problem is that I've now lost all my notes. D:

Anyone able to help?

[FullMetalX]

How prepared is everyone for the exams? I don't feel too prepared, haven't got any essay practise.

[tinytadpoletim]

(Original post by berryripple)
...

(Original post by LETSJaM)
...

Getting confused between majoritarian representation/voting systems and plurality based representation/voting systems...

I think I'm right in saying that in a majoritarian voting system you need over 50% of the vote to be elected eg. London Mayoral - Supplementary Vote, and under a plurality you only need to get the most votes eg. FPTP.

But then those are the voting systems, so how do majoritarian and plurality representation differ?

Thanks,

[LETSJaM]

(Original post by tinytadpoletim)
Getting confused between majoritarian representation/voting systems and plurality based representation/voting systems...

I think I'm right in saying that in a majoritarian voting system you need over 50% of the vote to be elected eg. London Mayoral - Supplementary Vote, and under a plurality you only need to get the most votes eg. FPTP.

But then those are the voting systems, so how do majoritarian and plurality representation differ?

Thanks,

Plurality is to the best of my knowledge a candidate getting a higher no. of votes, even if more people together voted for other candidates.

You're correct. A Majoritarian voting is one in which you need 50%+ of the vote to be elected.

<3 x

[tinytadpoletim]

(Original post by LETSJaM)
Plurality is to the best of my knowledge a candidate getting a higher no. of votes, even if more people together voted for other candidates.

You're correct. A Majoritarian voting is one in which you need 50%+ of the vote to be elected.

<3 x

Yep, that's the voting system which I'm fine with, what about the representation aspect?

[MOSJohn]

Is there a chance (Do you think) that the following topics will appear this year?

Pluralism
Elitism
Democratic Deficit
Liberal Democracy

[kayleigh.jean]

(Original post by curlyboff)
Hey Guys,

I'm doing both Units this month, because my school is *so* delightful, they sub timetabled Politics so we only get two hours a week, so we actually skipped the judiciary and political parties!

My current problem is that I've now lost all my notes. D:

Anyone able to help?

I wouldn't worry about skipping those topics; when I did AS last year we skipped the judiciary and it wasn't a problem - just make sure you're confident with the other topics! same with unit 1, focus on 3 and know them really well.
with regards to notes...best bet at this stage is to get the past papers and make mind-maps and essays of all the questions relevant. use the mark schemes as ideas then do some research for up to date references to include

[berryripple]

(Original post by MOSJohn)
Is there a chance (Do you think) that the following topics will appear this year?

Pluralism
Elitism
Democratic Deficit
Liberal Democracy

I'd say there is, yeah.

[berryripple]

(Original post by curlyboff)
Hey Guys,

I'm doing both Units this month, because my school is *so* delightful, they sub timetabled Politics so we only get two hours a week, so we actually skipped the judiciary and political parties!

My current problem is that I've now lost all my notes. D:

Anyone able to help?

Wouldn't worry about it: I've learnt both (although parties not in much detail) and I'm not revising either of them.

[LETSJaM]

(Original post by tinytadpoletim)
Yep, that's the voting system which I'm fine with, what about the representation aspect?

I thought that majoritarian representation was FPTP. IE one party (or very rarely 2) has the majority of the seats.

<3 x

[MOSJohn]

Is there a chance Pluralism will be on the paper?

Does anyone agree these questions are hard?:

PRESSURE GROUPS

5 Mark
How do pressure groups promote functional representation? (January 2012)

10 Mark
Explain three factors which may restrict the influence of a pressure group. (January 2012)

25 Mark
Are pressure groups becoming more powerful, or less powerful? (January 2012)

DEMOCRACY

5 Mark
How does a referendum differ from an election? (January 2012)

10 Mark
Explain the arguments in favour of making voting compulsory. (January 2012)

25 Mark
How effectively does representative democracy operate in the UK? (January 2012)

[kayleigh.jean]

(Original post by MOSJohn)
Does anyone agree these questions are hard?

I did this paper in January, got 78 to average out my AS to an A overall. After seeing those questions, all of us who resat felt certain we'd done terribly and that the questions were horrid....however, all of us went up between a few marks and 20+ marks in Unit 1.
these questions aren't actually as hard as they seem, if I remember correctly I answered these two, and although the questions seem pretty bad, they're ok! there's quite a bit you can write to answer them and just write what you think of; a few well explained points are better than loads of unexplained ones!

EDIT: having looked at the other questions, I think I did Pressure Groups and Electoral Systems, although I did consider the Democracy one. Electoral Systems part c) was quite unexpected as it was very one sided so the usual technique of arguing both sides had to be approached differently (still present both sides but argue that the other opinion is wrong etc)

[MOSJohn]

^ What did you write for the answers to the two 25 mark questions?

[Spunky_Monkey]

(Original post by FullMetalX)
How prepared is everyone for the exams? I don't feel too prepared, haven't got any essay practise.

I've got no real up to date info on Europe apart from obviously the eurozone crisis which will 100% come up, Camerons veto which could maybe come up in integration and the referendum lock out in the coalition.
Pretty annoying. Were my old unit 3 notes any help by the way?

[FullMetalX]

(Original post by Spunky_Monkey)
I've got no real up to date info on Europe apart from obviously the eurozone crisis which will 100% come up, Camerons veto which could maybe come up in integration and the referendum lock out in the coalition.
Pretty annoying. Were my old unit 3 notes any help by the way?

I think this whole route a business is awful, I know any of the other routes would have been better. This is just plain boring and difficult.
Oh yeah, thanks again They were useful to find a few things I may have missed, but not too great for explanations. Were those notes all the information you needed for the exam?