The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

AQA Government & Politics Unit 3A: The Politics of the USA June 2014

Scroll to see replies

any last minute tips?
do we need a lot of examples and figures in our essays or one - two examples per paragraph will be fine?
thank you
How did everyone do?

Questions were pretty perfect for me. Was three words off finishing my last sentence when I had to stop and forgot to cross out my plans but otherwise happy.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 82
Avatar for safx41
safx41
Went well. Did anyone do parties? What did you guys write for the 10 mark.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Anyone did the 3rd topic? what did you write for the 30 marker - split ticket voting
Not too badly.
Didn't like the national nominating convention for the 30 marker as my revision hadn't focused much on that :/ But apart from that it was alright! Not enough facts and stats tho so I don't think an A* for me! But oh well.
Original post by streetcleaner
Anyone did the 3rd topic? what did you write for the 30 marker - split ticket voting


Yup I did.
Defined STV etc.
Paragraph on why there is STV (did 3 parags on that - because they can, partisan de alignment and issue voting), did one small parag on the decline of STV (polarisation of parties) and then 2 parags on consequences of STV. (Neg - divided govt and positive best of both worlds)
I did topic 2 - struggled with 10 marker - spoke about effects of separation of powers and federalism. Then discussed national committees and they're supposed weakness and also state parties. It was hard haha.

Third parties was easy.

I also did voting behaviour.

Split ticket voting - why? Moved beyond party labels, responding to nonconformist candidates, achieving a more moderate policy agenda, etc.
Consequences - divided government, legislative gridlock, less ideological parties and better scrutinisation.
Conclusion - split ticket voting has been decreasing with increasing partisanship.
Reply 87
Avatar for khansk12
khansk12
Any idea on what's going to come up on 4A? Don't think I did too well on NNC questions as I didn't really revise that! Voting behaviour question on Hispanic voting & split-ticketing was ok as my revision was focused around that.
Reply 88
Avatar for freya96
freya96
6
The 10 markers were so hard :frown:
Topic 1 wasn't great, national nomination conventions are pretty insignificant so had hardly anything to say.
HISPANIC VOTE WAS A GODSEND
Quite liked Split ticket but not the best

All in all it was an ok paper
Reply 90
Avatar for safx41
safx41
I wrote about federalism, the congressional promotion system and role of the speaker / ideology as to how they're organized. Completely forgot about committees. Considering conventions only occur four years and would be more befitting on a 10 mark it was weird to see a 30!
Reply 91
Avatar for Aj_16
Aj_16
6
For the 10 marker on political party organisation... I didn't mention federalism and separation of powers which are obviously important. However I mentioned that organisationally they are weak due to no party leaders, no carrot and stick approach with their weaker whips, no mass membership and on the other hand there is organisational resurgence with the dean and Brock reforms and super delegates and manifestos improved by contract with America. Does anyone know the mark for this structure without the federalism and separation of powers which are probably the most important. A reply would be appreciated very much!
Original post by ellenabethx
Topic 1 wasn't great, national nomination conventions are pretty insignificant so had hardly anything to say.
HISPANIC VOTE WAS A GODSEND
Quite liked Split ticket but not the best

All in all it was an ok paper


I agree! NNC was my let down of the paper - I mind blanked for a bit, which resulted in bad structuring!
I really liked the 10 markers and split ticket was alright too! But I wish there was more time to write more.
Reply 93
Avatar for safx41
safx41
Original post by Aj_16
For the 10 marker on political party organisation... I didn't mention federalism and separation of powers which are obviously important. However I mentioned that organisationally they are weak due to no party leaders, no carrot and stick approach with their weaker whips, no mass membership and on the other hand there is organisational resurgence with the dean and Brock reforms and super delegates and manifestos improved by contract with America. Does anyone know the mark for this structure without the federalism and separation of powers which are probably the most important. A reply would be appreciated very much!


As it said explain I don't think you'd need to talk to much about how it isn't organized. Seems like you did better than me as I blanked out!


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 94
Avatar for Aj_16
Aj_16
6
Original post by safx41
As it said explain I don't think you'd need to talk to much about how it isn't organized. Seems like you did better than me as I blanked out!


Posted from TSR Mobile

I agree but separation of powers and federalism is apparently correct but this leads to it being less organised as its weaker.
Dw about blanking out because the 30 marker was good and that means you would have been better off doing this question as its worth more marks!
Reply 95
Avatar for safx41
safx41
Original post by Aj_16
I agree but separation of powers and federalism is apparently correct but this leads to it being less organised as its weaker.
Dw about blanking out because the 30 marker was good and that means you would have been better off doing this question as its worth more marks!


Yeah should get a decent amount hopefully. Still pining for an A! Ready for unit 4?

Posted from TSR Mobile
I think I contradicted myself once or twice...

I said that third parties are politically significant because of the infamous Florida vote of 2000, although only polling 2.7% nationally, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader managed to split the Democratic vote facilitating Bush's 500 vote victory in Florida by taking 100,000 votes and contributing to Gore's ultimate defeat.

However, I then said they were considered insignificant as the days of Perot's 19% national polling seem far behind us when in 2012 the largest minor party was the Libertarians with 0.98% of the vote.

I'm worried now!!
I did the first topic and second topic! Really nice choice of questions - I think the second 10 marker was one that many people struggled on by consensus, so hopefully the boundaries will be low for that bit!
Original post by Endless Blue
How did everyone do?

Questions were pretty perfect for me. Was three words off finishing my last sentence when I had to stop and forgot to cross out my plans but otherwise happy.


Posted from TSR Mobile


As you said - the questions were pretty perfect. Only issue was the Parties 10 marker.
Original post by jellybellys
Yup I did.
Defined STV etc.
Paragraph on why there is STV (did 3 parags on that - because they can, partisan de alignment and issue voting), did one small parag on the decline of STV (polarisation of parties) and then 2 parags on consequences of STV. (Neg - divided govt and positive best of both worlds)


didnt write as much as you
i didnt even put in the negative consequences of STV at all
meh..........does that mean i'm not getting an A for this paper

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you