AS A-level OCR Ancient History

OP

Exactly the same for me. My class haven't had much practice to test our timing skills, my teacher set some 45 markers to do for homework and it took me quite a while to near enough perfect one!
How's your revision going? I'm going through the Ephors now 😊 and do you have any predictions on what the questions will be? 😄

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Reply 3

OP

Original post by taaaaahira

Exactly the same for me. My class haven't had much practice to test our timing skills, my teacher set some 45 markers to do for homework and it took me quite a while to near enough perfect one!
How's your revision going? I'm going through the Ephors now 😊 and do you have any predictions on what the questions will be? 😄

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Hhjjk

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Reply 4

OP

*whoops, my apologies

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Reply 5

dcfc97

Yeah, I struggle more with the 20 and 25 mark questions, I always write too much and then never have enough time for the 45 mark question.

As for revision, I'm just down to past papers and occasionally revisiting content that I'm weakest on. My teacher seems to think that it could be on gender relations because that hasn't been on a paper yet, I personally think that a politics and/or education question will come up, as there's been at least one of them in every exam, and they seem to be fairly popular. :-)

Reply 6

OP

Original post by dcfc97

Yeah, I struggle more with the 20 and 25 mark questions, I always write too much and then never have enough time for the 45 mark question.

As for revision, I'm just down to past papers and occasionally revisiting content that I'm weakest on. My teacher seems to think that it could be on gender relations because that hasn't been on a paper yet, I personally think that a politics and/or education question will come up, as there's been at least one of them in every exam, and they seem to be fairly popular. :-)

My teacher is convinced the Ephors will come up, (at least that's what he says every year!) I'm really hoping it does despite having many sources to remember for the ephors. I have a feeling something strange will come though, probably about Lycurgus or even religion (a few days ago I had a dream that religion came up, haha) My teacher is literally an expert on Sparta and he's helped me some much, he gave us a way of answering the essay questions and I'll share it if anybody wants any help or another way of answering the 45 markers

Essay Qs (45)
1) Statement
2) Example
3) Explanation
4) Source criticism
5) Bring it back on a positive note (justify)
6) Link back to the question

For the essay Q, this set has helped me so much! It also got me an A in my mock :biggrin:

You don't even have to write loads as well!

Hope this is helpful to anyone, happy revision! (Dreading tomorrow).

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Reply 7

Original post by taaaaahira

My teacher is convinced the Ephors will come up, (at least that's what he says every year!) I'm really hoping it does despite having many sources to remember for the ephors. I have a feeling something strange will come though, probably about Lycurgus or even religion (a few days ago I had a dream that religion came up, haha) My teacher is literally an expert on Sparta and he's helped me some much, he gave us a way of answering the essay questions and I'll share it if anybody wants any help or another way of answering the 45 markers

Essay Qs (45)
1) Statement
2) Example
3) Explanation
4) Source criticism
5) Bring it back on a positive note (justify)
6) Link back to the question

For the essay Q, this set has helped me so much! It also got me an A in my mock :biggrin:

You don't even have to write loads as well!

Hope this is helpful to anyone, happy revision! (Dreading tomorrow).

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I'm a bit worried about essay structure too! Your structure sounds really good - is that what you use for each point/paragraph?

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Nicola121

I'm a bit worried about essay structure too! Your structure sounds really good - is that what you use for each point/paragraph?

Yes! For every paragraph. And also for every point. It seems like a lot for only one point but you don't have to write a lot at all :smile:

And also, if there are several sources of the same person for example for the Kings (Xen 13 & 15 & 16) then after writing about each of those (13 & 15 & 16) you can criticise him at the end and you don't have to do it for each of his points/sections. (I genuinely think that didn't make any sense at all, sorry haha I can't explain stuff...and the exam's tomorrow 😭)

This structure only applies to the C question (25) and essay (45) as the B (20) does not need any source criticism! :smile:

Most people think you do have to criticise the sources for the 20 marker but it's not true because AO1 & AO2 are the same marks so you just simple state what the sources say.

The structure that I wrote earlier helps a lot! Well for my class anyway, my teacher told us he's seen improvement after giving us this :biggrin:

Reply 9

OP

Original post by Nicola121

I'm a bit worried about essay structure too! Your structure sounds really good - is that what you use for each point/paragraph?

My teacher wrote an example answer relating to this structure and I will post it on here in a few hours after after I've done revision :smile:

Reply 10

Original post by taaaaahira

Yes! For every paragraph. And also for every point. It seems like a lot for only one point but you don't have to write a lot at all :smile:

And also, if there are several sources of the same person for example for the Kings (Xen 13 & 15 & 16) then after writing about each of those (13 & 15 & 16) you can criticise him at the end and you don't have to do it for each of his points/sections. (I genuinely think that didn't make any sense at all, sorry haha I can't explain stuff...and the exam's tomorrow 😭)

This structure only applies to the C question (25) and essay (45) as the B (20) does not need any source criticism! :smile:

Most people think you do have to criticise the sources for the 20 marker but it's not true because AO1 & AO2 are the same marks so you just simple state what the sources say.

The structure that I wrote earlier helps a lot! Well for my class anyway, my teacher told us he's seen improvement after giving us this :biggrin:

No that makes good sense, and I get what you mean about leaving the "criticism section" at the end if you've got lots to say on one author! Thanks - that's really helpful ☺️

Hopefully all should go well tomorrow - I'm hoping for a social/political 45 marker 😁 (fingers crossed)

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Nicola121

No that makes good sense, and I get what you mean about leaving the "criticism section" at the end if you've got lots to say on one author! Thanks - that's really helpful ☺️

Hopefully all should go well tomorrow - I'm hoping for a social/political 45 marker 😁 (fingers crossed)

I'm hoping for one of the political bodies (namely, Ephors) but I don't think society will come up as helots and periokoi came up as a 45 last year! But you never know, something about Spartiates might come up..

Good Luck on your revision and tell me how it goes :smile:

Reply 12

You too!
I wouldn't mind ephors either - it's quite a broad topic, and you can use quite a lot of the kings sources to compare their power. ☺️
Also, I think your sample essay would be really useful - just to see the planning in practise; thank you!
Good luck ☺️

Reply 13

AmyTheTimelord

I'd love a question on Lycurgus/Politics for the 45 mark question, but I'd really hate any questions on women!! I think my main weakness is evaluating the sources, any advice? :smile:

Reply 14

OP

Original post by AmyTheTimelord

I'd love a question on Lycurgus/Politics for the 45 mark question, but I'd really hate any questions on women!! I think my main weakness is evaluating the sources, any advice? :smile:

I feel like there isn't a lot to say about women that's why it'll be hard!

I'm not very good at evaluating myself, but my teacher (who is awesome by the way ha) always says to criticise the sources first (after your explanation) and then justify it by ending on a positive note. For example, ...We cannot fully trust Xenophon's information on the agoge as he seemed to be pro-Spartan and was a defender of Spartan values, however, Xenophon was the last eyewitness we have for Sparta and even put his two sons through the agoge. Therefore, (link back to the question)

That was badly put but I'm basically saying to criticise and then justify why you used him (the author).

I hope that helps :smile:

Reply 15

OP

Original post by Nicola121

You too!
I wouldn't mind ephors either - it's quite a broad topic, and you can use quite a lot of the kings sources to compare their power. ☺️
Also, I think your sample essay would be really useful - just to see the planning in practise; thank you!
Good luck ☺️

I couldn't find a whole essay haha, but I found an example paragraph that we wrote in class which is structured like what I mentioned earlier :biggrin:

This structure can be applied to B and C questions as well as the essay, but you don't need to criticise the sources in the B question.

Example paragraph: Xenophon's passage on the ephors having thrones at Sparta (Lac Pol 6-7) & is in response to a question which asks about the power of the ephors having increased over time.

~There can be little doubt that the ephors' power at Sparta had increased by the time of Xenophon in the early mid 4th century BC. This is suggested by the evidence Xenophon presents in his Lac Pol (XV). He tells us that everyone present stands when a king enters, except the ephors seated on their official thrones. We may expect the kings to have thrones but not the ephors. There is no existing evidence to make us believe that the ephors had thrones earlier & as Xenophon is our latest eyewitness to report on Sparta prior to her fall at Leuctra in 371 BC. It may thus be surmised that the ephors had indeed gained in power, even possibly at the expense of the kings. Xenophon was an Athenian but had very pro-Spartan leanings and ties, so much that he even put both of his sons through the agoge. This may mean that we cannot trust his evidence as it may be biased towards Sparta. But here he is only reporting on what he saw as an eyewitness at Sparta and is not especially trying to hide or disguise anything from his readers with his evidence. Therefore we have no reason to disbelieve him and should accept what he says as being the truth, the conclusion being that the ephors' powers had increased at Sparta over time.~

Hope this helped people :smile:

Reply 16

OP

How did you guys find the exam???

EPHORS CAME UP!!! EPHORS CAME UP!!! EPHORS CAME UP!!! I'M SOOOO HAPPY!! My teacher predicted the ephors was gonna come up for years and it finally did! But I talked more about the powers of the ephors that their actual importance :frown:

my mind went blank a lot :/ also timing was a huge problem, needed a lot more time for the essay and a page was dedicated to Thucydides which wasted time.

I did the questions on women that I wasn't confident about at all since I spent only half an hour the night before :frown:

Although I really like Sparta, I feel like I didn't do enough to get at least a B to be honest.

Need to try and up my game for Roman Britain!! My weak topic.

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Reply 17

YAY EPHORS - JUST LIKE YOU SAID! I was quite relieved when that topic came up because I'd just revised it before. (Phew...) Your teacher must be happy!!
I know what you mean about "importance", I kind of listed their powers & authority (also in reference to overpowering the the king) and said why they were important in that respect - I hope that's what they were looking for :redface:

Same, my timing mucked up a bit, but I think it's always really tight in ancient history - so much writing!
I did the women section too, and I found that I repeated some stuff, but in the end I had to spend lest time on part c than I would have liked to have enough time for the essay :frown:

I'm sure you did better than you think - the questions were quite broad and I talked a lot about Thucydides too in my ephors' answer, so I'm sure it's fine :smile:

Good luck with Roman Britain, I'm doing Cicero and the Republic and it's my lesser confident one too. :s-smilie:

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 18

OP

Original post by Nicola121

YAY EPHORS - JUST LIKE YOU SAID! I was quite relieved when that topic came up because I'd just revised it before. (Phew...) Your teacher must be happy!!
I know what you mean about "importance", I kind of listed their powers & authority (also in reference to overpowering the the king) and said why they were important in that respect - I hope that's what they were looking for :redface:

Same, my timing mucked up a bit, but I think it's always really tight in ancient history - so much writing!
I did the women section too, and I found that I repeated some stuff, but in the end I had to spend lest time on part c than I would have liked to have enough time for the essay :frown:

I'm sure you did better than you think - the questions were quite broad and I talked a lot about Thucydides too in my ephors' answer, so I'm sure it's fine :smile:

Good luck with Roman Britain, I'm doing Cicero and the Republic and it's my lesser confident one too. :s-smilie:

After the exam, I just realised what the other context question was about. And it was on one of my favourite topics, the Spartan Mirage. I kind of hate myself for not realising it was about that, but my body was probably filled with adrenaline I chose to do the one that looked 'easier'. And yeah my teacher was ecstatic!! Even my roman Britain teacher joined in celebrating, haha. My lack of evaluating the sources in my essay question has definitely cost me marks, (and also the end of my essay question as it is more than likely the examiner will not be able to read my handwriting) I just had no time!! It's so annoying that you might know SO MUCH about one topic but have to write a little because of the time, so irritating :frown: