AQA AS Sociology SCLY1 and SCLY2 | 2015 May

any predictions?

Divorce and Demography came up last year.....Social Policy?

Im so worried they are going to throw in a whole 24 marker on childhood


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I did Family and Health last year (Summer 2014) and got an A. If anyone has any questions etc. feel free to ask!


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When did you start revising
How did you revise
What do you think helped you get an A the most


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Sorry for the delay!

When did I start revising? As soon as the teacher had finished the course, so some time around now/beginning of March. I didn't start hardcore revision until mid-April if I remember rightly.

How did I revise? I split the course into the syllabus points (you can find them on the specification on the exam board website), then made mind maps and revision cards for each point. Another way some of my friends did it was go through the teachers PowerPoints and make notes on them. I just find cards work better for me because they are so small and portable. I also did past paper but those were mainly in class and then the teacher marked them.

What do I think helped most? There are several things that I think contributed, one of which being an awesome teacher, another being the Haralambos blue textbook (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Haralambos-Holborn-Sociology-Perspectives-Handbook/dp/0007310722) for AS and A2 - very helpful for cutting through the Sociological blathering and getting to the basic points, that's not to say it's the be all and end all of the course! But, it did help me grasp the basics to build off of and it had dozens of easily relatable sociologist to throw in. Another bit of advice would be don't neglect the shorter mark questions! It can be tempting to just rush the little questions so you can start the big one but DON'T! If you get nearly all the marks in the little questions then you already have a pass grade, that makes the big question less vital to ace - we all know those last few marks are nigh on impossible to get and most people can get half pretty easily, that's should roughly work out to a B... (If my memory is serving me correctly.)

Some more general advice I'd give:
- Remember a few basic theories or quotes, e.g. Murdock and Parsons and try to throw them in.
- Argue different approaches against each other (e.g. Marxist vs. Feminist vs. Functionalist)
- Be critical of different approaches, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you're talking about the 4 functions of the family, find different examples that do and don't fit, suggesting strengths and weaknesses.

Sorry this got a bit long, hope I helped and please feel free to contact me either through this post or on PM.




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Sorry for the delay!

When did I start revising? As soon as the teacher had finished the course, so some time around now/beginning of March. I didn't start hardcore revision until mid-April if I remember rightly.

How did I revise? I split the course into the syllabus points (you can find them on the specification on the exam board website), then made mind maps and revision cards for each point. Another way some of my friends did it was go through the teachers PowerPoints and make notes on them. I just find cards work better for me because they are so small and portable. I also did past paper but those were mainly in class and then the teacher marked them.

What do I think helped most? There are several things that I think contributed, one of which being an awesome teacher, another being the Haralambos blue textbook (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Haralambos-Holborn-Sociology-Perspectives-Handbook/dp/0007310722) for AS and A2 - very helpful for cutting through the Sociological blathering and getting to the basic points, that's not to say it's the be all and end all of the course! But, it did help me grasp the basics to build off of and it had dozens of easily relatable sociologist to throw in. Another bit of advice would be don't neglect the shorter mark questions! It can be tempting to just rush the little questions so you can start the big one but DON'T! If you get nearly all the marks in the little questions then you already have a pass grade, that makes the big question less vital to ace - we all know those last few marks are nigh on impossible to get and most people can get half pretty easily, that's should roughly work out to a B... (If my memory is serving me correctly.)

Some more general advice I'd give:
- Remember a few basic theories or quotes, e.g. Murdock and Parsons and try to throw them in.
- Argue different approaches against each other (e.g. Marxist vs. Feminist vs. Functionalist)
- Be critical of different approaches, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you're talking about the 4 functions of the family, find different examples that do and don't fit, suggesting strengths and weaknesses.

Sorry this got a bit long, hope I helped and please feel free to contact me either through this post or on PM.




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Do you still have any study sources ? Especially anything to do with key study's of the topics?


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This is amazing! I normally spend about 4 minutes on the short questions. However, how do you have enough time for 2 essays? How many paragraphs did you do?

I did Family and Health last year (Summer 2014) and got an A. If anyone has any questions etc. feel free to ask!


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Well done for getting such a good grade! If you remember could you please help me out I don't know what to write about social policy as in I know it involves policies etc but then do I counteract or support the policy with a theory? e.g functionalism/new right/marxist
and do I do this for all policies because in the mark scheme it says "Analysis and evaluation may be developed, for instance by comparing theimpact of different policies/laws" Im confused as to what it means?

You need to know examples of policies. For example, the legalisation of same sex marriage, how has this impacted society? You could look at this with the functionalist perspective on the family. Do gay relationships fulfil the different functions? No, because they can't reproduce independently but you could then make arguments that given the time in which Murdock wrote it's not surprising, or you could say that technically same sex couples can procreate through modern medicine etc.

There are so many different policies you'd be hard pressed to write about them all!

Now, here's an example of the revision cards I made. This one is on social policy and has loads of examples.



Here's an example of one of my revision cards with things people have said about social policy e.g. David Cameron.



Also, related to one of my previous posts. Here is a list of all the key sociologists in the Family and Households unit of the AS.to the left of each page is the topic it covers, I have also posted these in order so any without a topic are more from the page previous.











Also, here's an example from Social Policy of one of the summary/overview pages my teacher made.



Okay, now I want some serious rep for that ordeal! Haha. Hope that helps everyone. I noticed whilst looking through my folder from last year that I was right about my exam technique. I got almost full marks in the little questions then average about 16-18 in both essays, giving me a mark of 44/60 and an A grade. In the exam I did better but during practise essays and homework that was my average. Again, any questions, feel free to ask - it's good revision and procrastination for me.


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ohmygod THANKYOUUUUU SO MUCH! the same sex marriage point is such a good point I didn't think about it like that. you genius ha! that's the problem im having theres so many policies I don't know which ones to pick as I really want to have a variety of theories (marxism, feminism etc ) to argue or support the policy not just newright or functionalist which seems to be all im typing up at the moment

For the 2,4,6 marker questions in unit1 apparently all you have to do is bullet point the answers and you can gain full marks is this true?

Also, unfortunately the attachments don't open and I am eager to see them perhaps you can email them to me? would be so helpful.. also can I private message you an example of my social policy point if you don't mind?

that photo you attached is great makes so much sense. lifesaver!

I know, it can be so daunting when you realise the sheer amount of information you could learn - realistically you won't need all of it. The policies you know don't have to be terribly complicated, Divorce Reform and Same-Sex Marriage are two key ones. You don't need to know a great deal about the policies, just the basics, like China's One-Child Policy. I'd recommend going on BBC News and browsing every so often - is there any new legislation or ideas that will effect families? Like tax breaks for married couples?
To get Marxism in, you can just ask does it benefit the ruling class? Like with the one-child policy in China - the Bourgeoisie can just pay the fine and have another child, poorer people can't. For feminists it's simply a case of asking if it benefits women. NOTE: think really cynically! So, the Divorce Reform Act is good for women because it allows them to 'free' themselves from men. It doesn't have to be horrendously complicated.

I have always been told not to bullet point answers unless you are desperately running out of time... So, I'm not sure on that one. One AQA Biology examiner on an open day told us to feel free to bullet point answers but write in full sentences and don't actually put the bullet points in... Haha. But, I'd check with a teacher? For questions where it asks you to name three ways etc. do separate paragraphs to distinguish points, otherwise they tend to blur together. It also keeps you from overwriting.

As for the attachments, they were all just photos so, from what you said about getting one of them, should work fine? I'll have a try tomorrow at fixing them somehow. Oh, and feel free to send your point over. I'll be happy to have a look - I'm quite surprised by how much I can still remember from last year!


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