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Sociology AS level

I am taking my first sociology papers in May (families and households and education/research methods) I find sociology quite hard, mostly because of the content I do not find it interesting therefore I do not remember, anything. The exam is getting closer and closer, I was wondering if anyone has any good revision techniques for sociology??
Reply 1
Original post by broce003
I am taking my first sociology papers in May (families and households and education/research methods) I find sociology quite hard, mostly because of the content I do not find it interesting therefore I do not remember, anything. The exam is getting closer and closer, I was wondering if anyone has any good revision techniques for sociology??


Hello :smile:

Sorry to hear you're not finding Sociology interesting. One way to maybe make it a bit more enjoyable is to watch the news or just observe whats going on around you in general. Although this doesn't sound like an exciting task in itself, you can use your Sociology knowledge to try and explain what you've seen!

To help with learning the content, things to try are using post-it notes to summarise everything and using your notes to answer the quickcheck questions and essay question at the end of each chapter (also past exam papers). Other methods include posters, flashcards, powerpoints, mindmaps for example, but make sure they are colourful, so they aren't dull to look at!

With regards to research methods, I structure my answers using this:
P: practical issues
E: ethical issues
R: is it representative?
V: is it a valid method?
E: example (of a study)
R: is it reliable?
T: theoretical(positivist/interpretivist)
E: evaluate
D: data (quantitative, qualitatative)

CAM: compare another method

With regards to finding studies to use as examples, throughout the chapters are blue boxes headed Methods Link :-)

Hope this has helped!
Reply 2
Original post by beth16x


Thank you so much! I will be sure to give this all a go!
Reply 3
[QUOTE="broce003;54612631"]
Original post by beth16x


Thank you so much! I will be sure to give this all a go!


My pleasure! Hopefully some of these techniques work for you, anything else feel free to ask me :smile:
Original post by broce003
I am taking my first sociology papers in May (families and households and education/research methods) I find sociology quite hard, mostly because of the content I do not find it interesting therefore I do not remember, anything. The exam is getting closer and closer, I was wondering if anyone has any good revision techniques for sociology??


I just read through the first chapter of sociology online and yes, it looks really long and winding. I am certain the exams are not going to test you on everything that's found in the book? Did your teacher identify key areas or perhaps highly tested areas of every chapter?

[QUOTE="beth16x;54613205"]
Original post by broce003


My pleasure! Hopefully some of these techniques work for you, anything else feel free to ask me :smile:


Hi Beth. Which exam board are you with for Sociology?
what other exams are you doing or did, at A levels and with which boards?
What can you tell us about each chapter and what to look out for Sociology?
thank you.
Reply 5
Original post by Vanessa Leah


Hi Beth. Which exam board are you with for Sociology?
what other exams are you doing or did, at A levels and with which boards?
What can you tell us about each chapter and what to look out for Sociology?
thank you.


Hey Vanessa,

I'm with AQA for Sociology. I'm also doing English Lang/Lit (WJEC) and Biology (OCR)
What sort of things are you wanting to know?:smile: I'm happy to answer anything:smile:
Original post by beth16x
Hey Vanessa,

I'm with AQA for Sociology. I'm also doing English Lang/Lit (WJEC) and Biology (OCR)
What sort of things are you wanting to know?:smile: I'm happy to answer anything:smile:


Hi beth. thank you for your reply. how is theory and methods?
Reply 7
Original post by Vanessa Leah
Hi beth. thank you for your reply. how is theory and methods?


Is that the research method part? If so, I must admit it is quite tedious, but the silver lining to that is that you don't have to remember a tonne of advantages/disadvantages with each method :smile: it's helpful to know which studies use which research method to mention in exam questions :smile: I made a poster on each method which I found really helpful!
Original post by beth16x
Is that the research method part? If so, I must admit it is quite tedious, but the silver lining to that is that you don't have to remember a tonne of advantages/disadvantages with each method :smile: it's helpful to know which studies use which research method to mention in exam questions :smile: I made a poster on each method which I found really helpful!


could you share that poster with us? that would be very very kind of you.

also what do you think of the families topic?
Reply 9
Original post by Vanessa Leah
could you share that poster with us? that would be very very kind of you.

also what do you think of the families topic?


I gave my AS posters to my friend for her revision, but I have done similar ones for A2 which are at school so I shall attach a picture Monday :smile: I used the 'perverted cam' I mentioned above and wrote out the issues/advantages of each method!

I enjoyed the families topic, particularly because most what you learn can be seen in society which I found interesting :smile: what do you think of it??
Original post by beth16x
I gave my AS posters to my friend for her revision, but I have done similar ones for A2 which are at school so I shall attach a picture Monday :smile: I used the 'perverted cam' I mentioned above and wrote out the issues/advantages of each method!

I enjoyed the families topic, particularly because most what you learn can be seen in society which I found interesting :smile: what do you think of it??


thank you so much. i'll be here on monday to look out for your poster and perhaps other relevant materials related to sociology? perhaps like a detailed example of how you answer exam questions?

I had a mock sociology question sometime ago and my teacher was really angry? well I linked my answer to the recent scandal where 1400 young girls were molested and raped and many of them murdered by a group of bad pakistani muslim men in Rotherham for over 10 years and the police and social services did not do anything.

my teacher told me that writing such things will only get me low marks even though she herself agreed with what i had written? she then had an hour's discussion with our class on how and why the police and social services did not bother to help these helpless young girls. it was a really sad lesson for most of my friends and I. what was more saddening was that I had been told to not write the truth even if its ok to do so?

do you think I was right or wrong to have done what I did?
Reply 11
Original post by Vanessa Leah
thank you so much. i'll be here on monday to look out for your poster and perhaps other relevant materials related to sociology? perhaps like a detailed example of how you answer exam questions?

I had a mock sociology question sometime ago and my teacher was really angry? well I linked my answer to the recent scandal where 1400 young girls were molested and raped and many of them murdered by a group of bad pakistani muslim men in Rotherham for over 10 years and the police and social services did not do anything.

my teacher told me that writing such things will only get me low marks even though she herself agreed with what i had written? she then had an hour's discussion with our class on how and why the police and social services did not bother to help these helpless young girls. it was a really sad lesson for most of my friends and I. what was more saddening was that I had been told to not write the truth even if its ok to do so?

do you think I was right or wrong to have done what I did?


With answering exam questions, I'd write about what is included in the book and if you can bring in other things that are relevant than maybe a brief outline but I wouldn't worry too much about including it, just focus on writing about the content :smile:

I can imagine it to be a very sad lesson :frown: It's brilliant that you're applying what you've learnt to society so whilst I don't think your teacher should have gotten angry about it, theres a chance of reading it as an opinion about something which wouldn't get you marks :smile:

I can give you an essay plan for an A2 question, I'll write one on Monday if that helps :smile:
Original post by beth16x
With answering exam questions, I'd write about what is included in the book and if you can bring in other things that are relevant than maybe a brief outline but I wouldn't worry too much about including it, just focus on writing about the content :smile:

I can imagine it to be a very sad lesson :frown: It's brilliant that you're applying what you've learnt to society so whilst I don't think your teacher should have gotten angry about it, theres a chance of reading it as an opinion about something which wouldn't get you marks :smile:

I can give you an essay plan for an A2 question, I'll write one on Monday if that helps :smile:


yes Beth. thank you so very much for offering to write out an essay plan. too many people on this forum simply just state things like 'oh use the PEEL method' but they don't go on to show examples as to how you apply the PEEL method or whichever method there are using.
Reply 13
Original post by Vanessa Leah
yes Beth. thank you so very much for offering to write out an essay plan. too many people on this forum simply just state things like 'oh use the PEEL method' but they don't go on to show examples as to how you apply the PEEL method or whichever method there are using.


No problem, its a form of revision for me too :smile:

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