AQA Media Studies MEST 3 - 5th June

I couldn't find a thread on MEST 3, the A2 paper, for AQA Media Studies so I thought I'd make one myself.

The mark breakdown of the 2 hour long paper is as follows...

Part A:

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Three questions, 8 marks, 12 marks, 12 marks. 32 total.

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Based on two unseen texts.

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You need to link to other texts, outside of those you've been given, in the second to last and final question to get top marks.

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I would spend 45 minutes or so on Part A.

Part B:

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Choice of four questions, two on identities, two on new and digital technology, each 48 marks.

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Based on your case study.

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Link to texts that you've studied independently, if your case study was on the music industry one text might a Taylor Swift video.

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Spend the remaining 75 minutes on Part B, it's worth more marks and deserves more time.

Now that that's out of the way, anyone want to share their advice on their case studies? I'm only doing one on new and digital because I couldn't for the life of me wrap my head around identities in media.

Reply 1

dazfd

How do you think you should split the 45 mins across Section A?
Also, you spend 15 minutes looking at the unseen texts, so you can't spend 75 mins of Section B, only 60.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

dmorel

Hi, i`m focusing mainly on the new digital media case study as well because the new identities is confusing me! i have a solid NDM case study on the impact of NDM on film production,distribution and consumption so am just hoping i can fit it into the question.

I also was wondering if anyone can help with the structure of the answers of section A and B like how many points we should make and how long to spend ect.
Thanks :smile:

Reply 3

nic_letta

for section A i normally spend 12 minutes on the first question and then 15 on the other two giving me some time to think/plan.

Normally for question 1 i try to write a paragraph for each of the texts and then something that they both do, so around 3/4 paragraphs in total and then embed media language into it to get some extra marks.
For question 2 i then do 2 points from the texts given- so one paragraph for each- and then write about another separate text to get in the 'reference to wider issues and debates' bit of the mark scheme. Then in this question i use more theory than just media language, e.g marxism or liberal pluralism etc.
Thennnn... for question 3, i pick one point from the texts- i try to pick something that they both do, but if not then just focus on one, then 2 wider knowledge points from two different texts, either agreeing or disagreeing with the question... and include theory again.

it's a pretty good structure to go with as it's easy to remember and kind of builds on itself, plus it gives you opportunity to really show off that you can relate what you're talking about to other texts :smile:

hope that helped!

section B is the harder part i think, especially with it being the first year of identity questions... :frown:

Reply 4

dmorel

thanks that has made it much clearer !! :smile:

i found section B harder as we were not really given any information regarding what the mark scheme was looking for and our whole class ended up writing a representation essays because we could not distinguish between representation and identity :/

Reply 5

glenm

what new media and identity case studies are people doing?

Reply 6

megan0497

My new technologies case study is the impact of CGI on Disney Movies..

Reply 7

Katherineoddy

Our college hasn't had a media teacher all year round so we haven't been taught a single thing.
It's one week until our exam and I still don't have a case study, or even know what it should be about or what to include in it!

I'm stressy!

Reply 8

Katherineoddy

Does anybody have any exemplar essays for the exam? As I said, I haven't been taught a single thing this year and I don't even know how much we're supposed to write and how/what to write.

Reply 9

mediastudent1234

Have you looked on the AQA website at the example grade responses i find them useful. In terms of what to write that is all down to the questions we get but write for how much the question is worth and how much you think you can write in the time you have. its about quality not quantity so ten basic points will pale in comparison to three developed points. Sorry to hear about the unfortunate year and wish you the best of luck :smile:

Reply 10

Rachelcoleman7

Original post by Katherineoddy

Our college hasn't had a media teacher all year round so we haven't been taught a single thing.
It's one week until our exam and I still don't have a case study, or even know what it should be about or what to include in it!

I'm stressy!

I'd suggest at such a late stage just picking a case study that you're naturally interested in and that you'd have a lot of texts to use. I'm doing National British Identity but I didn't realise we could basically do any topic we wanted for the identity question otherwise I would've done something to do with gender or sexuality. Good luck though, it's so awful that you haven't been taught properly?!

Reply 11

Rachelcoleman7

Hi guys,
Does anyone know yet whether their school has been told that a DVD player will be needed or not. I'm not quite sure whether I'd be more comfortable with moving image or just print and e-media, but knowing what to expect before we go into the exam is nice I suppose :')

Reply 12

sarahlogue

Original post by Rachelcoleman7

Hi guys,
Does anyone know yet whether their school has been told that a DVD player will be needed or not. I'm not quite sure whether I'd be more comfortable with moving image or just print and e-media, but knowing what to expect before we go into the exam is nice I suppose :' :wink:

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/media-studies/a-level/media-studies-2570/updates/mest1-and-mest3-examinations-june-2015

on the AQA website it says it will be moving image

Reply 13

funsize_

1

Original post by Rachelcoleman7

Hi guys,
Does anyone know yet whether their school has been told that a DVD player will be needed or not. I'm not quite sure whether I'd be more comfortable with moving image or just print and e-media, but knowing what to expect before we go into the exam is nice I suppose :' :wink:

Our teacher told us one of the texts will be moving image as we've been told we need a DVD player :frown:

Gutted; I prefer print!!

Reply 14

funsize_

1

Original post by glenm

what new media and identity case studies are people doing?

My new media case study is the effects of N&DM on cyberterrorism, and my identity study is on the construction of ethnic minorities in the 2011 London riots.

PRAYING we get a good choice of questions, I do not fancy "pigeon-holing" my case study into a question that doesnt fit :unimpressed:

Reply 15

nic_letta

i'm mainly focusing on Identity case study because i think it's quite easy to make any case study for it fit the questions where as ndm is soon broad! only problem with that of course is that its a new topic and it's hard to tell what to expect :cry2:

anyone got any good revision ideas for the case study section of the exam? I've run out!

My identity case study is on British national Identity btw :smile:

Reply 16

Katherineoddy

Original post by mediastudent1234

Have you looked on the AQA website at the example grade responses i find them useful. In terms of what to write that is all down to the questions we get but write for how much the question is worth and how much you think you can write in the time you have. its about quality not quantity so ten basic points will pale in comparison to three developed points. Sorry to hear about the unfortunate year and wish you the best of luck :smile:

Thank you! Where about on the website are they? I can't seem to find them anywhere!

Reply 17

alconnow

2

How do you guys revise for the exam? For the section A I go through the key concepts and theories and for section B, I just memorise my main texts. It's hard to remember everything :s-smilie:

Reply 18

mediastudent1234

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/media-studies/a-level/media-studies-2570/past-papers-and-mark-schemes scroll to the bottom and they are there :smile:

Reply 19

nic_letta

Original post by alconnow

How do you guys revise for the exam? For the section A I go through the key concepts and theories and for section B, I just memorise my main texts. It's hard to remember everything :s-smilie:

that's pretty much what i'm doing too :smile:

AQA Media Studies MEST 3 - 5th June

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