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A2 General Studies A Unit 3 - Anyone have any idea which topics might come up?

Explained in the title. I've heard that current hot topics tend to crop up in the exam, so any ideas? Maybe Brexit?

Or even just a bit of general advice for the exam?
(edited 7 years ago)
It's difficult to predict what may come up in the exam because they are supposedly written several months in advance.

General Studies is a weird exam in that you can't really revise for it in the traditional sense, the best thing to do is just keep up with the news and have a general understanding of what is going on in the world. That being said, I would be surprised if the EU question wasn't mentioned at all in the exam paper.

The best advice I could give is making sure that you read the question carefully. Of course the question in this paper are far more open ended than what you would find in a subject like History but that means that you have an opportunity to apply your own knowledge and understanding to a topic. For example in last years culture paper I applied what I knew about the Columbine shooting and the media's subsequent scapegoating of the videogame Doom in reference to a question about the extent to which parents should monitor their child's use of technology. That's a pretty morbid example but I think it shows how you can call upon nearly anything, so long as it is something that you feel is relevant and valid, to help write your response. The questions on the A2 paper seem to be more open-ended than the AS questions and I think it would be wise to give yourself some kind of focus so you don't get sidetracked or lose focus on what the question is asking you to debate. For example, when looking at a question from the 2014 paper, "Examine the preposition that the 21st century is the best time to be alive", try and narrow it down to a few ideas. One point I can think of off the top of my head would be the argument that we have more civil liberties than ever, but then I would try to balance that assertion by arguing something like "but not everyone is truly equal, differences in equality in parts of the world etc.", using any possible examples to support that argument, and then summarizing my point. After you've made the points you want to make, write a conclusion, even if its a short one. It just helps to round off the essay.

My general rule of thumb is try to make 3 points but if you struggle to do that, just write two: you're better off writing two well-developed points rather 3 mediocre ones. Oh, and chose the essay questions from the selection that you feel the most confident about.

And a final note: RTFQ - Read the ****ing question!! Make sure that the response you write is related to the question and if you use an example - like my Doom one - link it back to the question!

I hope that this is helpful, and feel free to ask questions if you like.
Reply 2
Original post by Real Human Bean
It's difficult to predict what may come up in the exam because they are supposedly written several months in advance.

General Studies is a weird exam in that you can't really revise for it in the traditional sense, the best thing to do is just keep up with the news and have a general understanding of what is going on in the world. That being said, I would be surprised if the EU question wasn't mentioned at all in the exam paper.

The best advice I could give is making sure that you read the question carefully. Of course the question in this paper are far more open ended than what you would find in a subject like History but that means that you have an opportunity to apply your own knowledge and understanding to a topic. For example in last years culture paper I applied what I knew about the Columbine shooting and the media's subsequent scapegoating of the videogame Doom in reference to a question about the extent to which parents should monitor their child's use of technology. That's a pretty morbid example but I think it shows how you can call upon nearly anything, so long as it is something that you feel is relevant and valid, to help write your response. The questions on the A2 paper seem to be more open-ended than the AS questions and I think it would be wise to give yourself some kind of focus so you don't get sidetracked or lose focus on what the question is asking you to debate. For example, when looking at a question from the 2014 paper, "Examine the preposition that the 21st century is the best time to be alive", try and narrow it down to a few ideas. One point I can think of off the top of my head would be the argument that we have more civil liberties than ever, but then I would try to balance that assertion by arguing something like "but not everyone is truly equal, differences in equality in parts of the world etc.", using any possible examples to support that argument, and then summarizing my point. After you've made the points you want to make, write a conclusion, even if its a short one. It just helps to round off the essay.

My general rule of thumb is try to make 3 points but if you struggle to do that, just write two: you're better off writing two well-developed points rather 3 mediocre ones. Oh, and chose the essay questions from the selection that you feel the most confident about.

And a final note: RTFQ - Read the ****ing question!! Make sure that the response you write is related to the question and if you use an example - like my Doom one - link it back to the question!

I hope that this is helpful, and feel free to ask questions if you like.


Thanks so much for the advice! :h: Extremely helpful.

If I might ask, you mentioned that you should try and make about 3 points for a question. Is this definitely the best strategy? When I was looking through mark schemes, there are unsurprisingly many different points you could make for each question. Is just three points enough to flesh out the bigger 25 mark questions?
Original post by 42squiggles
Thanks so much for the advice! :h: Extremely helpful.

If I might ask, you mentioned that you should try and make about 3 points for a question. Is this definitely the best strategy? When I was looking through mark schemes, there are unsurprisingly many different points you could make for each question. Is just three points enough to flesh out the bigger 25 mark questions?


I would write the points that you feel confident about, so if you have three really good ideas then go for it. But lets so you've got two really strong ideas that you can develop, focus on writing them first so you have a good 'body' to your response. Then, if you've got a good point which is a little bit shorter, write that as well, providing that you have the time: you need to be sure that you write a full response to both questions.

I would say try and limit your arguments (if you have several) to 4 at the very maximum and choose the strongest ones. It's better to have a couple of well-developed points rather than 5 or 6 weak ones. Keep in mind that you need to answer both essay questions AND the source section in under two hours, so try and leave as much time as possible for both sections. My gut feeling would be to spend 45 minutes on the source section, writing the best answers I can write, and spend the next hour and a quarter on the essay section, with roughly 35 mins to each (keeping in mind that you'll want to write a brief plan for each essay so to get your head straight).

Saying that, in the exam you might end up spending less time on the source questions or one of the essays than you thought you would. Just use your time productively and the times I've given would be what I think would be the maximum amount of time you would want to spend on each section before moving onto the next.
Reply 4
Original post by Real Human Bean
I would write the points that you feel confident about, so if you have three really good ideas then go for it. But lets so you've got two really strong ideas that you can develop, focus on writing them first so you have a good 'body' to your response. Then, if you've got a good point which is a little bit shorter, write that as well, providing that you have the time: you need to be sure that you write a full response to both questions.

I would say try and limit your arguments (if you have several) to 4 at the very maximum and choose the strongest ones. It's better to have a couple of well-developed points rather than 5 or 6 weak ones. Keep in mind that you need to answer both essay questions AND the source section in under two hours, so try and leave as much time as possible for both sections. My gut feeling would be to spend 45 minutes on the source section, writing the best answers I can write, and spend the next hour and a quarter on the essay section, with roughly 35 mins to each (keeping in mind that you'll want to write a brief plan for each essay so to get your head straight).

Saying that, in the exam you might end up spending less time on the source questions or one of the essays than you thought you would. Just use your time productively and the times I've given would be what I think would be the maximum amount of time you would want to spend on each section before moving onto the next.


Ah, well that does sound like a sensible plan. I'll use this as a reference :yy:

I usually end up going for a balance of a few reasonably developed points anyway for these types of essays.

Thanks once again! Hope I didn't take up too much of your time!
Linking to this, in the sections B and C, are we meant to give a balanced answer or not? Eg if it asks about the EU, should we give a final conclusion or should we just discuss both sides of the debate?

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