Edexcel A-level Politics Paper 1 (9PL0 01) - 23rd May 2023 [Exam Chat]

The best way to revise politics is essay plans. Of course it varies from person to person but I really do think essay plans are the answer. If you come up with essay plans for literally anything they can possibly ask then you'll hopefully be able to adapt one of your essay plans to the question in the exam.

I would recommend doing these essay plans incrementally and maybe writing up 5 per week (they only need to take 5 mins and just include your main points rather than examples as the hardest part in an exam is actually picking your points). If you do this then you'll be really well equiped. It might seem too early but I promise you won't regret i. I only really just started revising about two weeks ago and my first exam is a week today and I;m now regretting not starting sooner.

The other thing I'd suggest is taking an evening every three weeks or so to go over everything you've covered to keep it fresh in your mind- this will make revising so much easier next year.

As for finding examples, stay up to date with BBC news; follow politics accounts on twitter and instagram and listen to the radio when you're in the car. MASSOLIT is also great for A level- I only just discovered it last week which is a bit too late unfortunately.

If your exam board is edexcel then pick US politics! I absolutely cannot stress this enough. Some may disagree with me but as a global student, I really regret not doing US because the questions look so much easier. If you look at the past papers you'll see what I mean.

Hope this has been helpful.(Original post by Hailey629)Hi guys I’m a politics student in year 12 and this is kind of off topic but I struggle a lot with finding recent news which my teachers recommend to use in our essays and since most of you will be sitting your exams very soon. Any tips? Or like places I can find news and key evidences that link to the spec and how do you revise for the exams?

Reply 21

caitlynrichards_

3

Original post by hopecc

does anyone have any predictions on ideologies? do you know which one it was last year?

Our teacher gave us the paper and the questions were the extent to which conservatives are united in their attitude towards the state and to what extent is socialism more disunited than united :smile:

Reply 22

scinta

4

Original post by milksnatcher

That is true- liberalism defo has to come up too

i need them to ask about liberalism it's the easiest ideology

Reply 23

scinta

4

Original post by katie.watsonn

The best way to revise politics is essay plans. Of course it varies from person to person but I really do think essay plans are the answer. If you come up with essay plans for literally anything they can possibly ask then you'll hopefully be able to adapt one of your essay plans to the question in the exam.

I would recommend doing these essay plans incrementally and maybe writing up 5 per week (they only need to take 5 mins and just include your main points rather than examples as the hardest part in an exam is actually picking your points). If you do this then you'll be really well equiped. It might seem too early but I promise you won't regret i. I only really just started revising about two weeks ago and my first exam is a week today and I;m now regretting not starting sooner.

The other thing I'd suggest is taking an evening every three weeks or so to go over everything you've covered to keep it fresh in your mind- this will make revising so much easier next year.

As for finding examples, stay up to date with BBC news; follow politics accounts on twitter and instagram and listen to the radio when you're in the car. MASSOLIT is also great for A level- I only just discovered it last week which is a bit too late unfortunately.

If your exam board is edexcel then pick US politics! I absolutely cannot stress this enough. Some may disagree with me but as a global student, I really regret not doing US because the questions look so much easier. If you look at the past papers you'll see what I mean.

Hope this has been helpful.(Original post by Hailey629)Hi guys I’m a politics student in year 12 and this is kind of off topic but I struggle a lot with finding recent news which my teachers recommend to use in our essays and since most of you will be sitting your exams very soon. Any tips? Or like places I can find news and key evidences that link to the spec and how do you revise for the exams?

i started revising like 2 weeks ago too and my exams are in a week so i completely agree with you! I am just glad I kinda revised consistently (key word, kinda) throughout these 2 years so I can at least recall some information of all topics and modules. I kinda disagree with the US politics one though, it's in my opinion the hardest paper but of course this is different for everybody

Reply 24

scinta

4

Original post by 12rs05

Just wondering if any teachers or tutors, even students, have made some educated predictions on what may come up this year in our exam papers? I am just looking for a little bit of extra guidance cause my class is on our 3rd teacher of the year, who is a student teacher... SUGGESTIONS PLEASE :smile:

anybody who have predictions on paper 3 US politics please let me know! that's the paper I find hardest and would love some guidance!

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 25

scinta

4

Original post by katie.watsonn

omg really? I was kinda assuming they wouldn't ask about EU. It's such a niche and small part of the spec and I'm hoping they wouldn't be that mean considering our year didn't do GCSEs
(Original post by naimaha)maybe the EU and sovereignty for paper 2?

my teacher says there is a huge chance of eu coming up especially on the topic of the sovereignty we have achieved after Brexit, it's one of my least favourite modules so i get you :s-smilie:

Reply 26

hino292

2

Original post by Hailey629

Hi guys I’m a politics student in year 12 and this is kind of off topic but I struggle a lot with finding recent news which my teachers recommend to use in our essays and since most of you will be sitting your exams very soon. Any tips? Or like places I can find news and key evidences that link to the spec and how do you revise for the exams?

Hey i'm in year 13 and i also struggled with this when i was in year 12. I used to get strong Bs or As when I used textbook examples that weren't as recent. Although I found that downloading twitter was really helpful since I followed a number of a-level politics accounts of schools where they retweet different examples when they happen. Accounts I follow include @Studypoliticsuk, @TBSHSPolitics, @swchs_politics, @AmpColl_GovPol, and so many more! The more accounts you follow, there more suggestions will appear for similar accounts and there are sooo many useful accounts that will essentially fill your feed with politics info and in particular, contemporary examples. Podcasts are also so helpful - I particularly like the A-level Politics Show which basically goes through essay questions with current examples. Also just reading the news on the BBC politics section is great - for example, you may have seen concern about arrests on coronation day due to the Public Order Bill which is a great example about the protection of rights (or lack thereof) and conservatism. With twitter and the news, I tend to screenshot examples and keep a folder in my camera roll. I hope this is helpful! All the best for the rest of the course!

Reply 27

bjones025

9

Original post by scinta

anybody who have predictions on paper 3 US politics please let me know! that's the paper I find hardest and would love some guidance!

I'm not sure of the exacts on what is likely to come up, but I did manage to find a list of the topics for the 12-mark analyse/examine questions that they could only reasonably ask about, which could help revision:

Structural differences between US/UK Gov:
Courts/Cabinet/Legislatures/Presidential or Prime Ministerial powers/Legislative processes

Non-structural:
Pressure Groups and Interest groups/Parties and Ideology/Voting/Rights protection

Essentially, those pesky questions will only cover a small amount of topics and its unlikely they make them too-specific, as you get roughly 15 mins for each one, so deciphering little differences from nuanced topics seems pointless. Not sure if this is any help, but thought I'd throw this in anyway

Reply 28

beccacrw

11

Original post by Aboot

Any other predictions? Or maybe some topics to focus on less whilst revising?

Sorry bit late, but my teacher said there would maybe be a question on Paper 2 on PM + Executive, like the powers of the PM or something like that :smile:

Reply 29

scinta

4

Original post by bjones025

I'm not sure of the exacts on what is likely to come up, but I did manage to find a list of the topics for the 12-mark analyse/examine questions that they could only reasonably ask about, which could help revision:

Structural differences between US/UK Gov:
Courts/Cabinet/Legislatures/Presidential or Prime Ministerial powers/Legislative processes

Non-structural:
Pressure Groups and Interest groups/Parties and Ideology/Voting/Rights protection

Essentially, those pesky questions will only cover a small amount of topics and its unlikely they make them too-specific, as you get roughly 15 mins for each one, so deciphering little differences from nuanced topics seems pointless. Not sure if this is any help, but thought I'd throw this in anyway

thank you so much, this is very helpful! :smile:

Reply 30

poppyald

1

Original post by Neha.k123

Agreed - they’ve have changed the specification and made it v clear as to what should be revised regarding the EU so def don’t miss out EU. A lot of predictions for this years paper 1 has been democracy - definitely focus on that first if you haven’t :smile:

What have they specified?

Reply 31

delsiya

8

the exam board updated the spec and made it really clear that for prime minsters vs executive we should use boris instead of thatcher as they want more recent topics for the case studies this year - maybe this is a hint that this might come up?

Reply 32

Acetylcholinefan

7

Original post by delsiya

the exam board updated the spec and made it really clear that for prime minsters vs executive we should use boris instead of thatcher as they want more recent topics for the case studies this year - maybe this is a hint that this might come up?

Oh, do we still need the pre 1997 case study then? I have used Boris and Truss for my modern since I can remember them pretty well from the news.

Reply 33

delsiya

8

i don't think so as thatcher was 1979 to 1990 so that 7 year gap might not be influential enough to talk about even if you could.

Reply 34

dancingcabbage52

4

I'm thinking liberalism will come up too. I hope so - it's my best ideology! But do you think that they might do two of the same ideology - since there is two options? They've never done that before, but it still might be a possibility.

Original post by meticula

I definitely think there will be a liberalism question this year. And maybe something on referendums since they haven’t come up yet?

(edited 11 months ago)

OP

Hello everyone! :smile:

I've made this the official thread for this paper. Good luck!

Reply 36

Ellaraesmart

3

Hi my politics teacher sent an email today for paper 1 saying

'topics that did not come up last year so could come up this year include: general elections, minor parties, voting behaviour, democracy'

'Remember that, though most questions will cover a whole topic, it is possible to have a question on a smaller topic such as: think-tanks, lobbyists, funding of political parties'

just incase this helps :smile:

Reply 37

sglelfe

10

Hi guys idk if this is a dumb question but for global politics are we meant to make synoptic links to realists and liberals for 30markers or just leave it for section B? also is 2 paragraphs enough for a 12 marker? a lot of my plans are 2/3 paras but I write really slow and my timing is so bad - pls help

Reply 38

katie.watsonn

10

Original post by sglelfe

Hi guys idk if this is a dumb question but for global politics are we meant to make synoptic links to realists and liberals for 30markers or just leave it for section B? also is 2 paragraphs enough for a 12 marker? a lot of my plans are 2/3 paras but I write really slow and my timing is so bad - pls help

No you don't have to mention realism and liberalism in your thirty markers but it win't hurt to do so. Either way, it's not a requirment. As for the 12 markers, 2 paragraphs can still get you a really good mark as long as they are well written, but aim for three if you can.

Reply 39

abigailfalmer

1

for voting behaviour and the media , should i make a case study on the 2019 general election as my teacher said to have 1979 , 1997 , 2017 but is that too out of date

Edexcel A-level Politics Paper 1 (9PL0 01) - 23rd May 2023 [Exam Chat]

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