I was wondering what is the easiest way to achieve A/B in the new specification of AS-level AQA Philosophy? Any handy tips/advice anyone and anything else you would like to add please post below !
To be honest, just learn your stuff If you can learn all your stuff before the exam then you should then be able to re-write it easily in a mature way.
If you start now by researching your essays and developing them very well in an academic style (writing academically) then you should be able to use them to revise.
Also if you are writing well and structuring your essays coherently at the moment then all you will need to do is to learn all of the arguments/criticisms then put it naturally into a lucid essay in the exam.
In the "Evaluate" questions where you have to assess the strength of a particular argument a good way is by stating the argument to begin, then stating that there are criticisms and list them. Using quotations at this stage would be impressive. If you can imbed them into your answers that would look better. Then, if there are any counter criticisms, include them. But remember to give more than one viewpoint. Finally try an give a "tentative" conclusion and if need be a relevant judgement.
For the describing and explaining questions, all you need to know is what you have revised, and personally the best way to revise for essay based subjects is to rewrite notes.
I will usually rewrite my notes fully, using the textbook and other reliable sources. I will go into a lot of depth - including quotes. Then I will rewrite these again, but more precisely and then ultimately after doing that I should be able to write a few words down to summarise a whole argument, e.g: The Ontological Argument and its criticisms.
Another way to revise this and to ensure a top grade is ofcourse the use of mindmaps, but also essay plans. Just structuring paragraphs which indicate relevant topics ensure you are covered for the exam, but only if you touch all of the points.
If you need any more advice, I would quite happily welcome any questions through PM