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How to revise A level Politics and get an A at AS?

Hi all,

I am struggling on how to revise A level politics, the exams in in like 4 weeks time, so I really need some tips on how to revise politics and some exam tips as well like the writing structure for the answers.
I am desperate for an A(no matter how low it is) but I am absolutely crap at the subject and didn't really listen in the lesson at all, just copied all the note down, what I was thinking is that I am gonna read the textbook word by word and memorize all the facts etc and just fill into the answer really, but my teacher told us that if you just copy the facts down the answer you won't get high marks, now I am confused and not sure what should I actually write in the exam :s-smilie: surely you need to write some knowledge from the textbook down.
I am doing AQA so the question is 2 out of 4 topics for both unit 1 & 2, in effect I only need to revise half of the book, each topical question consists 3 parts, 5 marks / 10 marks/ 25 marks.

Thank you for any tips!
Reply 1
first of all you need at least 3 topics out of four in each unit, cause it could always be very murky quesitons and youll be like i need another lifeline,

second, its all about advantages and disadvantages in a level politics, so all you do is revise everything in the topic, look at the pros and cons, and then apply to context of uk
nothing else to it at that purest level reallyu
Reply 2
As above said, it is all just advantages and disadvantages of the topics. I have spent most of the weekend doing past papers for AS.

If you look at them they ask very,very,very similar questions each year, with a few dodgy ones, so I'd recommend downloading them for yourself and doing essay plans of each question on the papers for the past 3/4 years and memorise. Even if they change the wording or give the questions a slightly different emphasis you should still have some pretty ideal answers in your head.

GOOD LUCK! I need atleast a B on this to meet my uni offers :/.
Reply 3
Original post by Radradrad
I have spent most of the weekend doing past papers for AS.

If you look at them they ask very,very,very similar questions each year, with a few dodgy ones, so I'd recommend downloading them for yourself and doing essay plans of each question on the papers for the past 3/4 years and memorise. .


WITH A FEW DODGY ONES, this is why you must revise at least 3 each
Reply 4
Read your notes. Test your knowledge on the notes (don't just read them, make sure they've gone in). Do practice questions and look at model answers, look at the mark scheme. Also, in politics I find, examples and essay technique in the part c's are absolutely key, so try to read the newspapers, watch the news, etc, as more modern examples tend to be favoured.

In the "Discuss..." questions, Intro, point-counterpoint, point-counterpoint, point-counterpoint, Conclusion works quite well for me.

Good luck! :smile:
Reply 5
I'm so stuck for this as well - I am so rubbish with politics and I need to get my 'c' grade up to an 'a'

How many points is the 25 mark question meant to have in it?
Does anyone have any UNIT 1 essay 'a' grades on either democracy/pressure groups/elections.

I hate politics so much. :mad:
I got an A at AS on Edexcel, but I'm guessing that AQA will be after the same sort of thing:
the main thing is to have up to date information - just learning the text book won't get the top grades - read the newspapers for relevant stuff that you can use or find information on more recent events (AV referendum, Lords reform, tuition fees protests)
also just practise writing essays; the timing isn't the easiest to get so it's useful to practise! if you don't want to write essays for every question, write essay plans so you have the basic ideas there that you know how to develop.
start your answers by picking out the key words in the question and explaining how you'll interpret them, and refer to them throughout in your analysis. If you do run short on time, putting a few extra points that are less expanded upon in your conclusion can get a few extra marks if you link them into your conclusion.
hope that helps and good luck! :biggrin:
Reply 7
Original post by kayleigh.jean
I got an A at AS on Edexcel, but I'm guessing that AQA will be after the same sort of thing:
the main thing is to have up to date information - just learning the text book won't get the top grades - read the newspapers for relevant stuff that you can use or find information on more recent events (AV referendum, Lords reform, tuition fees protests)
also just practise writing essays; the timing isn't the easiest to get so it's useful to practise! if you don't want to write essays for every question, write essay plans so you have the basic ideas there that you know how to develop.
start your answers by picking out the key words in the question and explaining how you'll interpret them, and refer to them throughout in your analysis. If you do run short on time, putting a few extra points that are less expanded upon in your conclusion can get a few extra marks if you link them into your conclusion.
hope that helps and good luck! :biggrin:


@kayleigh.jean,

do you by any chance still have any essay plans or essays for unit 1/2. I'm currently doing edexcel, and no matter how many times I do the exam i'm always getting C's
Original post by :)J
@kayleigh.jean,

do you by any chance still have any essay plans or essays for unit 1/2. I'm currently doing edexcel, and no matter how many times I do the exam i'm always getting C's


hey :smile:
yeah I should do, probably not loads as I didn't revise as much as I should've last year, but I think I definitely have a few. I'll find them out and sort out getting them to you in the next couple of days? :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by kayleigh.jean
hey :smile:
yeah I should do, probably not loads as I didn't revise as much as I should've last year, but I think I definitely have a few. I'll find them out and sort out getting them to you in the next couple of days? :smile:


Omg, thank you so much! that's so nice of you!
:smile:
For A questions, just make sure you've got 3 or 4 points short points and an example for what's being asked. You don't need any evaluation etc.

For B questions you want to focus on 3 well developed points, one in each paragraph. Aim to write about 3/4 to a full page, depending on your handwriting. Make sure you have examples. You can have some evaluation, but B questions are mostly one-sided.

The C questions are generally for/against questions, you just need to bang out 4 points for each side of the argument.

Eg. how democratic is the UK?

for
> democratic elections
> choice of parties
> increased use of referendums
> pressure groups

against
> FPTP is disproportional
> limited ideological differences between parties
> government chooses terms of referendum & they're not legally binding
> House of Lords is unelected

Write a paragraph on each, alternating for/against, and flesh out the points with examples and some explanation, then sum it up with a short conclusion weighing up both sides of the debate :smile:

When it comes down to it, that's all you really need to remember. Just stay strong on the examples, litter your answer with them and you'll be fine :tongue:
I'm doing AQA politics and I got a C last year (a C in paper one and a D in paper 2) and retook in last January and did worse in paper 2 (going to retake that one again in the summer - third time lucky! :P) but got quite a high A for paper 1 so it's been bumped up to a B. So I tell you that i'm definitely experienced with the exam structure :P

Timing is essential. Make sure you do a practice paper under timed conditions so you know you can answer everything on time! What I did was answer the questions for each topic in the reverse order so did part c first - that's where most of the marks are!

When reading the question there are usually keywords within them so make sure you spend time to write a plan for a part c (5 minutes plan, 20 minutes writing the actual essay and 5 minutes to check your answers)

Topic wise I would recommend doing Voting Behaviour and Electoral Systems, and learn Pressure groups in case the question is awful for the other topic. With the first two topics it's very fact based so would be easier to learn. Look at the syallbus online and make sure you know all the key terms off by heart and name an example (if applicable) or quote a figure (for example learn turnouts for at least the 2005 and 2010 general elections!)

As for paper 2 seeing how i'm not doing well in it myself I feel like I can't offer that much advice for that :P We ran out of time to learn all 4 topics so I have no choice but to answer the questions on the British Constitution and on the House of Lords. What topics are you doing? If you're doing the same ones I'll give more advice :smile:

So to summarise:
1) Make sure you can do the paper to time
2) Use examples whenever possible
3) Learn key definitions

Hope this was helpful! :smile:

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