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Classical Civilisation A2 OCR 2014 thread

I couldn't find a thread for this so...

Which two papers are you doing?
I'm doing: Virgil and the world of a hero and Art and architecture in the Greek world.

How is your revision going?

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Doing the exact same thing. Im comfortable with Virgil's paper but with Art & Architecture I literally have no clue what i'm going to do. God help me. It's the first exam as well. I'm just constantly writing essays over and over but I can never get the grade I expect :/
Reply 2
I'm also doing Virgil and Art + Architecture. There is so much content to the art paper, I have no idea how I'm going to remember it all!
Reply 3
Im doing both of them too, does anybody have any good revision materials for either?!
Original post by TheZoo
I'm also doing Virgil and Art + Architecture. There is so much content to the art paper, I have no idea how I'm going to remember it all!


To be honest, I know this isn't a good idea but im neglecting the temples element of art and architecture...there is way too much content and I just can't get my head round it. Hopefully the choices will be decent.
Reply 5
Original post by michiganpapi
To be honest, I know this isn't a good idea but im neglecting the temples element of art and architecture...there is way too much content and I just can't get my head round it. Hopefully the choices will be decent.


I'm thinking of cutting out temples to be honest! There should always be another option in the choices, as I doubt both choices would be the same area. There's definitely way too much content for temples and I always seem to do badly in the practice questions for them...
Original post by TheZoo
I'm thinking of cutting out temples to be honest! There should always be another option in the choices, as I doubt both choices would be the same area. There's definitely way too much content for temples and I always seem to do badly in the practice questions for them...


The problem with doing that is, if the questions on vases and free-standing sculptures you find extremely difficult to answer, you wont be left with any alternative. The questions they could ask aren't like a history course where essentially only 8 different questions could be asked but simply in different ways. There are literally so many possible questions in the art & architecture course.
Reply 7
Original post by michiganpapi
Doing the exact same thing. Im comfortable with Virgil's paper but with Art & Architecture I literally have no clue what i'm going to do. God help me. It's the first exam as well. I'm just constantly writing essays over and over but I can never get the grade I expect :/

Yeah, I wish the Virgil paper was first because I don't need to revise much for that paper but I have a whole week with no exams in between to revise for it! I'd rather a whole week to focus on the art and architecture paper but that's during the week when I have most of my exams all close together.
I'm really struggling to learn dates and temples are what I find most difficult to write about because I always run out of things to say even if I'm using my notes so I think I'm not going to bother revising temples.
I'm doing exactly the same two papers as you guys -- try Quizlet, you can find my quizlet things for the dates here: http://quizlet.com/43926468/ocr-a2-artarchitecture-dates-flash-cards/ (hope that's of some use...). Think of good ways to remember the dates, like Doryphoros is 440 because it sounds like 'double four-os' etc.

I'm cutting out vases because we started learning them like two months prior to the exam... Temple architecture, temple art and free-standing are my choices. But don't worry, the grade boundaries are always really low -- I think 85 raw was an A* last year, compared with 94 for US Politics' A* boundary.
I am taking Fall of the Roman Republic from 81-31 BC.
Does anybody have an idea of what questions they think will be asked for art + arc and the Aeneid?
Original post by JamesGaga
Does anybody have an idea of what questions they think will be asked for art + arc and the Aeneid?

The Aeneid, may be something on Portents and religious ideas that contract into the Roman Empire.
Also may be something about the Shield- comparison between Achilleus and Aeneas shield.
Original post by propagation
The Aeneid, may be something on Portents and religious ideas that contract into the Roman Empire.
Also may be something about the Shield- comparison between Achilleus and Aeneas shield.


Well this has got me really worried! what would we say about comparing shields? and a whole question on portents? seems very specific dont you think?
Original post by JamesGaga
Well this has got me really worried! what would we say about comparing shields? and a whole question on portents? seems very specific dont you think?

I am just going on the basis of what I was expecting last year and my teacher was adamant would come up soon.

The shield is a crazy one lol, mainly because of a lot of links to the republic and the culture of the Ancient greek states.
There is a lot you can write, if you quote me, I will try and find it later if I have time.
Same applies to the portents.
Original post by propagation
I am just going on the basis of what I was expecting last year and my teacher was adamant would come up soon.

The shield is a crazy one lol, mainly because of a lot of links to the republic and the culture of the Ancient greek states.
There is a lot you can write, if you quote me, I will try and find it later if I have time.
Same applies to the portents.


Yes an yelp you could give willies be greatly appreciated!!
Original post by JamesGaga
Yes an yelp you could give willies be greatly appreciated!!

quote me again so I can contact you tomoz.
Reply 16
Original post by JamesGaga
Well this has got me really worried! what would we say about comparing shields? and a whole question on portents? seems very specific dont you think?



if it's portents you can talk about prophecies, omens and portents
e.g, Ghost of Hector Bk 2, Bad omen Dido sends with Aeneas Bk4, Bk6 is underworld and is basically the central idea, Bk 7 with Father Tiber, significance of the bees (new arrival), Father Faunus and the prophecy not to marry Lavinia into latin blood and the significant of her hair on fire. Plus if all fails and you forget this, you can refer to book 2 :

when Ascanius Iulus' hair catches fire and Jupiter sends the comet to crash on the mountain

when Venus shows Aeneas the 4 Gods smashing up Troy ( significance of Fate & Destiny)- Neptune, Jupiter, Pallas and Juno

REMEMBER: IN ORDER TO GET THE HIGHEST MARKS YOU SHOULD MENTION A WIDE RANGE OF EXAMPLES FROM THROUGHOUT THE BOOK

Our teacher thinks this will come up too and for some reason he always tends to be right
Original post by propagation
The Aeneid, may be something on Portents and religious ideas that contract into the Roman Empire.
Also may be something about the Shield- comparison between Achilleus and Aeneas shield.


They most likely wont ask of the comparisons of the shields as that was last years question.
Original post by michiganpapi
They most likely wont ask of the comparisons of the shields as that was last years question.

It wasn't a direct question.
My teacher is expecting it. I did the exam last year!
Original post by propagation
It wasn't a direct question.
My teacher is expecting it. I did the exam last year!


But surely if they have already asked book eight, it is very unlikely they would repeat it this year?

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