thread for anyone who did A2 Classical Civilisation AQA last year! please read this!

Original post by jeanieb67

Thank you! Really really hope someone can help me out!!

Hello! I'm doing CIV3B too! :smile:

Reply 4

Original post by Clytaemnestra

Hello! I'm doing CIV3B too! :smile:

SO relieved I've found someone!!!! How is your revision going? Please tell me you have some predictions especially for Aeschylus! Would be so so useful. Good luck and great to hear from you!

Reply 5

Original post by ScienceConfusion

SO relieved I've found someone!!!! How is your revision going? Please tell me you have some predictions especially for Aeschylus! Would be so so useful. Good luck and great to hear from you!

Finding it difficult to be honest, how about you? And I'm going to do Aeschylus come what may! In a class discussion yesterday we were thinking possibly myth may come up for the 40 marker, which would be really good, alternatively quality of leadership may come up again, we just don't know :P But I really hate Herodotus so going to concentrate on Aeschylus for the time being, just going over themes really for the 40 mark comparison. I'm so nervous! :O Predictions for the 10 and 20 markers well, we'll just have to wait and see, it's so unpredictable!

Reply 6

Original post by Clytaemnestra

Finding it difficult to be honest, how about you? And I'm going to do Aeschylus come what may! In a class discussion yesterday we were thinking possibly myth may come up for the 40 marker, which would be really good, alternatively quality of leadership may come up again, we just don't know :P But I really hate Herodotus so going to concentrate on Aeschylus for the time being, just going over themes really for the 40 mark comparison. I'm so nervous! :O Predictions for the 10 and 20 markers well, we'll just have to wait and see, it's so unpredictable!

Same here! I'm doing the second classics paper on Friday and I have completely neglected that because it's taking me so long just to get my head around the different battles. Takes ages!! Same here. I am definitely doing the Aeschylus question but there's no guessing what they'd do for it. I'm hoping I can just talk about his genre being tragedy and the reaction of his audience! That's a good prediction which I didn't even think of though I really wouldn't know what to write about for it. I'm hoping a leadership question as well! Or just something which is worded quite awkwardly but is really just the contrasts between the two sides. Yes, I'm basically just going over an essay on the contrasts between the sides and then I'll just have to fit it to the question! I was thinking maybe oracles and divine intervention for the 40 marker which I have not looked at yet but I hope not. Very true!! I can't see any other way to deal with it than to revise really generally and just hope for the best which is nerve wracking !! I was thinking that they'd probably put up xerxes lament at the end, or else the opening chorus for Aeschylus because they haven't been on in a while?

Reply 7

Apparently the kommos/exodus has never been on! And yet in my view it's the most interesting, with the motif of Xerxes in "rags" and generally feeling depressed. I've just thought for the 40 marker, we discussed in class about the possibility of Persian vs. Greek numbers, I know it would be a very narrow field of enquiry but it could work, in that the Greeks won at Marathon and at Salamis despite being outnumbered, so could talk about triumph in the face of adversity - at Marathon the Persians thought it suicide for the Greeks to take them on in such small numbers. And then to counteract that I would love to do the differences in fighting styles/weaponry, as well as culture - similar in that Aeschylus integrates Greek culture into Persian life, but different in that Persians are very hubristic, and the gods are on the side of the Greeks :smile:

also hubris?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 8

And I really want to read Virgil's Aeneid! But I think it wasn't an option for us because it would have been too similar to CIV2B, The Odyssey, which I resat on Tuesday :P for unit 4 I'm doing CIV4D Tiberius and Claudius, and I'm definitely feeling stronger on that than the Persian Wars! With Herodotus there's just such a wide scope for analysis, as he covers much more than Aeschylus, who just focuses on Salamis with a reflection on Marathon at times and foreshadowing on Plataea towards the end. Only thing that's worrying me is terminology e.g. Stasimon, parados etc, like in the factual questions at the start 'where was this extract taken from' sort of thing, do you say just before or just after an event or do you have to be really specific like 1st stasimon, 2nd stasimon? Argh!

Reply 9

Original post by Clytaemnestra

And I really want to read Virgil's Aeneid! But I think it wasn't an option for us because it would have been too similar to CIV2B, The Odyssey, which I resat on Tuesday :P for unit 4 I'm doing CIV4D Tiberius and Claudius, and I'm definitely feeling stronger on that than the Persian Wars! With Herodotus there's just such a wide scope for analysis, as he covers much more than Aeschylus, who just focuses on Salamis with a reflection on Marathon at times and foreshadowing on Plataea towards the end. Only thing that's worrying me is terminology e.g. Stasimon, parados etc, like in the factual questions at the start 'where was this extract taken from' sort of thing, do you say just before or just after an event or do you have to be really specific like 1st stasimon, 2nd stasimon? Argh!

I did the Odyssey last year! How'd it go on Tuesday? Yeah it is actually very similar though I've a long way to go before I do that exam!! Ah very good! I have been giving more time to this but I think I'd be better at doing the essays for the aeneid. I think xerxes' lament will be a strong possibility then so maybe they could be nice and do a question on his hubris!! Same, I think you do have to be quite specific... but as far as I can tell from the mark schemes its really just saying what happened before and after. Mark schemes are very good for this side though!! I would say to write down basically everything you know for the short mark questions, like mention what Stasimon it is in but also the events before and after you can remember so the examiner will have to give you marks! How do you find timing for this paper? I'm honestly quite relieved it's only an hour and a half because I genuinely don't think I could write any longer than that. I would love a really general 40 marker on cultural social and political differences which we could try waffle through! I was even watching videos on YouTube yesterday on the battles because I couldn't remember what exactly happened...not a good sign!!!

Reply 10

Yeah Tuesday went well I think, much more straightforward than last year, questions were 100 times easier :P ah, Xerxes' lament would be awesome as it's fairly short and straightforward :biggrin:

but yeah I'm seriously stressing out about terminology! So the stasimon is the Chorus' reaction? I've been working on timings in other subject areas so I think it's actually alright, as you say I would begin to drift away from the focus of the question if I wrote for more than 1.5 hours :P although I have an English and Geography paper that are 2.5 hours long so I've got the joys of that to look forward to! And same! You're not alone on that trust me, I was on the internet earlier trying to find brief summaries of the battles, Livius is very good but a bit waffly :P so I tried some other one that seemed a bit clearer, was struggling to remember examples of hubris and myth in Herodotus so that's what I was working on today - a memorable one for you, the sacred snake of Delphi deserted the city because his honey cakes had been left untouched! It's amazing what ancient writers spent their time on isn't it? :biggrin:

Reply 11

Original post by Clytaemnestra

Yeah Tuesday went well I think, much more straightforward than last year, questions were 100 times easier :P ah, Xerxes' lament would be awesome as it's fairly short and straightforward :biggrin:

but yeah I'm seriously stressing out about terminology! So the stasimon is the Chorus' reaction? I've been working on timings in other subject areas so I think it's actually alright, as you say I would begin to drift away from the focus of the question if I wrote for more than 1.5 hours :P although I have an English and Geography paper that are 2.5 hours long so I've got the joys of that to look forward to! And same! You're not alone on that trust me, I was on the internet earlier trying to find brief summaries of the battles, Livius is very good but a bit waffly :P so I tried some other one that seemed a bit clearer, was struggling to remember examples of hubris and myth in Herodotus so that's what I was working on today - a memorable one for you, the sacred snake of Delphi deserted the city because his honey cakes had been left untouched! It's amazing what ancient writers spent their time on isn't it? :biggrin:

That's great news and so good that you've got it over and done with!! I couldn't have found the will power to dig out the Odyssey all over again! Hmm yes, it means the choral odes which is what the chorus react in because they're singing their lines. Which I ALWAYS forget! I wouldn't worry too much about the terminology as long as you get in hubris and nemesis a few times! Would it be fair to say that this paper is more so about improvisation on the day because I did Athenian democracy and the Odyssey last year and I really felt a lot of that was about learning things off but this year it seems less about sitting down and learning facts?! Wow that's ages! When are they on? My other exams have been mainly two hours long and I was pushed for time but it's always the way that the expectations of what you'll get done are much higher than the reality :L thank you, going to look that up and I'm glad to hear it!!! Just keep thinking by this stage I should know them but hopefully we will do alright and it'll come back to us on the day. Hmm, there aren't many examples of myth in Aeschylus are there? I can think of Herodotus examples but not him so much ! And for your 40 markers, do you always start with a summary of the differences in the genres between the two? Ha ha I think I vaguely do remember that, honey cakes! I know it's fascinating stuff!!

Reply 12

Trust me, it was a tricky thing to do! And to be honest I still feel like it's a lot of learning facts haha! Maybe that's just me. Examples of myth in Aeschylus is Darius' ghost, Atossa's dreams and divine intervention :smile:

I also thought there was a cross ref with H about "a city's bulwarks stand unmoved"...could this be Themistocles' interpretation of the "wooden walls" Delphic oracle? And finally for the 40 marker, I do a source assessment of the sources genre etc at the end in one big paragraph, but try and make comparisons/contrasts throughout :smile:

Reply 13

Original post by Clytaemnestra

Trust me, it was a tricky thing to do! And to be honest I still feel like it's a lot of learning facts haha! Maybe that's just me. Examples of myth in Aeschylus is Darius' ghost, Atossa's dreams and divine intervention :smile:

I also thought there was a cross ref with H about "a city's bulwarks stand unmoved"...could this be Themistocles' interpretation of the "wooden walls" Delphic oracle? And finally for the 40 marker, I do a source assessment of the sources genre etc at the end in one big paragraph, but try and make comparisons/contrasts throughout :smile:

I suppose it is still but it seems a bit more argumentative, you are always arguing back and forth in essays! Ah that's great, thanks so much. Yeah that's a great point!! It would be great if we got individuals and personalities though so we could talk about themistocles and xerxes and leonidas plus add in some divine intervention points! Very good, I will keep that in mind! I think quotes are quite a big thing so I'm going to concentrate on learning them for a while and just keep looking at Mark schemes and battle summaries!! Do you usually plan out your essays first? I never KNLW whether to do that or just get straight into the question :L

Reply 14

Original post by ScienceConfusion

I suppose it is still but it seems a bit more argumentative, you are always arguing back and forth in essays! Ah that's great, thanks so much. Yeah that's a great point!! It would be great if we got individuals and personalities though so we could talk about themistocles and xerxes and leonidas plus add in some divine intervention points! Very good, I will keep that in mind! I think quotes are quite a big thing so I'm going to concentrate on learning them for a while and just keep looking at Mark schemes and battle summaries!! Do you usually plan out your essays first? I never KNLW whether to do that or just get straight into the question :L

Don't panic about direct quotes, unless you've got a really specific one in mind I would just paraphrase, I've just been reading Aeschylus over and over recently to try and get the gist, think I've got it now at last haha :smile:

and I do usually just do a rough plan in like a table format in the exam, 5 mins max, so I wouldn't waste any time, especially if you think you're not going to finish the exam by making time to plan. So my advice would be that if you're not great with time think as you write! Works for me if I don't have time to plan :smile:

Reply 15

Original post by Clytaemnestra

Don't panic about direct quotes, unless you've got a really specific one in mind I would just paraphrase, I've just been reading Aeschylus over and over recently to try and get the gist, think I've got it now at last haha :smile:

and I do usually just do a rough plan in like a table format in the exam, 5 mins max, so I wouldn't waste any time, especially if you think you're not going to finish the exam by making time to plan. So my advice would be that if you're not great with time think as you write! Works for me if I don't have time to plan :smile:

Good idea! That's a great idea I was going through synoptic question all day but tomorrow I'm going to try get Aeschylus in my head properly!! I hope your revision is going well :smile:

was doing the aeneid tonight but tomorrow will need to be mainly Aeschylus! Hmm yeah in my English exam I took way too long planning so I will do a table and keep an eye on the clock! Tried doing a timed question today and it is tight for timing I'll try to get a good night's sleep so I have a clear head in the exam to think! I was considering just doing the 40 marker first so I have enough time but I don't know what to make of that idea. Don't want to go over the time on the 20 marker which is easy enough to do!

Reply 16

Yeah revision is going well thanks, same to you! And my English is okay, as I have 1 hour for a re-cast production task, and then 1.5 hours for unseen language analysis (30 mins to plan!) so it's awesome really, feeling pretty confident with English, a light relief as opposed to classics which just seems mental at the moment! I'm tempted to do the 40 marker first also, but in a way I don't want to see it until the end because what if it's a hard one and it knocks our confidence with the rest of the paper? So I will possibly tackle it last, I'll have to see - we get a choice of 2 so I pray to God that 1/2 is a good one! I'm going to revise my notes today, done some question plans from past papers in table format so it's easier for me to get to grips with :P I'm trying to get into a calm place haha, easier said than done! Can't believe it's tomorrow! :O also, if you're revising the Aeneid, TSR has loads of study resources, although I went on SparkNotes for my Odyssey revision haha!

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 17

curiousginger

3

Im doing the persian wars and the Aeniad exam too! So nervous :frown:

do you guys have tips on how to structure the responses because our teacher is never really clear on that... :/

Reply 18

Original post by curiousginger

Im doing the persian wars and the Aeniad exam too! So nervous :frown:

do you guys have tips on how to structure the responses because our teacher is never really clear on that... :/

Oh hi curiousginger! You can look back at the forum we were on if you like about timings :smile:

in terms of structure, I thought aim for 5 paragraphs, remember that you need to evaluate the sources at the end - include things like pro-athenian bias, conventions and genre, time of writing (Herodotus was writing 50 years after Marathon - could argue it being fairly accurate as it's not like 200 years later, or less accurate because he didn't fight at Salamis, whereas Aeschylus was there) :smile:

Reply 19