GCSE EdExcel Religious Studies help forum! :)

How do i answer edexcel questions?My teacher over explains it(he's crap at teaching) whereas other teachers say its really simple and easy .For e.g 8 markers 4 devoloped points.Does all answers have to be Christianity related or can SOME be life releated for e.g" Divorce is bad because it may lead to the children thinking marrrige does not matter"

What do you mean some life ones?Thanks btw

2 marks - explain the key term
4 marks - two developed reasons, can be for, against or both
8 marks - four developed points. if the question says something like "explain Christian views on divorce" then all points need to be related to Christianity, otherwise you can have some life ones like if it was "explain why some people agree with divorce and some do not"
6 marks - three points for, three against. at least one point overall has to be based on the religion in question



. Qur'an teaches that God wants people to act in justice and fairness to each other
. everyone is equal under Islamic law
. justice is the basis of Zakah (a pillar of Islam)
. Shari'ah law requires justice for everyone
. prophet Muhammad acted with justice
this is all from the textbook so hope it helps

I'm doing Unit 2 and Unit 8, aiming for A* (even with the ridiculous grade boundaries!)

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okay this is crazy, im doing the exact everything, i wonder if we go to the same school??

How do i answer edexcel questions?My teacher over explains it(he's crap at teaching) whereas other teachers say its really simple and easy .For e.g 8 markers 4 devoloped points.Does all answers have to be Christianity related or can SOME be life releated for e.g" Divorce is bad because it may lead to the children thinking marrrige does not matter"

Ok. I have not learned ANYTHING in RE for he past two years and so far I have been getting 100% on all my tests WITHOUT ANY revison - then again the teacher who marks them is the same teacher who cant teach the subject and gets no respect from students and staff. Anyway - have I been disillusioned into thinking it is a realllllllyyyy easy subject because so far it seems like half of it is just "catchism says" "gospels say" "creed says".
Im doing unit 10 and 3 btw and i start revison tommorow. Ill be highlighting those condensed revision booklets and just memoriseing keywords.
Tips and help would be great though

Lucky you you seem to be fine so my only tip would just be timed exam practice! Just work on your exam skills if you've nailed the content

Trust me when i say i havent nailed the content. I normally just use generic refrences to the bible and make up sensible and relevant points in the exam but it seems to have worked for me at school. I dont think that i'd get the marks in a real RE exam by doing this but I'm not sure. Can I just get away with refrencng to the creeds and some gospels and parables for an A star or is there more to it?

Hieeeee! Has anyone started memorising info yet for RE? I'm bricking it for all my exams, even though I get an A* in RE without revising. I've made loads of flashcards for every unit but I don't know if I'm behind or not...

Hello all

I was just revising for the GCSE RS exams on the 16th and 18th May 2016 and came up with an idea... a help forum

With such a weighty subject like RE, it's easy to forget little things here and there, it's a very information dense GCSE and if you forget 1 topic and mess up an exam question it can really affect your grade massively due to the ridiculous tight grade boundaries !!

So if you do this GCSE you could post a topic that you may need help with or reminding of and someone else could reply reminding you of the attitudes and enough info to help you answer an 8 mark question. E.g. I could ask for help with Christian attitudes to euthanasia and someone would help me and I could help others with topics e.c.t.

I don't know how popular this'll be but it's worth a shot right?

So the exams are split into 2 papers, 1hr 30 mins each, each exam has 4/8 topics we have studied and each topic has all its sub-topics:

PAPER 1: Religion and Life (unit 1)
-Believing in God
-Matters of life and death
-Marriage and the family
-Religion and community cohesion

PAPER 2: Religion and society (Unit 8)
-Rights and Responsibilities
-Environmental and Medical issues
-Peace and Conflict
-Crime and Punishment

I think it'd work best if you be specific: if you say "I need help with the peace and conflict unit", someone would be here all day telling you about it because it's split into sub-topics ,so, state what specific sub-topic you'd like help with. For example, "I would like help with peace and conflict, specifically Muslim attitudes to war".

Get chatting all! Hope this works and helps anyone

Hey, I am also doing the same exams.
Just wanted to ask how are you revising for them and how much time do you spend on each unit??

I love RE

There's barely any content imo, so they end up recycling questions CONSTANTLY. I always feel like I've sat the paper before when're we do one because the questions are that similar.

What I'm doing is using the specification (they have the key worlds glossary) as I never bought a revision guide for it. They also have a list of all the topics they could ask you on (they're aren't many) so you know what to revise and nothing else.

Although what's happening with us is they're running out of time
So that means we won't even get taught the peace and conflict unit as they're more focused on us having a full knowledge on rights and responsibilities so they're just leaving it completely, annoying especially because I'll then have no notes whatsoever.

That's a good idea, i might do that too

And that sucks! We have finished the full course content but for my class, the teacher really rushed the environmental and medical issues unit

The only thing I can suggest is that you do flipped learning- so you start learning some of the peace and conflict unit before your lessons on them so the lessons are just confirming your knowledge on them

Okay so for me, I have started my proper revision now, so far i've only completed 2 units but I have been writing up notes and then practicing exam questions without notes in timed conditions.

However, once I've revised the stuff, the best way of getting it to stick in my head is teaching someone else- this works for me because I can talk it aloud and then i can soon figure out where the gaps are in my knowledge. If you have no one to teach, teach your pet or a teddy bear (sounds stupid but it really works! lol)

I plan to write notes for the rest of the 6 units, writing notes takes me a few hours for each unit

Okay so for me, I have started my proper revision now, so far i've only completed 2 units but I have been writing up notes and then practicing exam questions without notes in timed conditions.

However, once I've revised the stuff, the best way of getting it to stick in my head is teaching someone else- this works for me because I can talk it aloud and then i can soon figure out where the gaps are in my knowledge. If you have no one to teach, teach your pet or a teddy bear (sounds stupid but it really works! lol)
I plan to write notes for the rest of the 6 units, writing notes takes me a few hours for each unit

I love RE
There's barely any content imo, so they end up recycling questions CONSTANTLY. I always feel like I've sat the paper before when're we do one because the questions are that similar.

What I'm doing is using the specification (they have the key worlds glossary) as I never bought a revision guide for it. They also have a list of all the topics they could ask you on (they're aren't many) so you know what to revise and nothing else.

Although what's happening with us is they're running out of time
So that means we won't even get taught the peace and conflict unit as they're more focused on us having a full knowledge on rights and responsibilities so they're just leaving it completely, annoying especially because I'll then have no notes whatsoever.

I'm doing RE revision right now I do well in in (A*s) but i find it hard to memorise everything

Only you can know if you're truly prepared or not