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OCR AS Philosophy & Ethics 2016 May exams (Answering Exam Questions)

How do people construct an answer to (a + b) questions in both the Philosophy & Ethics paper?

The format or layout you use. Tips, even tricks. Just anything which may help other people. Plus if people actually find this and bother to respond then we can share ideas and strengthen our essay writing skills for our upcoming exams.
Original post by ThatGuyJosh
How do people construct an answer to (a + b) questions in both the Philosophy & Ethics paper?

The format or layout you use. Tips, even tricks. Just anything which may help other people. Plus if people actually find this and bother to respond then we can share ideas and strengthen our essay writing skills for our upcoming exams.


for part A I start with an intro introducing what I will be talking about and some background info then I do a few paragraphs just writing everything I know about the topic and then a conclusion summarizing everything.

For part B I do a small intro and then give a paragraph for and against and then say which argument is stronger and what my opinion is
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ThatGuyJosh
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Original post by nihil_nimis
for part A I start with an intro introducing what I will be talking about and some background info then I do a few paragraphs just writing everything I know about the topic and then a conclusion summarizing everything.

For part B I do a small intro and then give a paragraph for and against and then say which argument is stronger and what my opinion is


Yes, I approach them in a similar way. So i guess I'm doing something right. It may sound a little strange but i struggle with the introduction and conclusion in particular on a part a.

In the introduction is it best to outline what you are going to discuss in the body of the essay in simple terms? Because I often spend way too much time just for the introduction. Also, how would you summarize in the conclusion? (Part a's)
Original post by ThatGuyJosh
Yes, I approach them in a similar way. So i guess I'm doing something right. It may sound a little strange but i struggle with the introduction and conclusion in particular on a part a.

In the introduction is it best to outline what you are going to discuss in the body of the essay in simple terms? Because I often spend way too much time just for the introduction. Also, how would you summarize in the conclusion? (Part a's)


I think the main thing to remember is that the introduction is introducing what points your going to talk about and putting everything into context for example if the question was on natural law, in the intro I would talk about the key philosophers in natural law and the basic principle of natural law and then kind off state what I will be discussing in the essay , and then in the conclusion I basically look at each paragraph I wrote and summarize the key features of each paragraph and link them together to explain how it is relevant, if that makes sense.
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ThatGuyJosh
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Original post by nihil_nimis
I think the main thing to remember is that the introduction is introducing what points your going to talk about and putting everything into context for example if the question was on natural law, in the intro I would talk about the key philosophers in natural law and the basic principle of natural law and then kind off state what I will be discussing in the essay , and then in the conclusion I basically look at each paragraph I wrote and summarize the key features of each paragraph and link them together to explain how it is relevant, if that makes sense.


Many thanks, that has actually made it extremely clear.
Original post by ThatGuyJosh
Many thanks, that has actually made it extremely clear.


no problem, the main issue for me is timing tbh
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ThatGuyJosh
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Original post by nihil_nimis
no problem, the main issue for me is timing tbh


Yeah timing is an issue for me too. For the exam on the 19th I'm aiming to allocate 30 minutes to both 'a questions' and 15 minutes for both 'b questions'. How are you thinking of timing your answers?

As well, when did you start revising? and Are you going to plan before each question in the exam?
Original post by ThatGuyJosh
Yeah timing is an issue for me too. For the exam on the 19th I'm aiming to allocate 30 minutes to both 'a questions' and 15 minutes for both 'b questions'. How are you thinking of timing your answers?

As well, when did you start revising? and Are you going to plan before each question in the exam?


yeah i time it about the same , and lol I started revising last week for philosophy and haven't done any ethics yet :frown: and no normally I go straight in and don't do a plan, but i waste so much time trying to pick the 2 questions out of the 4 to write about.
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ThatGuyJosh
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Original post by nihil_nimis
yeah i time it about the same , and lol I started revising last week for philosophy and haven't done any ethics yet :frown: and no normally I go straight in and don't do a plan, but i waste so much time trying to pick the 2 questions out of the 4 to write about.


Well I have only had one mock exam so I am not too confident going into this. But I know for sure that I am going to decide on at least the first question which i will be doing within the first minute Then after doing my first part a and part b, I can have a short break and decide on what to do next.

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