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AQA GCSE Sociology

For AQA GCSE Sociology Unit 1 and 2 Family, Education, Crime and Deviance and Social Inequality/Power do I need to know specific examples of Sociologists? In the specification I don't think it says anything about knowing specific sociologists. Do I need to know them? (E.g. Young and Wilmott, Anne Oakley and Jan Pahl etc.)

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Reply 1
...anyone?
If you're looking for a C grade, I imagine not - but it shows that you have thorough knowledge of your subject and have studied outside of the syllabus. If you're looking for the top grades, however, I would definitely mention the sociologists... even if just the once. It could bring your 12 mark answer from 10/11 to the full 12 marks, who knows.
I would always mention the sociologist and their findings just to be on the safe side; it could put your answer in better stead than others'. But as you said, no, the spec doesn't specifically require you to include it.
Hope that helps :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by dreamerkitten
If you're looking for a C grade, I imagine not - but it shows that you have thorough knowledge of your subject and have studied outside of the syllabus. If you're looking for the top grades, however, I would definitely mention the sociologists... even if just the once. It could bring your 12 mark answer from 10/11 to the full 12 marks, who knows.
I would always mention the sociologist and their findings just to be on the safe side; it could put your answer in better stead than others'. But as you said, no, the spec doesn't specifically require you to include it.
Hope that helps :smile:

Thank you. Did you do the same course?
Reply 4
Original post by dreamerkitten
If you're looking for a C grade, I imagine not - but it shows that you have thorough knowledge of your subject and have studied outside of the syllabus. If you're looking for the top grades, however, I would definitely mention the sociologists... even if just the once. It could bring your 12 mark answer from 10/11 to the full 12 marks, who knows.
I would always mention the sociologist and their findings just to be on the safe side; it could put your answer in better stead than others'. But as you said, no, the spec doesn't specifically require you to include it.
Hope that helps :smile:


Ideally, I nee an A*. I heard that the questions that come up are logical and you don't need to know much.
Original post by S2M
Thank you. Did you do the same course?


I'm doing the same course now - sitting the first exam on Monday!
Reply 6
Original post by dreamerkitten
I'm doing the same course now - sitting the first exam on Monday!


Ohh ok. Are you doing the same specification? The 2014 one?
Original post by S2M
Ohh ok. Are you doing the same specification? The 2014 one?


Yes, I am - I don't think that the new 9-1 spec has its first sociology sitting until 2019.
And I am also looking for an A* - have you looked at the past papers?
But yes, according to my tutor about 80% of the paper is aimed at D-B grade students, and only the end of each topic is aimed at the top grades. What I write in my answers and I imagine what you write as well, is much more in depth than what most people taking the course include. For a C grade, you really don't need to include that much - but the high grade boundaries for an A* suggest to me that for the top grade we'll need to be including as much detail as possible in 1 hour and a half.
I actually started a thread the other day predicting what I think could come up in this year's papers.
Reply 8
Original post by dreamerkitten
Yes, I am - I don't think that the new 9-1 spec has its first sociology sitting until 2019.
And I am also looking for an A* - have you looked at the past papers?
But yes, according to my tutor about 80% of the paper is aimed at D-B grade students, and only the end of each topic is aimed at the top grades. What I write in my answers and I imagine what you write as well, is much more in depth than what most people taking the course include. For a C grade, you really don't need to include that much - but the high grade boundaries for an A* suggest to me that for the top grade we'll need to be including as much detail as possible in 1 hour and a half.
I actually started a thread the other day predicting what I think could come up in this year's papers.

Yeah that's true we have to be more precise. Could you please link me the thread? Thanks :smile:
Original post by S2M
Yeah that's true we have to be more precise. Could you please link me the thread? Thanks :smile:


https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4699408#primary_content

Let me know what you think :smile:
Reply 10
YES!!! I've finally found someone else doing sociology this year.I actually decided to take it at the beginning of this year, studying it independently cos I wanted an extra gcse,so if you have any tips or good exam technique I would really appreciate it.
Reply 11


Thanks, I'll have a look in a while because I'm quite busy now.
Reply 12
Original post by Sean16
YES!!! I've finally found someone else doing sociology this year.I actually decided to take it at the beginning of this year, studying it independently cos I wanted an extra gcse,so if you have any tips or good exam technique I would really appreciate it.

Know the sampling methods as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Learn the primary and secondary methods as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
I'm doing sociology with AQA and with all the past papers I've been doing recently, I've been getting 12/12 on every last question without mentioning any sociologists. Of course, I always worry that that might be my teacher's marking and other teachers might be more harsh, but it's not like I wrote my answer thinking it WASN'T worth an A*. The key thing for the 12 markers, my teacher told me, is that you really need to show that you're answering it as a sociology student and not as a regular human who pays attention to the news and society around us.

This means using key terms literally everywhere possible. That's one way of showing your sociological knowledge to the examiner, and knowing sociologists and their research is another way. You could definitely get 12 marks with either approach, however I prefer just using consistent key terms throughout my answers because I think it's easier than just memorising sociologists' names AND their studies.

I'm also aiming for an A* like you, but from my past paper practise, I mostly mess up on the 4 and 5 mark questions! My main issue with 12 markers was not giving an evaluation at the end and running out of time. If you ever do run out of time, make sure you add a conclusion that sums up how far they agree. Where a 3-point essay with a conclusion might get you 9/12 or 10/12 marks, a 3-point essay without a conclusion will cap you with less marks, likely around 6-8 marks.

Also, you want to give yourself at least 15 minutes on the 12 marker, and in my opinion, timings for this exam are criminal. In maths, I'm sitting there with like 20 mins spare but with sociology I'm literally writing til the last second, non-hyperbole. Just make sure you get through the first 4 marks (the easy questions) in 1 or 2 mins to gain some extra time for the 12 mark question.
Reply 14
Original post by liam12345677
I'm doing sociology with AQA and with all the past papers I've been doing recently, I've been getting 12/12 on every last question without mentioning any sociologists. Of course, I always worry that that might be my teacher's marking and other teachers might be more harsh, but it's not like I wrote my answer thinking it WASN'T worth an A*. The key thing for the 12 markers, my teacher told me, is that you really need to show that you're answering it as a sociology student and not as a regular human who pays attention to the news and society around us.

This means using key terms literally everywhere possible. That's one way of showing your sociological knowledge to the examiner, and knowing sociologists and their research is another way. You could definitely get 12 marks with either approach, however I prefer just using consistent key terms throughout my answers because I think it's easier than just memorising sociologists' names AND their studies.

I'm also aiming for an A* like you, but from my past paper practise, I mostly mess up on the 4 and 5 mark questions! My main issue with 12 markers was not giving an evaluation at the end and running out of time. If you ever do run out of time, make sure you add a conclusion that sums up how far they agree. Where a 3-point essay with a conclusion might get you 9/12 or 10/12 marks, a 3-point essay without a conclusion will cap you with less marks, likely around 6-8 marks.

Also, you want to give yourself at least 15 minutes on the 12 marker, and in my opinion, timings for this exam are criminal. In maths, I'm sitting there with like 20 mins spare but with sociology I'm literally writing til the last second, non-hyperbole. Just make sure you get through the first 4 marks (the easy questions) in 1 or 2 mins to gain some extra time for the 12 mark question.

Thank you and I'm sorry I didn't read this before because I didn't see it. My teacher said that without sociologists it doesn't enable you to reach the top marks. I didn't mention any sociologists once and I only got 5/6 marks because of this. Yes you're right on the conclusion part because you have to show to what extent sociologists would agree to this.

I was also told that most of the paper is logic because questions like how has the government tried to reduce crimes offended by young people in the past 50 years this is just mentioning things like the uses of CCTV. I think I'll do fine on the primary/secondary research methods as well as sampling methods which are worth 30 marks.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by S2M
Thank you and I'm sorry I didn't read this before because I didn't see it. My teacher said that without sociologists it doesn't enable you to reach the top marks. I didn't mention any sociologists once and I only got 5/6 marks because of this. Yes you're right on the conclusion part because you have to show to what extent sociologists would agree to this.

I was also told that most of the paper is logic because questions like how has the government tried to reduce crimes offended by young people in the past 50 years this is just mentioning things like the uses of CCTV. I think I'll do fine on the primary/secondary research methods as well as sampling methods which are worth 30 marks.


If she's talking about having to mention specific groups of sociologists, like Marxists/Functionalists then yeah, I think she's probably right since you can usually always link one point/idea about the statement to a certain group of sociologists, however the only sociologist and their study I can ever remember is Abercrombie for Crime and Deviance, and really, by just using a mix of key terms, describing sociological processes like labelling theory, self-fulfilling prophecy, deviancy amplification, poverty cycle etc., as well as giving the occasional contemporary example (like saying when that thing happens in the real world today), I've got full marks without needing any studies by sociologists.

I think our teachers may have slightly different teaching focuses but the main thing, I think, is that you just need to be showing a more detailed/advanced approach to the statement, and show that you're not just answering it from a common sense standpoint.

And yeah, I've seen other people on here say about how a lot of the sociology paper is actually quite easy, with most questions able to answer just by common sense and you can still get a few marks, so it's not like in Science where if you've never come across a certain concept before, you're boned, you could actually give it a go in sociology. And yeah, this paper is much easier because of section 1 that doesn't have the 12 marker. That's where I'll be picking up some extra minutes for my later 12 markers in this paper, since I can usually get section 1 done in about 20 mins.
Reply 16
Original post by liam12345677
If she's talking about having to mention specific groups of sociologists, like Marxists/Functionalists then yeah, I think she's probably right since you can usually always link one point/idea about the statement to a certain group of sociologists, however the only sociologist and their study I can ever remember is Abercrombie for Crime and Deviance, and really, by just using a mix of key terms, describing sociological processes like labelling theory, self-fulfilling prophecy, deviancy amplification, poverty cycle etc., as well as giving the occasional contemporary example (like saying when that thing happens in the real world today), I've got full marks without needing any studies by sociologists.

I think our teachers may have slightly different teaching focuses but the main thing, I think, is that you just need to be showing a more detailed/advanced approach to the statement, and show that you're not just answering it from a common sense standpoint.

And yeah, I've seen other people on here say about how a lot of the sociology paper is actually quite easy, with most questions able to answer just by common sense and you can still get a few marks, so it's not like in Science where if you've never come across a certain concept before, you're boned, you could actually give it a go in sociology. And yeah, this paper is much easier because of section 1 that doesn't have the 12 marker. That's where I'll be picking up some extra minutes for my later 12 markers in this paper, since I can usually get section 1 done in about 20 mins.


That's good. :smile: Thanks. I think I'll probably go over both Family and Education again today just to make sure I'm not missing anything out.
how did everyone feel everyone find it? :smile: i must say, i found it quite easy ๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ™ƒ
Reply 18
Original post by Queenie123
how did everyone feel everyone find it? :smile: i must say, i found it quite easy ๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ™ƒ


It was ok I guess, questions weren't that hard.
Original post by Queenie123
how did everyone feel everyone find it? :smile: i must say, i found it quite easy ๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ™ƒ


Questions were nice, VERY similar to 2013/14, the 12 marker on importance of divorce was in 2013/14, as was anti-school subculture and family diversity....

Hopefully the one on thursday will be similar

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