GCSE RS

username5302228

Don't need help anymore

(edited 1 year ago)

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Reply 1

flaurie

Volunteer Team

Of course it’s possible! With RS it’s a mixture of really understanding the content, knowing quotes and writing quickly!

For the quotes, I would suggest not going overboard with them and finding a few for both religions that apply to many contexts - e.g. for Christianity “love your neighbour” or “ and eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth [...] a life for a life”

Which exam board are you doing?

Reply 2

anamazingperson

Original post by shreyapv

Hi. So recently in my year 10 RS mock exam, i got a 6, and I wasn't very pleased with that. Is it possible for me to make my way up to a 9 before my year 11 mocks in November and please could people suggest some tips and revision methods. Thank you!

click the green button to get a 9 in your yr11 mocks

Reply 3

username4953776

Original post by shreyapv

I'm with AQA. And thank you that reply sounds so hopeful I feel more optimistic already. I think understanding the content isn't a big issue for me. Writing quickly is the biggest problem as I therefore don't get to write my full essay answers for the 12 markers

Dw u can ofc x
I'm doing AQA too, r u doing Christianity and Islam?
And yh I hate bc the new exam structure for 12 and 15 markers are to add rebuttals which means u need to add 2 extra points to support ur arguements
And also for quotes as long as it has clear meaning behind it, it doesn't have to be a long one

Reply 4

username5045110

Original post by anamazingperson

click the green button to get a 9 in your yr11 mocks

hahahaha no

Reply 5

abdih037foodie1

im in year 10 too and we only done 2 themes next year im really screwed what should I do

Reply 6

abdih037foodie1

Original post by abdih037foodie1

im in year 10 too and we only done 2 themes next year im really screwed what should I do and im doit history gcse and maths gcse is soooo hard what should I do do u think I got time to

Reply 7

flaurie

Volunteer Team

Original post by shreyapv

I did AQA too! I think it’s all down to practise - so when you revise or read your textbook, think of longer mark questions that could come up and think of a few points or quotes - doesn’t have to be anything written down or whatever :smile:

For 12 markers, try and stick to a kinda structure, so
- small intro, (if you can think of one)
- paragraph for
- paragraph against
- a non religious view
- a good conclusion! (This is key for the 12 markers)

For the conclusion, try not to introduce new ideas,
What I used to do was if I didn’t think I had enough time, write the conclusion before I wrote the final paragraph so I had a solid conclusion!

I think the exam is something like 1 minutes per mark? So try as much as possible to stick to the timings - move on if you don’t think you’re getting anywhere with the question at hand and come back to it at the end

Hope this helped! You can do it :smile:

Reply 8

CJ_bangtan

Original post by shreyapv

Hi, right now I'm in year 11 so I don't get the opportunity to write my RS GCSE exam but RS was a really difficult topic for me to understand and I always got grade 4's but for my year 11 mock I got a grade 8 so don't worry if you got a grade 6 you have a lot of time right now, but here are a few tips for revising RS (hope they help):
Make sure you learn quotes (they don't have to be too long)and key words for topics
Make a revision palace e.g. if you want to remember a key word or quote write it down on a post it note and stick it someplace where you usually visit so every time you go there you can read the post it note and remember it easily
On YouTube there is an RE teacher (MrMcMillanREvis) and he covers topics for catholic Christianity for the exam boards AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas
Final tip do practice papers and also try to understand the mark scheme that way you have a glimpse of how to achieve the highest marks possible
Hope these tips help :smile:

Good Luck and remember you can do this

Reply 9

flaurie

Volunteer Team

Original post by shreyapv

Omg thank you so so much! This has made my day, especially that 12 mark question structure. I think more than understanding the content or memorising quotes it was the time pressure which put me down, and now I have the structure under control thanks to you. Do you have any advice on how I could learn to write faster as well?

I really worried about the time pressures too, thankfully the adrenaline in the exam helped me a lot!
I think it just comes down to practise - especially getting used to an exam question structure, make sure to understand the key word in the 12 markers e.g. “assess” or “to what extent” and the differences between them :smile:

I know it’s hard when not in test conditions or any real reason to write really fast, but it could be worth re-doing a question that you’ve done in class before and see how much/how fast you can write (remember quantity doesn’t mean quality!) now that you will vaguely recognise the question.

A YouTube video I found really useful was WorldFaiths, if you go onto the “playlists” bit of their channel I think it separates out between Christianity and Hinduism and has videos on all the topics I think :smile:

Do ask if you want anymore help :biggrin:

Reply 10

username4953776

Original post by shreyapv

I'm doing Christianity and Buddhism. 15 markers! We haven't got told anything about 15 markers! and ok thank you for the tip on the quotes my teacher is so unhelpful man. A main reason y i was disheartened by the 6 is because its a B and people say RS is meant to be easy

I mean theres 4 topics for Christianity in AQA

Belief in god
Crime and punishment
Living the Christian life
Peace and conflict

And j have a) b) c) and d) questions for all so 16 questions
The first and the third are 15 markers bc of SPaG, uno bc of all the subject terminology

Reply 11

Mark R

Original post by shreyapv

It is definitely possible. I am in year 12 now. RS (aqa) was never my strongest subject, but I made it into my strongest. I went from a 5/6 in mid year 10, to a weak grade 8 in my year 10 mocks, to a weak 9 in my year 11 mocks, to a strong 9 (200/204) in my final GCSE. My top tip to get a 9 in RS would be to PLAN EXAM QUESTIONS. Write down every single 4/5/12 marker you can find, and plan what points and what scripture (very important!!) you would write in the real thing. Don't do the whole essay, just plan every question you can find. Hope this helps!

Reply 12

flaurie

Volunteer Team

Original post by shreyapv

Wow that progress is amazing! So should i plan exam questions as revision? I never plan my answer in the tests as it always takes too much time for me

I wouldn’t bother planning the 12 markers in the tests/exams (you could jot down ideas so you don’t forget them, but not a full on plan) :smile:

Reply 13

EMC075

Original post by shreyapv

Hi there!
I've read on the thread that you do AQA, do you mind me asking which units?
I did Catholic Christianity, Mark's Gospel and Judaism Beliefs and Teachings but I only want to give advice if any of those units are relevant.
I assure you anything is possible!
I was getting kind of bad grades throughout year 9 and 10 because I didn't really put any work into RS but in my final mock I got an 8 (I was 1 mark away from getting a 9 :frown:

). I don't know what grade I'll actually get because I'm in year 11 and my exams were cancelled.
As for the 12 markers, our teacher taught us a structure which you might find useful. I hated it because I felt like it was too simplistic but to be honest it gets the job done and you don't need to write a full on dissertation for 12 marks :h:

.
It went like this:
Some argue that.../ One could argue that... (outline the argument(s) for 1 side here)
Others argue that.../ [Specific group of people] argue that... (outline the arguments for side 2 here)
[Religious Argument- i.e Catholics/ Jews] would argue that... (outline the religious perspective on the issue being discussed and back it up with a quote from a religious text)
In conclusion.... (what you think is the most logical argument and what conclusions are drawn from it)
He called it the SORI structure.
Again, it's not exactly a great style for academic writing but you can still get high marks at GCSE.
Another thing that was really helpful and I see others have mentioned was memorizing quotes on flashcards that could be used for more or less anything. I've got a huge list of them that I'd be happy to share with you if you'd like that. It's not great theology, but it'll get you the marks.
Anyway I hope this was helpful: let me know how it goes!

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 14

EMC075

Original post by shreyapv

Wow thank you so much! I'm definitely gonna use that structure it makes the 12 marker seem so easy now! I'm not entirely sure about the specific units but we're doing Christianity and Buddhism. It would be so amazing if you could share those flashcards with me hopefully the cleverness you had will pass onto me haha! Yh I didn't want the 6 to put me down because I've seen all these people getting such amazing grades in their final mock like you and omg 1 mark away I can't imagine the frustration!

Great to see my comment was helpful! :smile:

I wish I could post the flashcards to you since I obviously don't need them anymore but to be fair making them was half of the learning for me. Make sure you know what your units are otherwise this advice might be completely useless :biggrin:

.

Resources for Catholic Christianity:
It's a good idea to memorize a few quotes from the Nicene Creed (or even the whole thing)- This is a really good cheat because almost all of the beliefs in the unit are covered so it can be applied to anything from the trinity to creation, God's oneness, transcendence, the resurrection etc.
My friend made a quizlet of all the key words that can be found here: https://quizlet.com/gb/411044479/all-keywords-re-flash-cards/
It's also a good idea to memorize a summary and a couple of quotes from each of the documents from the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes, Lumen Gentium, Dei Verbum-although I didn't bother with this one and Sacrosanctum Concillium) as again these can be used for more or less anything.
A few quotes from Genesis 1 and 2 would be good, even as simple as "God said let there be light" comes in super handy!
For the art bit, I just remembered the names and appearances of the set pieces and then a couple more and then pointed out 2 very generic features for the 4 markers and just explained why Catholics thought those things using references from the bible (usually Genesis or Mark's Gospel which we did in a separate unit).
Other than that, I went through the powerpoints my teachers made for us and made a flash card out of anything I thought might be important (symbols, parts of a Church etc.)
Remembering the 10 commandments ( or at least the most important 2/3) will also really help you because they're still technically from the bible and can be used as a source of authority.

Mark's Gospel: (It doesn't sound like you're doing this unit but it might be helpful anyway for Christianity)
I made 3-4 flash cards with 1 line quotes from each set story. The ones that I found being used over and over again in the Christianity unit were: The Rich Man, The Greatest Commandment (we had a song that went "love your neighbor as yourself and do to others as you'd have them do to you.")

Other structures we used: (You may know these already, but if not they might help you)
For the four/five markers we used a structure of two small paragraphs beginning "firstly"/"secondly" and then we'd just literally write "Christians believe [x] because [core belief in Christianity]. [bible quote about the belief], which shows that..." It was a bit irritating and repetitive but it got the job done(?)

Unfortunately I can't help you with the Buddhism aspect as I did Christianity and Judaism. To be honest, I think it was a bit easier for me since Christianity stems from Judaism so I didn't have that much extra content to learn- that might have been a deliberate choice by my school to increase the grades but also so that we weren't exposed to other religions so that they could still teach that Christianity was the one true faith (my school was Catholic).
Anyway, I hope there were some helpful parts in here! Good luck! :smile:

Reply 15

EMC075

Original post by shreyapv

Ah yes I am doing Catholic Christianity thankfully so this is very very useful! We haven't got through much of the topic yet but I will definitely bear this in mind thank you so so much. I'm so grateful you don't even know, fully better than my teacher

No worries so glad I could help out :smile:

Reply 16

dev200

Original post by shreyapv

Before year 11 I only ever got a 5 in Religious studies. Practice the essay questions and send them to your teachers to mark. I also learnt as many teachings as possible and in the exam 'waffling' helped me achieve a grade 9 in the end. Good Luck!

Reply 17

abdih037foodie1

Original post by shreyapv

Dw I'm screwed too. We've finished Buddhism and just started Christianity. We've been doing the family and relationships topic in quarantine but have any of us really been learning anything in quarantine! For maths i can help cause I'm predicted a 9 in that so if you want tips or websites or anything...

hi can u pls suggest me some maths websites like how freesciencelessons teach like because I don't really like primsosne kitten or the others and can u pls help me to retain memory because I cant seem to remember topics like ratio and proportion I try but I forget because I try to keep it in my long term memory and its not working an btw I hate using flashcards!

Reply 18

Nevi

Remember that Grade 9 is given out based on percentage boundaries for EVERYONE in the country, not how many marks you get, and any grade 9 given to you by your school for internal exams isn’t, in theory, real.

The only thing you can do is try your best. Your answer might get a 9 one year but the next year there might be an extra large number of Einstein kids and you won’t get the 9.

Seriously 9s aren’t the be all and end all. You’re doing absolutely fine by the sounds of it. Just try your best thats all you can do