OCR Sociology Social Inequalities G674 A2 exam

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Has anyone got the pros and cons of case studies? It would be extremely useful if anyone had a structure plan for a 15 mark and 25 mark essay on them!

Reply 21

tarakate

question 2 in the exam, you're structures are so good to follow!:P

Reply 22

emilypsychology

Original post by tarakate

question 2 in the exam, you're structures are so good to follow!:P

Would you mind when you're responding to me going for the 'reply with a quote' option so I get the notification when someone is talking to me directly :smile:

I could probably respond quicker! I will type up structures below in a second

Reply 23

emilypsychology

Original post by bethanythomas

Has anyone got the pros and cons of case studies? It would be extremely useful if anyone had a structure plan for a 15 mark and 25 mark essay on them!

Case studies have already come up before so they are highly unlikely to come up again. However:

Pros:
Qualitative, in-depth rich data that yields validity
Uses a range of methods within a case study so data can be cross-checked
Researchers can develop a rapport with those they are studying yielding more in-depth valid data
Quantitative data can be collected so reliability could be achievable

Cons:
Focus on a particular group or person so they are not representative or generalisable
It's hard to replicate such case studies to check for reliability so they can be unreliable
There is the risk of the researcher losing objectivity and 'going native'
Problems of researcher imposition

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 24

emilypsychology

Original post by tarakate

question 2 in the exam, you're structures are so good to follow!:P

Right, so a question 2 structure, please note this is how I would do it, there are no specific guidelines by OCR of how to structure these but I do analyse past examiner reports :smile:

I'll give the example of focus groups.

Outline and assess the view that focus groups are the best method of researching young people's views and stories about excessive alcohol consumption. [25 marks]

Introduction: what is a focus group? (or the research method/concept they ask for in the question)
Paragraph on STRENGTHS (4)
Paragraph on WEAKNESSES (4)
Conclusion (summative)

There are fifteen marks available for evaluation so I would advise you do four strengths and four weaknesses in each paragraph - no this does not add up to fifteen but you get one mark for evaluation simply by outlining a strength and another mark for explaining it in detail. So therefore four strengths outlined and an explanation of each will be eight marks + four weaknesses outlined and an explanation of each will be eight marks so you'll get the full set of marks available.

My number one tip for not just this question but each one in this exam you MUST add a conclusion at the end just summarising what you have wrote in only 3/4 lines. The simple addition of a short basic conclusion will bump your answer into the top band regarding you've written a well balanced answer. If you have written a well-balanced answer with no conclusion you won't hit the top band.

When I say a paragraph of strengths outline a few strengths and explain them in one paragraph, don't do a paragraph for each strength as outlining it and explaining it won't take too many lines up and it will just look a bit wishy washy to the examiner.

Last but not least for tips, RELATE YOUR ANSWER BACK TO THE QUESTION/SOURCE MATERIAL - people always forget this but it's worth it, there's 5 marks available for interpretation and application so relate back to the source and question five times to be safe.

Aim to write two and a half pages for this question with average sized handwriting and two pages if your handwriting is small!

There you go :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 25

emilypsychology

To complete all my structures for each question, here is my 15 mark structure:

It will start by saying outline and explain... [insert research method/concept here]

In all honesty the structure isn't important as such as it's only 15 marks for sheer description. There's 10 marks for describing and 5 marks for relating the question back to the source. So no evaluation. You can say why it's good that they used the research method or why a concept is important but you must not ever add criticisms in as there is no 'assess' in the question and there will never be.

The grade A answer I have seen just did one big paragraph. It seems a little weird but then again you are just talking about what the research method/concept is and at the same time (not separately) you're saying why it's features are used so you're still in essence describing what it is. So yes, one paragraph will do no harm. This answer I saw with only one paragraph (although quite a big written paragraph) got 13/15 and only got dropped those two marks for not further explaining points made. No reference was made to the structure by the examiner so it must be ok. For this question aim to write 1 and a half pages if your handwriting is average and around 1 page if your handwriting is small :smile:

I really do hope my structures have helped you guys, it's always nice to help others doing the same exam :biggrin:

Good luck since it's TWO WEEKS AND TWO DAYS away!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 26

tarakate

Original post by emilypsychology

I really do hope my structures have helped you guys, it's always nice to help others doing the same exam :biggrin:

Good luck since it's TWO WEEKS AND TWO DAYS away!

That's brilliant! Thank you so much for you're help, good luck!!

Reply 27

lalavasquez

Well my teacher said age was highly unlikely to come up as it came in the january exam. So i am instead revising changing class structure, gender and ethnicity for the 40 mark question

Reply 28

martty

I reckon class and class changes is least likely to come up as it has come up on the last 3 papers.

However ethnicity hasn't been asked for a while and gender is a possibility.

Reply 29

lalavasquez

class changes has never come up since the first exam for this unit in 2010, it has only ever been on social class where there is a difference between the two.

Reply 30

martty

class change came up in January 2011 with

(b) Outline and assess the view that social class is becoming less significant in the contemporary UK. [40]

Reply 31

emilypsychology

I think ethnicity and age, just because the two have not ever been on together before and everything else has. Class has came up 5 times before and age, gender and ethnicity have came up 3 times each. Whoever said above that it's unlikely that age will come on since it was in the last paper is wrong, social class comes on again and again after it was previously on so age is likely to come up again :smile:

Reply 32

nicole1111

Original post by emilypsychology

hi ya does anyone mind letting me know the structure of the exam?
my teacher is pretty useless so i have really no idea how to write the exam, although im pretty stable with content,

coud anyone give me an example of a 15 mark 20 25 and 40 the way it would come up in an exam if possible? and any practice answers would be swell too,
thanks guys x

Reply 33

emilypsychology

Original post by nicole1111

See my previous posts in this thread ^ I've said how I would structure each question :smile:

Reply 34

kate_louise21

is anyone else predicting the ethnicity 40 marker will be cultural explanations ? I really hope ethnicity comes up!

Reply 35

lalavasquez

What views could be used for cultural explanations? I have never seen that before :confused:

any response would be great thanks

Reply 36

martty

For cultural you can use functionalists with the immigrant host model. You can then support that with postmodernists/choice and general cultural explanations such as Jenkins saying that the culture of ethnic groups limits them from the workforce because of religious commitment.

The alternate debate would then be marxist, neo-marxist and weberian.

Reply 37

kate_louise21

Original post by martty

Ive done an intro, then stuff about Modood, then cultural deprivation etc, then Rodger Ballard with the Punjabi Sikhs and Kashmiri Muslims, then Cultural traditions of Purdah, African Caribbean communities disadvantaged, language containing implicit cultural messages, black british feminism with Mirza, then criticisms from Reynolds about Black superwomen, South Asian submissive women, criticisms of blaming the victim, being methodologically problamatic, then criticis from the Marxists and genetic factors not considered?

Reply 38

emilypsychology

Original post by lalavasquez

What views could be used for cultural explanations? I have never seen that before :confused:

any response would be great thanks

Whenever a question mentions cultural think functionalist. Just as you would associate concepts such as capitalism/class/economics with Marxist, power and status with Weberian and super-diversity/hybridisation/duel identities with postmodernists.

Cultural and Functionalists would basically be like stuff to do with the common value system, language and cultural traditions and assimilation :smile:

Reply 39

lalavasquez

thanks guys that was really helpful and useful..... :smile:

so i could talk about functionalists for cultural explnations.....say if the question specifically uses the word 'cultural' would it be easier or better if i wrote cultural explanations suggest rather than functionalists suggest
I really hope age comes up i find that the easisest to remember. my teacher said we must make sure we use the correct concept to the area of inequality e.g if talking about age from functionalist perspective talk about role allocation, disengagement theory rather than the use of assimilation which is particular to ethnicity so as not to get confused and pick up more AO2B marks.

What are your predictions for questions 1 and 2.?

this might sound silly but do i have to talk about Popper and Durkheim with deductive and inductive approach in relation to question 2 if the question is about quantititative methods?