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URGENT: AQA philosophy (AS & A2) textbooks
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Maths&physics
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#1
Hey, who has done this A-level and which text books would you recommend for this A-level. This is the old spec (not the new A-level). I have asked this question half a dozen times but no one has given me an answer! Thanks.
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Maths&physics
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#2
What the hell! No one on this entire forum has done or is doing this a-level and therefore cant help!!! Ive been asking this question for months!
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221Breezeblocks
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#3
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#3
Is this the spec that you're talking about: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/philo...hilosophy-2175 ? (epist & phil of religion at AS, then ethics and philosophy of mind at A2)
If so, I've just left school and that's the spec that I did.
We had two textbooks that we used, the Lacewing and the Cardinal Hayward Jones.
Both can be bought as actual textbooks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...WBBBC4910N74B5
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-AS-Phil...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-A2-Phil...vel+philosophy
The Lacewing textbook is also online for free in the format of handouts (and less detailed powerpoints): http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/te...9781138793934/
Both cover all the content, I personally preferred to make notes from the CHJ, but it does however tend to have a lot of extra information that isn't really necessary for the exam.
Hope this helps.
If so, I've just left school and that's the spec that I did.
We had two textbooks that we used, the Lacewing and the Cardinal Hayward Jones.
Both can be bought as actual textbooks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...WBBBC4910N74B5
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-AS-Phil...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-A2-Phil...vel+philosophy
The Lacewing textbook is also online for free in the format of handouts (and less detailed powerpoints): http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/te...9781138793934/
Both cover all the content, I personally preferred to make notes from the CHJ, but it does however tend to have a lot of extra information that isn't really necessary for the exam.
Hope this helps.
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Maths&physics
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#4
(Original post by 221Breezeblocks)
Is this the spec that you're talking about: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/philo...hilosophy-2175 ? (epist & phil of religion at AS, then ethics and philosophy of mind at A2)
If so, I've just left school and that's the spec that I did.
We had two textbooks that we used, the Lacewing and the Cardinal Hayward Jones.
Both can be bought as actual textbooks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...WBBBC4910N74B5
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-AS-Phil...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-A2-Phil...vel+philosophy
The Lacewing textbook is also online for free in the format of handouts (and less detailed powerpoints): http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/te...9781138793934/
Both cover all the content, I personally preferred to make notes from the CHJ, but it does however tend to have a lot of extra information that isn't really necessary for the exam.
Hope this helps.
Is this the spec that you're talking about: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/philo...hilosophy-2175 ? (epist & phil of religion at AS, then ethics and philosophy of mind at A2)
If so, I've just left school and that's the spec that I did.
We had two textbooks that we used, the Lacewing and the Cardinal Hayward Jones.
Both can be bought as actual textbooks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...WBBBC4910N74B5
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-AS-Phil...VC7DYX96PWMHAH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-A2-Phil...vel+philosophy
The Lacewing textbook is also online for free in the format of handouts (and less detailed powerpoints): http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/te...9781138793934/
Both cover all the content, I personally preferred to make notes from the CHJ, but it does however tend to have a lot of extra information that isn't really necessary for the exam.
Hope this helps.
Do you mind if I ask you got on? And also, is there any advice you could give me? And do you still need your old text books because I’ll buy them off you
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221Breezeblocks
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#5
(Original post by Maths&physics)
Hi, yes that’s the one!
Do you mind if I ask you got on? And also, is there any advice you could give me? And do you still need your old text books because I’ll buy them off you
Hi, yes that’s the one!
Do you mind if I ask you got on? And also, is there any advice you could give me? And do you still need your old text books because I’ll buy them off you
I learnt a lot from doing badly the first time round at AS. Though the content is very interesting in order to do well it becomes somewhat of a memorisation game. You need to be able to fully explain all the concepts / arguments / critiques with no redundancy because that will lose you marks.
Follow the spec on the AQA website and make sure you learn and memorise all the relevant information from the textbooks so that in the exam you have enough time to construct and evaluate (so important) your arguments quickly but fully. It's a 3 hour exam but you'll always be pushed for time so being able to get things down quickly is so important. If you have any other qs just ask
Anddd unfortunately I handed my textbooks back to my school but I wouldn't have sold them anyway because I wrote and highlighted all over them
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#6
(Original post by 221Breezeblocks)
Sooo even though I really enjoyed the A level, I always really really struggled because there is such a large amount of content that you had to learn. I got a very low C at AS. To get an A overall with a C at AS would have meant that I needed to get almost 100 UMS at A2 which is practically impossible. So I had to retake it and thankfully I managed to get 90 UMS on my resit. I got a middling B on my A2 paper but having got 90 in the resit meant it levelled out to an A!
I learnt a lot from doing badly the first time round at AS. Though the content is very interesting in order to do well it becomes somewhat of a memorisation game. You need to be able to fully explain all the concepts / arguments / critiques with no redundancy because that will lose you marks.
Follow the spec on the AQA website and make sure you learn and memorise all the relevant information from the textbooks so that in the exam you have enough time to construct and evaluate (so important) your arguments quickly but fully. It's a 3 hour exam but you'll always be pushed for time so being able to get things down quickly is so important. If you have any other qs just ask
Anddd unfortunately I handed my textbooks back to my school but I wouldn't have sold them anyway because I wrote and highlighted all over them
Sooo even though I really enjoyed the A level, I always really really struggled because there is such a large amount of content that you had to learn. I got a very low C at AS. To get an A overall with a C at AS would have meant that I needed to get almost 100 UMS at A2 which is practically impossible. So I had to retake it and thankfully I managed to get 90 UMS on my resit. I got a middling B on my A2 paper but having got 90 in the resit meant it levelled out to an A!
I learnt a lot from doing badly the first time round at AS. Though the content is very interesting in order to do well it becomes somewhat of a memorisation game. You need to be able to fully explain all the concepts / arguments / critiques with no redundancy because that will lose you marks.
Follow the spec on the AQA website and make sure you learn and memorise all the relevant information from the textbooks so that in the exam you have enough time to construct and evaluate (so important) your arguments quickly but fully. It's a 3 hour exam but you'll always be pushed for time so being able to get things down quickly is so important. If you have any other qs just ask
Anddd unfortunately I handed my textbooks back to my school but I wouldn't have sold them anyway because I wrote and highlighted all over them
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221Breezeblocks
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#7
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#7
(Original post by Maths&physics)
Is it just one AS exam and one A2 exam?
Is it just one AS exam and one A2 exam?
AS is out of 80 marks and A2 is 100 marks. You can see the format for the questions and marks if you look at the specification paper / past papers. A big difference between AS / A2 is the weighting of the essay question at the end of each section. At A2 many more marks are allocated to the evaluation of your arguments. Evaluation is basically you weighing up the argument presented with regards to the question - why it is important and how good of a case it makes for your line of argument.
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#8
(Original post by 221Breezeblocks)
Yep, one AS exam and one A2. Both are 3 hours long.
AS is out of 80 marks and A2 is 100 marks. You can see the format for the questions and marks if you look at the specification paper / past papers. A big difference between AS / A2 is the weighting of the essay question at the end of each section. At A2 many more marks are allocated to the evaluation of your arguments. Evaluation is basically you weighing up the argument presented with regards to the question - why it is important and how good of a case it makes for your line of argument.
Yep, one AS exam and one A2. Both are 3 hours long.
AS is out of 80 marks and A2 is 100 marks. You can see the format for the questions and marks if you look at the specification paper / past papers. A big difference between AS / A2 is the weighting of the essay question at the end of each section. At A2 many more marks are allocated to the evaluation of your arguments. Evaluation is basically you weighing up the argument presented with regards to the question - why it is important and how good of a case it makes for your line of argument.
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221Breezeblocks
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#9
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#9
(Original post by Maths&physics)
If you spent all day studying, how long would it take to go over everything in AS and A2?
If you spent all day studying, how long would it take to go over everything in AS and A2?
Looking at it for the first time or learning it or revising after memorising it ?
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#10
(Original post by 221Breezeblocks)
It depends what you mean and hope to achieve by 'going over' the content ?
Looking at it for the first time or learning it or revising after memorising it ?
It depends what you mean and hope to achieve by 'going over' the content ?
Looking at it for the first time or learning it or revising after memorising it ?
Step 1: learning/understanding material
Step 2: preparing arguments/exams
Step 3: revising/memorising step 2
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