A level RE units 1 and 4 - Luke and Early Church

I just started my A levels and I was wondering if anyone had any really good tips on how to revise for my RE exams as I don’t have a clue where to start

Reply 1

princetonalec

The easiest way to begin revision for an exam is to always look at any and all past mark schemes you can find. If you get your hands on these you need to do the following:
1) Find the grade band you're most likely to achieve comfortably, that is one with minimal revising and one which you could probably get if you didn't sleep well the night before.
2) Break this down so that you know what is expected of you. Begin by looking at the wording of these expectations: what words are used? In depth? Comprehensive? Coherent?
3) Take note of the key words in the band you're more likely to hit easily, these are what are expected of you. For example, an in depth analysis would (to me) mean that the examiner is looking for an ability to not only understand the content i'm writing about, but to be able to break down and apply them to different situations. Say you get a question on the psychology of religion, where you're asked to compare Freud and Jung's approaches to religion as perceived mental illness. You would start this obviously by stating what their opinions on this are, but then you would go in depth by looking at how they applied these opinions, and how their opinions potentially interact with each other. For example: Freud sees religion as a necessary evil, stating its something of a crutch to help people go from one stage in their life to another when they have mental trauma. He doesn't like it, but views it as necessary. If you make it clear how Freuds theory changes depending on his perception of his patient, you have a more in depth analysis on his perspective on religion as a whole.
Once you have done the above, do the same for the band above the grade you can comfortably get. This is the grade you will be aiming for, and will be where you start putting in the extra work so you can hit the key words being asked of you. From here, if you have enough time considering all other subjects, look to the band above this if you think its obtainable, but don't bother if theres not much hope. An assignment which has phenomenal analysis, but which is structured terribly, will miss easy marks.
From this, base your revision on what you know you need to do. If you know you can comfortably recite the opinions of Freud and Jung to use our previous example, make your revision task to understand these opinions. It's one thing to know what Freud said, its another to know why he said it.
Best of luck!
(Note: for my ALEVEL RE course I looked at religion and mental health, religious experience, and Life Death and Beyond, meaning that my course was based in literature and sociology/philosophy. If your course is a confessional RE degree the advice I gave may not benefit you as much.)