A-level Classical Civilisation Study Group 2023-2024

I did Athenian democracy. I thought the paper was alright. The 30 marker was good but for the 20 marker I talked about solins reform and how they were good for democracy and one but about Pericles but I ran out of time. But I didn’t like the 10 marker on clesthenes and how they it stoped wars, I didn’t know what to write and I had like 5 mins to do it. Also the 1/2 markers were bad too, I didn’t know how Pericles died and which family Cleisthenes is from.

i did the second 30 marker, i thought it was so good cause you could do modern and ancient audiences
the ovid questions were good but i thought the seneca 10 marker was a bit ehh what about you?

Yeah i thought the 30 marker about legal reforms was pretty good. For the 20 marker I put how the boule shows a wide representation of views and its role of diplomacy etc then compared it with the importance of the boule and the law courts. I thought the 10 marker was alright bc you just had to talk about each of Cleisthenes’ reforms and their effects. I think Pericles died of the plague and Cleisthenes family was the Alcmoenids

How did people interpret the Greek religion 30marker when it said to compare the Acropolis to either Delphi or Olympia. Did you take it to mean only pick 1 or did you take it to mean compare it to those rather than other sanctuaries such as Dodona, Epidaurus etc??
I compared to Delphi and Olympia?

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Hi so basically I’m dropping one of my subjects and I have to do an alevel in a year and so I was considering classics. However I know nothing about it and I want to know if it’s content heavy (like a lot of memorising) and what would be the best way to revise. Also would you say it’s time consuming with respect to your other a-levels.
Thanksss ))

Hiyaaaa- For me, I do Classics, Politics and Economics so three essay based subjects. I can say now that Classics has been my favourite a level, as someone who has done it from year 7, kept it for gcse and stuck with it for a level it's such an interesting subject and incredibly multifaceted. Classics for A level is essentially Ancient History some could say, the study of Ancient Greece and Rome, but it is a mix of many things: Politics, History, History of Art, Philosophy, English Literature even. Depending on your school, you'll do three components, everyone does World of the Hero but your school will choose whether they do the Iliad or the Odyssey, and then everyone does the Aeneid. The World of the Hero is pretty much English literature, you read the majority of your epics and you'll answer questions on them, like how certain characters/themes are presented for 20ms/30ms and then there will be passage 10 marker questions on the paper. Then there's a culture/arts component and a beliefs/ideas one. I'm going to speak about my school particularly, because I do Greek Art (culture/arts) and Politics of the Late Republic (beliefs/ideas). Greek Art is self explanatory really, the study of different mediums of Greek Art; vases, free standing sculpture and architectural sculpture. You really get to understand the way that art forms have evolved, and if your school offers Greek Art aswell I'm telling you now anytime you see classical art forms irl you'll be able to recognise so many techniques that you'll never be able to unsee . Politics of the late republic, we study the political system of the Roman Republic, spanning from its background to even its very downfall.
Remember, this is just my school! Your school could pick Greek theatre, or even Athenian democracy, which I'm sure are very interesting too!
In terms of revising, for the WOH part I made sure I knew the plots from the back of my palm for each book (chapter) of the epics. Litcharts and sparknotes are great for this. Planning essays quickly after you've learnt the plots is also vital, I'd recommend maybe printing out the spec and finding essay qs that correlate.
For Greek Art it was making mindmaps for each theme of art, e.g women, conflict, innovations etc - once again this might be irrelevant if your school doesn't do Greek Art. Just planning a lot of essay qs aswell.
Politics of the Late Republic I made character profiles and translated these onto fattt mindmaps. Character profiles for the main figures like Cicero, Caesar, Cato, Pompey etc. I also did mindmaps on themes that come up regularly, like personal ambition vs ideals, and where figures' actions align with this. Also mindmaps for significant events in the period. Basically just mindmaps galore for PLR.
Obviously since I do Politics and Econ these are quite heavy subjects, particularly Politics, which I'm currently procrastinating from to answer this LOOOLL I cba for global politics, but I think it's all about finding balance. I actually enjoy Classics enough to just sit down and revise it without the fuss. It's not too time consuming if you make materials as you go, and plus given it's interesting content I would say personally it's pretty easy to remember. Obviously everyone's experience is different, and I think it really depends which components your school picks, but I'd say Politics is probably my most time-consuming subject, Classics has never been a problem if you put in work for it.
Who knows, someone could probably reply to this and say it's the worst thing ever and not to pick it LMAOOOO but this is just my personal experience! I was really conflicted between doing Geography or Classics, and everyday I'm thankful I picked Classics.

THANK YOU SM!! this was so insightful and i think my school do the exact same 3 components.
Also do you have any revision resource recommendations like youtube channels x
My schools exam board is OCR

I have one for last years paper that got 29/30 that I could send you?

This is where you can chat with other students studying the same subjects as you and support each other as you head towards your exams
You can post any useful tips and resources that you come across, offer support to others, share your successes, or just have moan when it gets tough!
Just remember, it’s against the site rules to ask for or offer any copyrighted papers, or to take conversations off-site to do these things. Posts that break these rules will be removed.
A few possible ice breaker questions are:
What exam board are you with?
What do you enjoy most about this subject/ course?
What area do you struggle with in this subject/ course?
Good luck with the next few months. Remember, ask for help, support where you can and together we can do this!

hiya! im in year 11 trying to figure out what A levels i wanna do, im currently thinking of art and english lit and was wondering about maybe doing classical civilisation.if anyone can provide any advice or insight onto wether the course is worth it i would REALLY appreciate it

i personally absolutely adored it!! it was easily my favourite a level and it involves a lot of stuff you’ll be doing in art and english (which makes it easier but is also v fun when applied in a new context :3) - but i do also do a classics degree, so possibly i am unusually enthused, but nobody dropped out of my classical civ class but it was the a level people who didn’t take it wanted to take the most

thankyou for your response!! i was thinking that about the similarities between art and english,but im also just wondering if the work between english and the classical will be too much.would you mind explaining a bit about the a level and what type of work it actually involves ??

absolutely! the core part of it is world of the hero, which means you’ll read two epics - one homeric (odyssey/iliad) and the aeneid. the exam for this is:
then there’s different papers for the other two, so it depends which ones you’re doing - i did greek theatre + greek religion the goal of this part is to get you to learn a range of literary & material sources as well as scholars!!
i didn’t find it much effort compared to english - classics doesn’t have coursework, but idk whether you consider that a bonus or not!! i rly liked it and i hope this helped!!