How to get better at OCR A level Classical Civ??

Hi! I'm about to go into year 13. I'm aiming for a good uni (Like Surrey or maybe Southampton) and i want to get at least ABB. I've been stuck at C in Classics for all of year 12. I do my best to revise but apparently it never works. I've never got anything above or below a C even after acting on my teachers essay feedback, it feels like every time i fix one thing i do another thing equally as bad wrong. Every time i have a woth mock i reread the odyssey (And parts of the aeneid) and i try to do so much revision but i genuinely dont know where i'm going wrong. I try to do past paper questions but i never get very far because i feel like i have a massive gap in my knowledge so i get distracted and try to research information to answer the question. Over this summer i've gone over my revision books for classics and de3dicated myself to relearning the imperial image unit as that's what im most stuck on, however i still feel the same about the exam questions. This subject is so exhausting and soul consuming, any advice or revision materials anyone could offer will be largely appreciated!!

I do imperial image, Aeneid, Odyssey and Athenian democracy :smile:

Reply 1

youtoocankazoo

Hi I was in this exact position January last year, I was predicted an A* and got an A in the end. What I will say for world of the hero is that your analysis makes up most of your marks for your essays, especially 30 markers. I was given this paragraph structure to use and I hope it might help you. This is for 20/30 markers

Judgment + reasoning : give your view on the topic and a reason to back it up (e.g Odysseus is clearly not motivated to return home as he gets distracted by various wants and desires on his journey)

Evidence: this is where you give evidence from the text, this doesn’t have to be a direct quote. Aim to give roughly 2-3 pieces of evidence per paragraph

Explain: explain how the evidence you just provided backs up the viewpoint you’ve just given

Views : this is where you include a modern scholar/critic for a 30 marker (ie Jones, Clayton, Chrystal etc) but also remember to explain what the ancient audience would have thought about the issue at hand. Only include a modern scholar for 30 marks and remember you can paraphrase their views. You need at least two scholars in your 30 mark answers to not be capped at 12/30 but try and get in one per paragraph if you can

Reinstate judgement: reaffirm the judgement you made at the start

You should do around 4 of these paragraphs for a 30 and 3 for a 20, with an intro and conclusion as well. for a 20 remember to use the starting point source if given.

Remember as well to keep a consistent argument throughout your whole essay. Counter arguments are good to include but always remember to essentially “debunk “ them in your paragraphs at the end by explaining why your view is more compelling.

For questions that are not a debate but instead ask you to “explain” something, remember to not argue against the statement.

For 10 markers you do not need an intro or conclusion. Your structure for those paragraphs should be

P - point

•

evidence ( this should be a quote from the passage you are given for WOTH)

•

Explain

You should do around 5 of these paragraphs per 10 markers

For timings for the whole paper (if you don’t have extra time) you should spend around 15 minutes on 10 markers, 30 on 20 markers and 45 on 30s. Always remember to make a brief plan for your extended essays so even if you don’t finish them the examiner can still see where you are going with your argument.

Hope this helps somewhat. I can help more on the specific content of WOTH but not your other two modules as I didn’t do them

Reply 2

mayasomething1

Original post

by youtoocankazoo

Hi I was in this exact position January last year, I was predicted an A* and got an A in the end. What I will say for world of the hero is that your analysis makes up most of your marks for your essays, especially 30 markers. I was given this paragraph structure to use and I hope it might help you. This is for 20/30 markers
Judgment + reasoning : give your view on the topic and a reason to back it up (e.g Odysseus is clearly not motivated to return home as he gets distracted by various wants and desires on his journey)
Evidence: this is where you give evidence from the text, this doesn’t have to be a direct quote. Aim to give roughly 2-3 pieces of evidence per paragraph
Explain: explain how the evidence you just provided backs up the viewpoint you’ve just given
Views : this is where you include a modern scholar/critic for a 30 marker (ie Jones, Clayton, Chrystal etc) but also remember to explain what the ancient audience would have thought about the issue at hand. Only include a modern scholar for 30 marks and remember you can paraphrase their views. You need at least two scholars in your 30 mark answers to not be capped at 12/30 but try and get in one per paragraph if you can
Reinstate judgement: reaffirm the judgement you made at the start
You should do around 4 of these paragraphs for a 30 and 3 for a 20, with an intro and conclusion as well. for a 20 remember to use the starting point source if given.
Remember as well to keep a consistent argument throughout your whole essay. Counter arguments are good to include but always remember to essentially “debunk “ them in your paragraphs at the end by explaining why your view is more compelling.
For questions that are not a debate but instead ask you to “explain” something, remember to not argue against the statement.
For 10 markers you do not need an intro or conclusion. Your structure for those paragraphs should be
P - point

•

evidence ( this should be a quote from the passage you are given for WOTH)

•

Explain

You should do around 5 of these paragraphs per 10 markers
For timings for the whole paper (if you don’t have extra time) you should spend around 15 minutes on 10 markers, 30 on 20 markers and 45 on 30s. Always remember to make a brief plan for your extended essays so even if you don’t finish them the examiner can still see where you are going with your argument.
Hope this helps somewhat. I can help more on the specific content of WOTH but not your other two modules as I didn’t do them

Thank you SOO much i actually sincerely love you this is the most helpful exam advice i've ever gotten. My classics teacher never gave us any structure or anything, this is such a big help thank you!!!! If you have any woth content that you dont mind sharing i would love that, but there's no pressure you've already been such a big help!! Thank you so much and i wish you all of the best :smile:

Reply 3

youtoocankazoo

Sorry I wrote a big paragraph which didn’t send properly but I’ll try and resummarise - sorry if the other reponse goes through and this is a repeat I’m really sorry.

Basically, remember which characters belong to which category is really important. OCR love to ask questions on groups of characters rather than single ones so know who you can talk about if this comes up. They like to catch people out with this for example, asking people to talk about mortal women in the odyssey and people not realising that Circe and calypso are immortal or that the phaecians are mortal even though they are kin to the gods. Another example is in 2024 when they asked a question on the trojans but specificied that you couldn’t talk about Aeneas and a lot of people forgot other Trojan characters, such as creusa, Anchises, ascanius, nisus and euryalus etc.

Remember when referencing events to give the exact book bc it gives you more ao1 marks. However, remember that certain books of each epic are not prescribed (you can find out which ones these are in the spec) so don’t get yourself bogged down in the details of these books bc you don’t gain extra marks for knowing them in detail.

For the Aeneid, brush up on historical context. The points you make about how a Roman audience would view a piece of evidence becomes stronger if you know what was occurring in Rome at the time. For example, you can contrast the way a modern and ancient audience would view dido, as she can be seen to be a parallel to cleopatra ( both queens, both with evil brothers, both had a relationship with Roman (or proto Roman men) and both died at their own hand) and would view her unsympathetically as actium was fresh in their minds. Whereas a modern audience view cleopatra more sympathetically and therefore view dido more sympathetically as they are not reading in that context.

Hope this helps again. I’m going to link below some videos which helped me revise.

https://youtu.be/kosS54qL9QY?feature=shared - summary of the odyssey
https://youtu.be/gVU2wf3Xeis?feature=shared - summary of the Aeneid
https://youtu.be/t7Y-1qMKY_0?feature=shared - actium (most important piece of Aeneid historical context)

Reply 4

mayasomething1

Original post

by youtoocankazoo

Sorry I wrote a big paragraph which didn’t send properly but I’ll try and resummarise - sorry if the other reponse goes through and this is a repeat I’m really sorry.
Basically, remember which characters belong to which category is really important. OCR love to ask questions on groups of characters rather than single ones so know who you can talk about if this comes up. They like to catch people out with this for example, asking people to talk about mortal women in the odyssey and people not realising that Circe and calypso are immortal or that the phaecians are mortal even though they are kin to the gods. Another example is in 2024 when they asked a question on the trojans but specificied that you couldn’t talk about Aeneas and a lot of people forgot other Trojan characters, such as creusa, Anchises, ascanius, nisus and euryalus etc.
Remember when referencing events to give the exact book bc it gives you more ao1 marks. However, remember that certain books of each epic are not prescribed (you can find out which ones these are in the spec) so don’t get yourself bogged down in the details of these books bc you don’t gain extra marks for knowing them in detail.
For the Aeneid, brush up on historical context. The points you make about how a Roman audience would view a piece of evidence becomes stronger if you know what was occurring in Rome at the time. For example, you can contrast the way a modern and ancient audience would view dido, as she can be seen to be a parallel to cleopatra ( both queens, both with evil brothers, both had a relationship with Roman (or proto Roman men) and both died at their own hand) and would view her unsympathetically as actium was fresh in their minds. Whereas a modern audience view cleopatra more sympathetically and therefore view dido more sympathetically as they are not reading in that context.
Hope this helps again. I’m going to link below some videos which helped me revise.
https://youtu.be/kosS54qL9QY?feature=shared - summary of the odyssey
https://youtu.be/gVU2wf3Xeis?feature=shared - summary of the Aeneid
https://youtu.be/t7Y-1qMKY_0?feature=shared - actium (most important piece of Aeneid historical context)

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH you're such a godsend thank you!! I wish you all the luck in your future I hope you're having an amazing summer this is so helpful! :smile: