Some information about the examination
To gain the full GCSE in Religious Studies you are required to sit two 1.5 hour exam papers (separately) on the topics Religion and Morality and Religion and life issues.
The topics covered in the religion and morality unit are: crime and punishment, drugs, elderly and death (euthanasia), medical ethics, wealth and poverty in the UK, global poverty.
The topics covered in the life issues unit are: religion and animal rights, religion and planet Earth, religion and prejudice, religion and early life (abortion), religion, war and peace.
You are required to answer 4 full 18 mark questions per paper (essentially 4x the questions we do as assessments). I advise that you revise five of the topics covered in class to ensure you have a backup. This means that you should revise all of the topics in the religion and life issues unit and five from the religion and morality unit.
It is really important that not only are you learning key religious teachings and concepts, but you are also practising your exam technique by completing timed practice questions.
It is particularly hard to gain full marks on the 3 marks opinion questions and the 6 mark evaluation questions.
When answering the three mark opinion question, it is vital that you develop your opinion (if the question requires it). You can either give several simple reasons to give your opinion or you could explain your opinion. I assume the latter comes more naturally and phrases such as "this is because" and "this means that" should ensure that you have developed your opinion.
A six mark question requires an answer to be well argued, balanced (agree and disagree) and well written. You will not achieve marks 5 and 6 if your answer is poorly written (spelling errors etc). You should never bullet point your answer.
Again the term this means that will ensure that you develop your answer, which will in turn get you marks.
In the 6 mark question you must give a balanced argument (agree and disagree), you can do this by either giving all your agree points first, followed by the disagree points. If you do this I advise your last agree point links to your first disagree point. Alternatively, you could alternate your agree/disagree arguments. EG paragraph structure would look like: agree point 1, disagree point 1, agree point 2, disagree point 2, etc
Use of connectives
Miss Hamilton