My take: Politics AQA advance information
And announcement of my weekly AQA webinar
On Monday I sent out my take on the Edexcel politics advance information and announced my weekly essay writing webinars. In this newsletter I want to give you my take on the AQA guidance. My summary - it’s so much better!
Here are my thoughts:
In Paper 1, AQA explicitly state (unlike Edexcel) the specific bullet point of the specification questions will be on. Take a look here.
The PM and Cabinet and Devolution will not be examined
Pressure Groups and the EU will also not be examined
I believe you can focus your revision on around 12 core essays to successfully complete the exam. Of course you still have to have knowledge of the other topics because of synopticity.
In Paper 2, AQA will not examine (under Government and Politics of the USA) - The constitutional framework of US government, Congress, The Judiciary, Political Parties, Civil Liberties.
In Comparative Politics they will not examine The Executive, The Judiciary, Electoral and party systems, Pressure groups.
In Paper 3, AQA will only cover the political ideology of Conservatism as a source and not assess Liberalism or Socialism EXCEPT in the 9 mark questions where all three ideas will come up as normal. Non core ideologies will be assessed as normal.
If you are taking AQA politics this year (lucky you) then you can focus your revision on a limited number of questions .
My AQA Webinars begin
Many students have asked me to hold an equivalent session for AQA politics. At the moment I will be doing a Paper 1 weekly webinar, focusing on planning key questions that I think may come up in your exam.
Starts Monday 28th February 8pm - sign up here
I have narrowed down the possible questions that can be asked in the UK Government and Politics exam, based on the guidance and each week we are going to work on planning a question in full.
We shall also look at how to reach a level 5 in AO1 knowledge, A02 Analysis and A03 Evaluation.
Students can kick start their revision by taking these practical plans and translating them into writing full essays.
I believe these sessions will cover at least 80% of the exam papers - if students heed my advice over the coming weeks then they can aim to achieve an A/A* in the final exam.
The cost of the sessions will be £5 per week (paid in monthly instalments - £20 for 4 sessions).
After the session you will receive the plan we work on, powerpoints of content that will help you write your essays and any other practical resources.
I hope to make this session weekly until the May exams.
There are a limited number of spaces so book soon to guarantee your space.
Each session will last 1 hour to 1.30 hours. With plenty of time of questions.
Good clarification from LEO - For the Political Ideas exam (Paper 3), students will still have to answer a short 9-mark question on each of the three ideologies question, so they will still need knowledge of all three core political ideas. The 25-mark source question will just be on Conservatism, but 9-mark questions on Conservatism Liberalism and Socialism remain.