General Studies

Discussion and advice on Sixth Form matters

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Looking for help
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Location: Berkshire

General Studies

Post by Looking for help »

My daughter is sitting her AS G/S this week and next, and has refused to do any work for it. She says they've had hardly any teaching, and has no clue at all whatsoever as to what might come up in the exam. I think the course has changed since my others took it, and while I am not overly concerned about it, as it has no value to her for university application, I wonder if anyone has any idea what is in it, and how difficult it is? I don't imagine it to be too troublesome, but do others actively revise for it?
Thanks :D
hermanmunster
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Re: General Studies

Post by hermanmunster »

Looking for help wrote:My daughter is sitting her AS G/S this week and next, and has refused to do any work for it. She says they've had hardly any teaching, and has no clue at all whatsoever as to what might come up in the exam. I think the course has changed since my others took it, and while I am not overly concerned about it, as it has no value to her for university application, I wonder if anyone has any idea what is in it, and how difficult it is? I don't imagine it to be too troublesome, but do others actively revise for it?
Thanks :D

tend to agree that it has changed since I did it! Don;t think you can revise at all, other than have really good general knowledge and that can't be got in year 12...
Looking for help
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Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:12 am
Location: Berkshire

Re: General Studies

Post by Looking for help »

hermanmunster wrote:
tend to agree that it has changed since I did it! Don;t think you can revise at all, other than have really good general knowledge and that can't be got in year 12...
Oops ......she doesn't have much in the way of general knowledge :( What on earth is the point of it ?
hermanmunster
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Re: General Studies

Post by hermanmunster »

Think it helps if you can write a good balanced essay - even if you don't know that much about the subject!! This if from "the student room":

AS Level
Units shown are for AQA (A):

GSA1 This is the Culture, Morality, Arts and Humanities paper. You basically just have to write essays on certain issues. It's not that hard if you manage to read a good quality broadsheet newspaper a couple of times a week.

GSA2 This is the Science, Mathematics and Technology module. To be honest, my year all found this quite hard as most of us hadn't done any Maths since GCSE. If the Sciences aren't your forte, then you just need to work extra hard at the other papers (I got a C on this paper, and still came out with an A overall).

GSA3W Society, Politics and the Economy was much like GSA1. The multiple choice element makes it relatively easy to get a good grade on this paper (I got 100% putting no work in), which can make a big difference if you fall down in other areas.
Looking for help
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Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:12 am
Location: Berkshire

Re: General Studies

Post by Looking for help »

Cheers Herman, that's what I've been looking for. At least she's pretty good on the essay writing front :D
KB
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Re: General Studies

Post by KB »

Complete waste of time to do any revision for it. All about technique in essay writing and having a bit of a clue about 'current' issues. Hopefully school will have preped them.
While most Universities don't offer on it its never greta to have a poor grade on the UCAS application.
If you are really worried (& I doubt ther is a need to be ) you could contact the school to check if you can delay cash-in until the results are out.
Looking for help
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Re: General Studies

Post by Looking for help »

KB wrote: If you are really worried (& I doubt ther is a need to be ) you could contact the school to check if you can delay cash-in until the results are out.
Erm sorry to be so thick, kb, but I don't really understand what you mean by this :oops:

Not really worried, just confused as to why the school makes them do general studies, yet fails to teach for it, to the point where the kids don't even know whether it will be essay questions or multiple choice :roll:
marigold
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Re: General Studies

Post by marigold »

My daughter did AS General Studies AS level this time last year. I was invigilating the same exam but in another room and was horrified that one of the questions was all about utilitarianism and John Stuart Mill as I was sure she had never heard of him.

In fact they had covered him in their lectures and she was able to write enough to get a decent mark.

If you look up the exam board they are doing and look at the past papers you can get the general gist of what is required. They tend to ask the same sort of questions each year so you could go through them with her and make sure she has a least a few things to say on each topic.
KB
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Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Re: General Studies

Post by KB »

'cash in'

When results have been 'cashed in' with the exam board it means the grade is formally awarded so no further re-sits can be taken etc.
The date of award of the qualification is officially the 'cash in ' date.
In the past some schools have used the system to delay an award being made so that an exam that was sat early is officially awarded at the same time as others.
Also - if you do not 'cash in' a poor grade then the award is never made so if asked the question about what grades did you get you wouldn't have to declare it. However if asked the question about what modules did you sit that would be a different matter.
There are rules about when 'cash in' can take place so always check with exams officer at school to make sure you understand the system properly. Whether you can use the 'cash in ' system to your advantage also depends on how UCAS is working - if they are going to ask for all module results (as Cambridge have done for some time) for example.
Looking for help
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Re: General Studies

Post by Looking for help »

Thanks for your explanation,KB. And thanks marigold, we've had a look at some of the past papers, but can't really tie them up with this year's course, it seems to have changed. In previous years, i think there were three papers, one in January, and 2 in the summer, whereas this year we only have the two in the summer.
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