[Crazy-Fish]

History paper one today. . . How did everyone think it go? If you're doing AQA modern world history, specification B, what questions did you do? Did anyone else run out of time? Good luck for paper two next week as well!

[MrJohnDClare]

Good question, Crazy-Fish, though in my experience it's usually best not to spend too long analysing how you did.
In an exam EVERYBODY messes up somewhere, somehow, and the examiners expect that - and make allowances.
If you;re not careful you drive yourself crazy worrying about whether such-and-such a thing you wr (or didn;t write) will make a difference to your grade.
In the end, it's probably better to forget what's gone and - like you say - concnetrate on the next exam.

[Miss Buxton]

Excellent advice Mr Clare...exactly what I told my Year 11 classes after the exam.


Although some students who were concerned that they had messed up were worrying for no reason ...because when they actually explained what they had put down...it was in fact correct...and so these students have gone away a little happier and are now concentrating on paper 2.

So move on...pick up your revision notes, books and guides and revisit your paper 2 studies.

Good luck kids!

[Crazy-Fish]

thanks for the advice, ill look at paper two stuff at the weekend. . .

[Jazz]

Hey.
I also did this exam today. It went well, which was good. However, I was wondering- if I was to cross the wrong box on the answer paper, would it effect my mark? I don't think I did but...I just wanted to make sure

thanks

[MrJohnDClare]

Jazz, on Jun 3 2009, 06:38 PM, said:

if I was to cross the wrong box on the answer paper

???
means???
If it's just an administrative thing, then the answer will be no, it won't affect your mark.

[Jazz]

MrJohnDClare, on Jun 3 2009, 07:00 PM, said:

Jazz, on Jun 3 2009, 06:38 PM, said:

if I was to cross the wrong box on the answer paper

???
means???
If it's just an administrative thing, then the answer will be no, it won't affect your mark.

Ah, sorry- on the edexel answer booklet-you have to tell the examiner which question you chose to answer, out of the choice of two you were given for that topic. I fear I may have put a cross in the box for qu 8 instead of 9..but then i'm most probably worring about nothing!

[MrJohnDClare]

Jazz, on Jun 3 2009, 07:13 PM, said:

Ah, sorry- on the edexel answer booklet-you have to tell the examiner which question you chose to answer, out of the choice of two you were given for that topic. I fear I may have put a cross in the box for qu 8 instead of 9..but then i'm most probably worring about nothing!

Ah - I understand.
Don't worry at all - the examiner will just change it for you.
It will make no difference to your mark whatsoever.

[Jazz]

MrJohnDClare, on Jun 3 2009, 07:47 PM, said:

Jazz, on Jun 3 2009, 07:13 PM, said:

Ah, sorry- on the edexel answer booklet-you have to tell the examiner which question you chose to answer, out of the choice of two you were given for that topic. I fear I may have put a cross in the box for qu 8 instead of 9..but then i'm most probably worring about nothing!

Ah - I understand.
Don't worry at all - the examiner will just change it for you.
It will make no difference to your mark whatsoever.

Thats good to hear- thank you

[Crazy-Fish]

we had to write down all the question numbers of ours. . . if someone answered a question that they hadn't been taught, would they lose marks as they haven't been entered for it?

[Mr Field]

Crazy-Fish, on Jun 3 2009, 09:26 PM, said:

we had to write down all the question numbers of ours. . . if someone answered a question that they hadn't been taught, would they lose marks as they haven't been entered for it?

You would lose marks if you did this. Not because you are penalised for not following the topics you've been taught, but rather because you were trying to answer a topic that you haven't prepared or studied for.

The exam board won't penalise you, but you would penalise yourself.

That said, if you have done so - just get on with your preparation for the rest of your exams. It is aways advisable to cover the topics you've been taught - but there is always someone who doesn't. A good historian will always shine though, but it is just seriously in your best interests to answer topics you've studied!

[MrJohnDClare]

Mr Field, on Jun 3 2009, 10:12 PM, said:

but rather because you were trying to answer a topic that you haven't prepared or studied for.

I once had a pupil answer a question on the Vietnam War, rather than the topics we had studied, because she had watched Platoon the night before.
Strangely enough it seemed to make little difference to her grade - but then she didn't get a very good grade.

If you have been entered for certain Options (e.g. American West), then you must stick within your option - e.g. you wouldn't go answering questions on Elizabethan England or Britain 1815-51.
I suspect you really would fail then.

But if - say, you hadn't studied American West Railways with your teacher, but you happened to have a great hobby interest in Railways of the American West, and a question turned up on Railways, then you would have to make a judgement about whether you could sore more highly doing one of the questions you had studied in class, or this one, where you have an 'interest' knowledge but which might not be academic enough in nature.
I suspect with Mr Field that it would uually be better to stick with the questions you had studied.

However, having said that, in my History A level I 'ran out' of questions I could do, so I blagged my fourth essay on Henri IV, based on a Jean Plaidy novel I had just read.
I got a B.