[D R E A M Z]

I took the AQA History Spec B yesterday and it went very well.

I would like to thank you for all the help you gave given me throughout the duration of the course, and I hope I have achieved my desire grade in this subject.

There is one thing I would like to ask regarding yesterdays test however. For the Vietnam 8 mark question which was something along the lines of:

"How effective was the US air assault during the Vietnam war"
It then gave you three bullet points to refer to in your answer.

I covered two of the bullet points and I did a brilliant job of assessing the effectiveness (pros and cons) of the "Operation Rolling thunder" and the "Agent Orange and Napalm": those were two of the bullet points. Now here comes my dilemma: how many marks would I truthfully achieve (out of 8) if I did an excellent job of assessing the effectiveness of only two of the three bullet points and I did not come to a final judgement at the end of my essay. (very annoyed with myself at this as I knew exactly what was required of me to achieve top marks in every question - that’s pressure for you! )

Thank you once again.

[MrJohnDClare]

I always advise pupils against agonising about what they wrote in any one exam, because all it does is worry you, and there's nothing you can do about it now anyway.

My strong advice is to let alone what's done - it's done.
Enjoy yourself, and wait until the results.

If you insist, from what you say, it may be that the examiner does not award you a Level 4 for this answer; the failure to reach a judgement will probably be the culprit, not the failure to address a bullet point.
But this will only drop you a couple of marks at most, and it certainly won't make the difference between an A* and not.

What you have to realise is that you don't have to get full marks or even Level 4 in every question to get an A*.
A mark of 80%-ish will usually secure you an A*.

So - for instance - even if you drop two marks on this question - you will get 6/8 = 75% (almost an A*).
And you'll be able to easily make that small shortfall up on other questions.

An average of good-Level-3 for all your questions will give you a A grade, and good-Level-3s plus a smattering of Level 4s will get you an A*.

Don;t worry about it.
Best of luck - wait till the results and agonise then if you need to.