General Studies A level - what does it involve?

[MrsGotobed]

The reason I'm asking is DD has failed it with a U.

I always thought it was one of those subjects you couldn't fail because it wasn't something you could revise for, that you just had to have an awareness of current affairs, society, world issues etc (which DD has).

Obviously I don't want to ask her how she managed to fail it and dont want to ask too many questions about what it involves as she will not respond well so mumsnet is the place.

Anyone please?

I did General Studies A Level but it was a long time ago - 1990.
I seem to remember as well as the general stuff there was a section that involved spatial awareness/problem solving and an essay question.
How did she do in the other subjects? If GS was an "extra" I really wouldn't worry - lots of courses don't accept it anyway.

If you want to know format you can Google General Studies A Level past papers and see what comes up - what exam board was it?

From very distant memory, there was a multiple choice section and some essays. I guess you'd be at an advantage for the essays if you studied eg English or History but then there are sciencey things in the other bit.
How did she do in her other subjects? Is she relying on GS for UCAS points?

I did GS back in 2001 and to me it was a bit like a pub quiz - I think there were 2x 3hr papers each with five "rounds" on different topics. One of the subjects was a foreign language so you'd definitely be at a disadvantage if you weren't hot at that, and there was some spatial awareness/maths that wasn't really beyond GCSE but again if you'd struggled before it might not be easy. I think about a third of it was essay based so good prose writing skills made a difference.

Good point made above though is that few unis will count it as part of their offer so it's unlikely to have a massive impact. Yes, it's a shame she failed, but I'd be surprised if it really held her back.

I teach AQA GS so hope I can answer some questions. My students take specification A.

At AS level, they take 2 units, unit 1 is Culture and Society and unit 2 Science and Society. In both, students get a passage to read and 30 multiple choice questions based on their understanding of it. Then in unit 1 they get a couple of shorter articles to read with a 3 mark, a 5 mark, a 13 mark and 14 mark answer to complete, all in 90 minutes. In unit 2, they get a choice of 3 sets of 2 essays to complete on related subjects.

At A2 they also take 2 units with similar titles, this time each paper lasts 2 hours. Unit 4 has pre-release material on something scientific (sorry, I don't teach this unit so am less familiar with it) often with data to analyse. Unit 3 has 2 articles to read, often from contrasting political perspectives. Students have to analyse them for 10 marks, then write their own response to the issue. Then they have 2 essays to write and get a choice of 4 for each one (section B - write one essay from a choice of 4, section C write one essay from a different selection of 4).

I have taught this for 6 years and am confident that to be successful, students have to be able to write balanced essays with examples that back up their points, preferably with an introduction and definitely with a conclusion. The most common reasons given in examiners' reports for students not doing so well are that they re-write sources without their own input, fail to use any examples or do not write conclusions.

I hope this is useful - newbie posting...!

Thanks all, particularly Malbecfan (welcome, by the way .)

That does explain it a bit better.

It just completely threw me because I remember that after the exam she said it had been fine and was OK about whatever the topics were (can't remember now what they were though). Also I had been under the impression that it was "a doddle" to pass. I can only imagine she wrote a very one-sided essay with no substance or conclusion.

For whoever was asking DD is Lower Sixth so A levels are next year apart from this one which they do this year. Her GCSEs last year were not as good as predicted or expected so we suspect she doesn't really put in as much work to her revision as she should (which is another reason I wanted a better picture of what GS involves)

I did it in 1994, unless it has changed drastically I can't see how she could have got a U. We had no preparation for it whatsoever, everyone at my school entered it, it was like a bonus A'level, I got a B. It was just a few essays that tested general knowledge and logic as far as I recall.

MrsMarigold - exactly why I started the thread as that was my memory of General Studies!

Honestly I had to bite my tongue to not say "How the fuck hell did you fail it?!".

She's not stupid, she's doing A levels in sciences and language, she is clued up on current affairs, she has strong, quite feminist views on issues, she is articulate, she holds down a part-time job etc but she came out with a U so it's obviously changed over the years.

Did she actually write anything in the exam? I once got a U for a mock GCSE RE exam because I never wrote anything in the exam, my DM nearly killed me as it was such an easy subject.

I don't remember doing any revision for it, beyond reading newspapers, which I did anyway.
There was a question on ours which said: which of the following joints moves on only one plane?
A) shoulder
B) elbow
C) knuckle
D) ankle
About halfway through the paper, everyone started moving their arms and legs around to test. 😂

Given that most universities don't accept General Studies anyway why do schools still insist on students taking it?

Did she turn up?

I did wonder LIZS !

Anyone know if it's possible to find out what grades students got for GS this year nationally. I'm intrigued now to see how many others managed to get a U ?

When I did it, it was turn up and do it, mostly multi-choice.

But it was very much uneven as to subjects. The maths questions could have easily been done by any of my dc in year 6 (multichoice maths are usually easy). The French paper the year before me was branded impossible by the French teachers, including one native speaker.

Equally well they could happen to have a section on something you know-or not. For example, my dsis year had 10 questions on illustrators in children's books. Having got 2 younger siblings she thought it was a doddle as they were all very well known ones we'd read. The rest of her year didn't have a clue.

I did it in 2003. I remember it as essay writing entirely or at least predominantly.

It was a bit of a shambles tbh, for one of my AS level modules, all our exam papers were lost by Royal Mail then for our January module in A2, the results were so low across the whole sixth form (some thousand odd students taking it) that the college paid for and forced us all to resist it in the June. I think I got a B in the end, but a lot of universities didn't count it anyway so it was all a frustrating and rather pointless exercise

It can totally depend on the board and topics. Many many years ago, the whole school sat the a level GS exam in lower 6 as an internal exam (ie after the alevels were compleate). I completely flunked it. Talking to others, a very few people in the year above sat a different board. I fought to sit that paper too, and went from a N to a B simply by switching boards. The format of the second papers suited me much better (less essay, more comparitative and evaluation stuff).
Yes, there was a language section. I put a straight line of 'B' on the multiple choice answers and moved on. So it can very much depend on the topics, and gofmat and cabditate combinations. (I hot a -B the following year on the unusual paper which I was allowed to sit)

I suggest you contact the exams office as soon as possible and ask for a re-mark, which may or may not make a difference.

The exams office at the school, i meant.

I don't think that General Studies is necessarily a 'hard' subject to pass but it does require students to be able to a) form their own opinions on a topic b) have a reasonable general knowledge about how society works to be able to draw conclusions about topics in the exam pieces and c) competently express their opinions in a well structured essay.

It's not the same as it was back in the day when as you say it was pretty much impossible to fail, but for a lot of students it's still not too difficult. The thing is it depends on what your other subjects are in some ways. If you take essay type subjects like History, English, Sociology, Law, Religion, Ethics or Philosophy and also modern languages, you will be used to constructing arguments and writing essays.

On the flip side if you've taken PE, Physics, Maths, Art, Geography etc, you may be less used to writing essays and so then General Studies does require you to learn a new skill.

Regardless of what subjects you are studying, if you want to go to university and do well it's good to do well in General Studies, not for the UCAS points etc (many universities don't count GS anyway) but because in almost every university course regardless of subject there will be a need to write and structure essays to present and reason an opinion or argument on a topic.

In short, it's trickier than you might think so don't be too hard on her, but if she might be weak on essay writing maybe get her a tutor for it?

When I did general studies I ranted about Kerry Katona in a vast majority of my essay and got a B! I had friends who purposely failed it in AS to avoid having to do it the next year.

We had no exam prep for it, it was a bit of a doss exam to be honest!

Thank you MrsGoToBed .

I don't have access to the AQA site from home and I'm not going back into school until September. However, we broadly work on the following percentages for grade boundaries:

A* = 90%
A = 80%
B = 70%
C = 60%
D = 50%
E = 40%
39% and lower is a U.

In mocks I have given U grades, mainly to those who scored less than 12 out of 30 on the multiple choice sections at AS. I personally found A2 easier to teach and would give each student an old essay that I had re-typed with the mark scheme and get them to grade it. Most of them were surprised by how many it achieved (A grade 19/25) as it was quite short. We then picked it apart to see WHY it got those marks. Then we spent time planning essays and thinking of examples, which I know they found useful. Sadly, my last A2 cohort took the exam last summer (49% A*/A which I was really happy with) and my last AS this year. I haven't seen any breakdown of marks at all for AS.

To the posters questioning the validity of General Studies A level, it is true that some universities ignore it (e.g. Cambridge) BUT I have evidence of a number of students over the years whose offers have been lowered because they took GS in year 12 and achieved a high grade. Yesterday one of DD's friends was accepted straight onto a Masters course at a Russell Group institution because he had an A. The A is in GS. His other grades were A but the criteria insisted on one A* and they accepted GS for an environmental science-type course.

Malbecfan, you can access the secure aqa website from home if you want to, just use your school login name and password in the eaqa login section ( top right corner of regular aqa website and bobs your uncle)

@Rosieposy4 I don't have a school login name or password for AQA. Tbh, as I only taught a couple of the units, it has never been necessary. I get the unit breakdowns from the person leading the course on our Sept Inset day. But thanks for the info

Lots of science course are masters these days. MEng, MMath, MSci etc. Lots of courses lower entry requirements when too few students get the A*. Look at clearing this year!