What grade do you want?

Everyone would like to improve their grades but you will only manage this with a lot of hard work and determination. You should have a fair idea of your natural ability and likely grade in Sociology and the hints below offer advice on improving that grade.

For a Grade A
You will need to be a very good all-rounder.

• You must go into every exam knowing the work extremely well.
• You must be able to apply your knowledge to new, unfamiliar situations.
• You need to have practised many, many exam questions so that you are ready for the type of question that will appear.

The exams test all areas of the syllabus and any weaknesses in your sociology will be found out. There must be no holes in your knowledge and understanding. For a Grade A, you must be competent in all areas.

For a Grade C
You must have a reasonable grasp of Sociology but you may have weaknesses in several areas and you will be unsure of sociological concepts and theories.

• Many Grade C candidates are just as good at answering questions as the
• Grade A students but holes and weaknesses often show up in just some topics.
• To improve, you will need to master your weaknesses and you must prepare thoroughly for the exam. You must become a better all-rounder.

For a Grade E
You cannot afford to miss the easy marks. Even if you find Sociology difficult to understand and would be happy with a Grade E, there are plenty of questions in which you can gain marks.

• You must memorise all definitions and basic concepts.
• You must practise exam questions to give yourself confidence that you do know some Sociology. In exams, answer the parts of questions that you know first. You must not waste time on the difficult parts. You can always go back to these later.
• The areas of Sociology that you find most difficult are going to be hard to score on in exams. Even in the difficult questions, there are still marks to be gained.

The table below shows how your average mark is translated:

A - 80%

B - 70%

C - 60%

D - 50%

E - 40%

You can always gain some marks if you only partly outline a theory or sociological response to a problem. If it is a data response question, you can pick up marks by
fully using the data.