As I say every year, it is impossible to accurately predict exam questions due to the magnitude of questions the exam board could ask. They may ask questions that have previously featured in the first or second year exams (even the exact same wording could be used) or they may ask questions on areas of the specification never asked before. With this in mind, these predictions are just my own musings and may be completely wrong, so you must still revise all areas on the spec. But if I was going to write an exam paper this is how I would do it…

1. Cosmological: “The logical fallacies in Aquinas’ first three ways cannot be overcome.” Discuss. Or “Hume’s criticisms against the cosmological argument are effective.” Discuss​
2. Hick’s reworking of the Irenaean theodicy: ‘Critically assess the view that Hick’s reworking of the Irenaean theodicy gives some purpose to natural evil.’ Or “The existence of evils does not justify the need to create a ‘vale of soul-making.’ Discuss.​
3. Religious experience critics: “Religious experiences can be explained as merely a psychological effect.” Discuss. Or ‘Critically assess the view that religious experiences are the product of a physiological effect.’ ​
4. Religious Language Apophatic (Via Negativa): “The apophatic way enables effective understanding of theological discussion.” Discuss. Or Religious Language Verification: “Ayer’s verification principle presents a convincing approach to the understanding of religious language.” Discuss.​

Possibilities:

This live stream answered last minute questions and covered final top tips for achieving high grades in the Philosophy exam:

It is impossible to accurately predict exam questions due to the magnitude of questions the exam board could ask. They may ask questions that have previously featured in the first or second year exams (even the exact same wording could be used) or they may ask questions on areas of the specification never asked before. All we know is that certain topics have been removed for the 2022 exams which narrows the field of possible questions somewhat. With this in mind, these predictions are just my own musings and may be completely wrong, so you must still revise all areas on the AI. But if I was going to write an exam paper this is how I would do it…

1. Aristotle’s PM e.g “Critically assess the Prime Mover and how it connects to the final cause.” or a comparison question between Plato and Aristotle either on FOG vs PM or reason vs senses e.g “Plato’s reliance on reason explains the nature of reality more clearly than Aristotle’s use of senses.” Discuss.
2. A lot of questions have been asked over the years on Teleological and Cosmological so most avenues have already been covered. What has not been asked before is “An a posteriori approach is more persuasive than an a priori approach for proving God’s existence.” This however seems quite a mean question as you would have to know Ontological (a priori) and this was removed from this year’s exam. To be on the safe side I would still revise Ontological briefly. A more likely question I think would be “The logical fallacies in the *Teleological/ Cosmological* argument cannot be overcome. ” Discuss
3. “To what extent does Hick’s reworking of the Irenaean theodicy give purpose to natural evil in enabling human beings to reach divine likeness.”
4. Only one question has been asked over the years on the Nature of God therefore it could be on one of a number of areas: omnipotence, omniscience or omnibenevolence.

As you can see with my predictions, I think there is going to be one question on: Plato and/or Aristotle, Teleological and/or Cosmological, Problem of Evil and Nature of God. However once again I may be completely wrong and you may have no question on Nature of God (for example) and one question on Teleological and one question on Cosmological.

I hope your revision continues to go really well! Don’t forget to join me on tomorrow nights live stream starting at 6.00. Good luck on Thursday and remember you have worked very hard for the last two years so this is your time to show off!!

Predications are a really tricky business especially since we have very few past exam questions to go on. My advice is to make sure you know all topic areas as well as you can but for some of you knowing what came up in previous years might really help. So here is a table of all the first year questions asked so far and the questions from last year’s full A level. The importance of knowing the first year questions is because, whilst the same topic might come up in both years, it is extremely doubtful that the exact working will be the same.

What we can see from this is that Plato, Aristotle, Soul, Onto, POE and RL: 20^th Century were not asked last year in the A Level exams.

So I think potential question areas could be:

Continue reading “A Level Philosophy Predictions 2019” →