Last year we were all well and truly in the dark when approaching the first Christian Thought paper. A year on (and maybe a year wiser) we can certainly learn from two areas: the examiners report (see: Examiner’s Report 2017: What can we learn?) and last year’s questions:

Now so far in the first year exams it seems that the areas that were asked last year have been avoided so far this year. OCR are very clever though – they will know this too, which means they might throw a curve ball in and ask the same topic again but a different area.

However going by the pattern so far this means that Augustine, Natural and Revealed Knowledge of God and Moral Principles has not been asked. My gut instinct is that the examiners will not ask a question on both Natural and Revealed and Moral Principles as these are very similar topics (in my view) and both quite dry.

I think if the examiners asked you a question on Natural and Revealed (such as ‘Knowledge of God can only be revealed.’ Discuss – wording would obviously be a little better) and then a question on the Bible (such as ‘The Bible is the only authority for Christian ethical practices.’ Discuss – wanting you to discus the different denominational approaches) I think that would be a really mean paper!

But….your Philosophy and Ethics so far has been pretty nice. My mantra: Prepare for the worse and hope for the best.

Worst case predictions:

Continue reading “Predictions for Christian Thought 2018 (First and Second Year)” →

My tips for last year’s first DCT exam consisted of:

• Use the words in the question throughout your answer
• Add critical words with ‘because’ throughout to emphasize evaluation
• Add as many glossary/ key words as possible and link back to the question.

I can’t promise that I have much more than I did last year as far as advice but this is what I have learnt about the six DCT topics (first year):

1. Use the overlap between topics to your advantage e.g. Moral Principles topic on the different interpretations of scripture is very similar to Natural and Revealed Knowledge of God
2. Learn 3 quotes (one for a Pope) that can be used in multiple different answers
3.  Summarize your revision notes into 4-5 main themes per topic (e.g Augustine – Original Sin, Before and after the Fall, Grace and the role of women etc.)
4. Learn some extra names that can be used as evaluation (e.g. Dawkins compares belief in God to a teapot in space or belief in the tooth fairy). Don’t forget it is only evaluation when you say who presents the most convincing argument.
5. Work out which topic the question is from and how much you can write for that topic area. Do you have enough for at least 2 sides?

Remember the style of questions and material for the DCT topics is different from that of Philosophy and Ethics (well I certainly think it is!) It is more descriptive and presents less arguments to really sink your teeth into. However that is not an excuse to not engage with evaluation. What this means is you have to work harder for it. What I found after last year’s DCT exam was that students tended to do better because they were so aware of the question and the need to evaluate, that they actually emphasized it more than they did in Philosophy and Ethics. Good news!! So don’t stress out, focus on what you are asked and try think of any relevant quotes, names, ideas that you have covered in the DCT topics that you can use in relation to the Q.

Pointers for 2nd year DCT:

Continue reading “Panic “My Exam is Tomorrow!” Must Read for Christian Thought 2018 (1st and 2nd Year)” →