Five Tips on How to Ace A-level Government and Politics

I took my A-levels last year, and Politics was one of my favourite subjects. I managed to get an A in each module and overall for my A-level, but this was not without effort – I had to learn the hard way how to work for my results after getting a D originally for my AS year. I’ll share with you the tips I’ve learned and hopefully help you get the grade you need at A2!

Tip #1: Take Comprehensive Notes

The worst thing that can happen to you is that you misunderstand or misremember a concept because you did poor notes about it in class. This actually happened to my in my A2 exam – the notes I had made on positive and negative liberty were wrong, so my answer to the question was wrong too! (Thankfully this didn’t effect me too much as I got 84% on that paper, but you can never be too careful!) Make sure that your notes accurately reflect concepts and events and don’t skip the big details.

Tip #2: Read Essays

Reading good essays that other people have produced is a brilliant way for you to get tips and also learn new arguments for you to use in your essays. Swap practice essays that have been graded with your classmates, or find ones on the internet, and read them widely! I found that I remembered more by reading essays than I did by just going over notes, and it also helps you with essay structure.

Tip #3: Write Practice Essays!

Getting used to the structure of an essay is one of the better ways of preparing, and I always found that answering questions with notes when needed and getting them marked is extremely constructive preparation for exams. You might even find that a question you answered in preparation is similar to one on the paper – if you can remember the points you made in the practice essay, you already have a good grade lined up! Try timing how long it takes for you to write an essay and schedule it to fit within the time constraints of the exam – the more realistic the conditions you write in, the better prepared for the real thing you will be.

Tip #4: Learn facts and figures

In my exam (I took the OCR course) I was expected to throw in case studies and names, and in all likelihood you will be expected to as well. Go through your textbook and find names, dates, percentages and figures, as these will all help you build up an argument in an exam. For example, if you’re writing an essay on the benefits of voting reform, it would be handy to quote the results of general elections, voter turnout, etc. Write these facts down and memorise them!

Tip #5: Look outside the box

Extra reading and research is the best way to bolster your knowledge in an exam. For my course, we were given an extra undergraduate-level text on political philosophy, and I read it cover to cover and made notes. In some cases it was actually more useful to me than my prescribed course text, and certainly a lot more engaging. Try and grab an extra book or two to read around your subject – your teacher would be happy to give you a few recommendations. Also, try to keep up to date with current politics – try watching shows like the Andrew Marr Show, Newsnight, and This Week. Keeping up to date with current events as they happen gives you a good springboard for case studies to throw into an exam. For example, the recent uprisings in the Middle East could be used in an essay about political power or governmental legitimacy. Keep your eyes open – don’t forget, politics is an ever evolving subject!