Question 2 Paper 2: What Method Works?
How many comparisons do you need?
Sareena has generously given us her answer. Thank you again Sareena.
You can see that Sareena has been taught to put her comparison or contrast in the same paragraph. This worked well in the first paragraph, but less well in the second.
It has scored 5/8, so it has lost 3 marks.
What is the examiner looking for?
In my practice paper, with answers at every grade, I explain it like this:
Points Make Prizes Method for Question 2
This is how the method works.
Make a comparison between both sources. Include a quote (or piece of evidence) from each source as part of the comparison: 1 mark.
Write an explanation about each quote (or piece of evidence) in the comparison: 1 mark.
4 comparisons will give you full marks: 8. That’s it.
That said, 50% of examiners give the wrong grade, according to Ofqual. That’s not surprising in this question, because one grade is only 1 mark - in fact one mark is worth a bit more than a grade.
However, are some explanations better than others?
You can look at the indicative content and say examiners get very excited about having two explanations per quote.
AQA’s Indicative Content
The train in Source A is being used to transport mail and people and so has a ‘mail van’, ‘a dining car’ and ‘five sleeping cars’, showing both the advances in train manufacture and the commercialisation of rail travel to enable long journeys by providing eating and sleeping facilities. (This explains that it is commercial - 1 mark)
This sophistication reflects significant progress in train travel (This explains that it is advanced - I mark) and is a complete contrast to Source B where the steam engine is an earlier model and is, therefore, much simpler in its design. In Source B, the train is just a functional ‘uncovered carriage’ with ‘benches’ as the purpose at this earlier stage of invention is to develop the mechanics of the engine, not to provide more elaborate passenger facilities. (Here the first explanation comes before the quote, and the second is after - 2 marks).
So, this suggests an alternative method - fewer comparisons, and 2 explanations per quote. Examiners are likely to treat this as proof of ‘quality’.
Although the indicative contents always show quotes with more than one explanation, these are written by examiners.
What About Student Answers?
The answers AQA publishes from students are not full of this 2 explanations per quote method.
In the 5 mark answer below you’ll see there are none.
In the 8 mark answer, which paid subscribers read, there is only one double explanation, the other 6 are all single.
So, if you can find more than one explanation, write it down. If you can’t, move on to the next quote or the next comparison. Points Make Prizes.
Here’s an example of a 5 mark answer from my exam practice paper and guide to paper 2:
You can buy the practice papers and guides here. Simply compare your answers to the colour coded answers at every grade, and your marking will be at least as accurate as a teacher.
However - was Sareena under marked?
This was the question:
You need to refer to The Accidental Countryside (Source A) and The Life of the Fields (Source B) for this question.
The birds in The Accidental Countryside and The Life of the Fields live in different habitats.
What can you infer about the different places where the birds live?
No. Not all Sareena’s explanations are about the habitats. So they don’t all score marks.
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Typed Version
Source A describes the different places where birds live as insufficient, which is conveyed through how the falcon’s empire is just “this corner of the city”.
This shows how the “wonders of the wild” now have to live in places where humans would visit such as “skyscrapers” and “contemporary art gallery,” which could suggest how Moss describes the falcon’s place to live as a make-shift house because of how humans have extended to the natural habitats where the birds live.
This has two explanations and two quotes about the habitat. There are no marks for the quote about the falcon, as that is not what the question asked. There is one mark for one quote and an explanation. 1 mark.
This is different to Source B where Jefferies employs the vast landscape through “those bushes and tall grasses, high in the trees and low on the ground, there were the nests of happy birds.” This use of an excessive list creates the impression of the abundance in nature.
This is a comparison. 1 mark.
It is a quote and explanation. 1 mark.
There was “flowery grass” and the birds “concealed her treasured eggs” in “groves (that) were knotted together.” The use of verb “knotted” suggests how abundant nature was in Source B and shows how the birds had a sufficient place of nature to reside in.
This is another quote, and another explanation. 1 mark
This stark difference in the sufficient habitat and insufficient habitat of the falcon in Source A, where there was a lack of mention of any nature or vegetation, conveys the difference in time periods and how this stark difference was caused by the industrialisation and urbanisation of humans
This is a comparison. 1 mark.
as before “all life loved the brook” and now in Source B “people below were unaware” of the birds, conveying how humans don’t value the birds and don’t care about where they live, as the peregrine “was very much a bird of wild places, not the urban jungle.”
There are 3 quotes and 1 explanation. But, this is not an explanation about the habitat, and so it gets no marks.
So, 5 marks. Points Make Prizes
Sareena’s main problem is that she has written too few comparisons.
Here is the 8 Mark Answer
My Comments
Normally, the published 8 mark answers have 4 comparisons, 8 quotes, 8 explanations.
Here the student has 4 comparisons. There are 8 quotes (though often represented by single words, or pairs, linked together as single pieces of evidence). There are 9 explanations because of the weirdness of the second comparison.
The second comparison has only one quote and explanation from Source A, and nothing from Source B.
The third comparison has two quotes and two explanations from Source A - in other words, they have extra, to make up what was missing in the second comparison. This doesn’t fit the normal pattern of 8 mark answers.
In the normal pattern, that would need to be an explanation about the other source, not 3 explanations about the same source.
But here it looks like the examiner has said, “Points Make Prizes - there are enough explanations, so I will allow it.”