Cambridge examiner comments – by topic

Here’s a link to a compilation of Cambridge examiner comments, organised according to topic.

Political change with pen and paper

“It’s human nature to be selfish”

To my students who keep throwing in the “it’s human nature to be selfish” argument:

If you’re going to use it, please justify this argument. If not, it’s merely an assertion. Perhaps you could consider qualifying it with Richard Dawkin’s “The Selfish Gene” idea, or Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – though do note that both have their fair (or unfair?) share of criticism.

Essay: Issue-based questions

Issue-based questions invite you to debate the issue. If you choose to disagree with the issue and the stand presented, the CA-R paragraph structure might be the most sensible approach. However, if you agree with the issue being presented, the A-CA-R structure might work better.

Here’s an example of an issue-based question:

“A university education is becoming increasingly irrelevant to success.” Comment.

The issues: We hear an increasing number of stories of non-university graduates succeeding. In addition, academic inflation means that a university degree no longer guarantees success. In light of this, is a university education really that necessary?

Given that these are key issues, arguing that “a university education is increasingly relevant because it results in higher-paying jobs, which is increasingly important because of the problem of inflation (think rising food prices)” isn’t really relevant to this question, because it has nothing to do with the issues behind this question.

So if we didn’t know that this was an issue-based question, it’s likely that our response will be of limited relevance.

In other words, we need to be able to recognise issue-based questions. And to do this, we need to read, read, read.

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Task:
Identify the key issue(s) in the question, “Technology is the future of sport.” Discuss.

Characteristics of Singapore

Characteristics of Singapore:

http://cjcpig.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/2010-promo-review/

George Orwell, on Writing

In his essay, “Politics and the English Language“,  George Orwell presents us with five rules on writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I think the last rule is crucial. This blog presents many recommendations and “rules”. But we must not fall into the trap of mindless, unthinking rule-following, because that may be our downfall. As in the case of language, when it comes to answering a GP essay question, rules are mere guidelines. We must always ask: is this the exception to the rule? And when we think that it might be, we must be bold enough to break the rules. Because the fact is, there are exceptions to every rule – and that includes this one.

Language: Triplets

Using sets of three is one stylistic feature that we can use in essays:

It is all in the game. The determination in training, the exhilaration of success, the celebration of teamwork.
-Ezra Aik, 2T13

We train so that we can get faster, we train so that we can get stronger, we train do that we can get faster.
-Ezra Aik, 2T13

Note: Here, the sentence stem, “we train so that we can” is repeated (three times) to good effect – triplet repetition is a subset of triplets.

Language: Phrasing matters

Advertising encourages a desire for products which people do not actually need. Discuss.

Not great:

“Some forms of advertising are beneficial because they promote a desirable message. For example, advertisements on recycling”

This might be marked as irrelevant, because such advertisements have nothing to do with promoting products.

However, a bit of rephrasing makes this relevant:

“Some forms of advertising do not even advertise products, let alone products we do not need. For example, advertisements on recycling”

Language: Avoid writing “he/she”

Using “he/she” in your writing looks clumsy and inelegant.

Personally, I use “they” as the gender neutral pronoun, even if I’m using it as a singular (rather than plural) pronoun. Oxford Dictionaries explains it as follows:

The word they (with its counterparts them, their, and themselves) as a singular pronoun to refer to a person of unspecified sex has been used since at least the 16th century. In the late 20th century, as the traditional use of he to refer to a person of either sex came under scrutiny on the grounds of sexism, this use of they became more common. It is now generally accepted in contexts where it follows an indefinite pronoun such as anyone, no one, someone, or a person, as in anyone can join if they are a resident and each to their own. In other contexts, coming after singular nouns, the use of they is now common, though less widely accepted, especially in formal contexts. Sentences such asask a friend if theycould helpare still criticized for being ungrammatical. Nevertheless, in view of the growing acceptance of they and its obvious practical advantages, they is used in this dictionary in many cases where he would have been used formerly.

Essay practice: Too / Too much / Far too much

Task

Here are all the A level questions (2000-2009) that require us to consider the term(s) “too/too much/far too much”.  Refer to the recent post on addressing “too much” questions, and practice thinking of relevant yardsticks for the following questions:

Discuss the view that too much faith is placed in statistics. (2008)

Examine the claim that the world is too dependent on oil. (2005)

‘Too much attention is given to criminals; not enough to their victims.’ Is this true? (2005)

‘Far too much attention is given to beauty products and treatments.’ Do you agree? (2004)

Does the modern world place too much reliance on technology? (2003)

Is sport too closely linked to money these days? (2001)

Do you think that life today offers us too many choices? (2001)