RSB17Exam Technique: Papers 1 and 2

You sit two papers, each 1 hour 45 minutes, each worth 102 marks and 50% of the GCSE. Each paper has four questions, one for each section of the religion, and you answer all of them.

• Every question has the same four parts: (a) 3 marks, (b) 4 marks, (c) 5 marks, (d) 12 marks. That is 24 marks a question, 96 a paper, plus 6 for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG).
• There is no multiple choice and no 1-mark question. If you have seen AQA papers, don’t mix the two up.
• Timing: about 26 minutes per question. Pearson suggests roughly 3 minutes for (a), 4 for (b), 4 for (c) and 15 for (d). The (d) is half the marks, so don’t let the short parts eat into it.
• Order: you may answer the questions in any order. Many students start with the section they know best, but make sure you leave time for all four (d)s.

The two papers and their four questions

• AO1 (knowledge and understanding) is tested by (a), (b) and (c): 48 marks a paper. AO2 (analysis and evaluation) is tested by (d): 48 marks a paper.
• The secondary command word matters as much as the first: reasons, ways, beliefs, teachings, responses, attitudes, purposes, solutions. Examiners gave 0 to answers that described the problem of evil when asked for solutions, and to answers about the causes of crime when asked for responses.
• Pearson uses specification words in questions without explaining them: commodity, metaphorical, atonement, eschatology, Laylat al-Qadr, restorative justice, passive resistance, Harb al-Maqadis. Students who didn’t know the word scored 0. Learn every key term in each topic.

AO1

Knowledge and understanding of religion and belief: the (a), (b) and (c) parts.

AO2

Analysing and evaluating religion and belief: the (d) part.

• One mark for each correct point, up to 3. No development is needed or credited: extra detail wastes time.
• Write three separate sentences, each on its own line. A list of single words (‘Creator, judge, lawgiver’) scores at most 1, and so does one sentence containing a list.
• Each point must answer the stem. A true fact that doesn’t answer the question (‘Islam means peace’ when asked for attitudes to peace) scores 0.
• Don’t repeat yourself: two ways of saying the same thing score once.

• Two points, each developed once: point (1) + development (1), twice.
• Development is extra information that links to both the point and the question: a reason, an example, a consequence, or a teaching. A different new point is not development.
• ‘This is in the Bible and the Bible is the word of God’ is not development: examiners have said so every year from 2022 to 2025.
• More than two points earns nothing extra. Four undeveloped points still score 2. Use a separate paragraph for each point.
• Watch for ‘different’: if the question asks for two different attitudes or beliefs, two points on the same side can’t get full marks.

Where the marks come from in (b) and (c)

Four specification points are marked with an asterisk. On these, a (b) question can say ‘Describe two differences…’ instead of ‘Explain two…’. Pearson has never yet set one (sample papers to June 2025), but the specification allows it, so be ready.

• Marks: for each difference, 1 for the belief or practice in the religion the question is about, and 1 for the contrasting belief or practice in the other religion. Twice: 4 marks.
• Describing only one religion scores at most 2. Each difference needs both sides.
• Link the pair with ‘whereas’ or ‘but’, so the examiner sees the contrast.
• Make the two differences really different: ‘Christians pray in churches’ and ‘Christians pray in cathedrals’ is one difference.
• In Islam answers, use Islamic terms (Jibril, not Gabriel) and don’t blur the two religions together.

• Marks: as (b) (2 + 2), plus 1 for one relevant source of wisdom and authority that supports one of your points. The question always ends ‘In your answer you must refer to a source of wisdom and authority’.
• What counts as a source: a scripture (Bible, Qur’an), a hadith, a creed, a Church document (the Catechism, the 39 Articles, Humanae Vitae, the Book of Common Prayer), or an authoritative person (the Pope). Any relevant source counts, not only those named in the specification.
• Quote or recognisably paraphrase it and say where it is from. Chapter and verse are not required, and a wrong verse number in the right book is ignored.
• What loses the mark: a wrong attribution (calling a hadith ‘the Qur’an’, or a saying of Ali a saying of Muhammad); a bare reference (‘John 10:10’) with no content; a source tagged on at the end that doesn’t support a point; no source at all.
• Don’t write ‘a source of wisdom for this is…’ or ‘SOWA’: just use the source inside the point.
• A source used as the development of a point earns that development mark, not both. To be safe, develop the point and use the source.

The (d) gives a statement in quotation marks, then says: ‘Evaluate this statement considering arguments for and against. In your response you must:’ followed by two or three bullets. Since June 2024 the bullets say must.

• Non-religious material is ignored where it isn’t asked for. On a (d) with no non-religious bullet, examiners skip it, so it wastes time.
• ‘Many people’ or ‘some people’ is not a non-religious view. Say ‘Humanists…’ or ‘an atheist would argue…’.
• Stay on the statement: argue about its key words (‘should’, ‘first’, ‘only’, ‘best’, ‘never’, ‘today’), not about the topic in general. Describing the Trinity is not evaluating whether the Creed explains it.
• Sources aren’t compulsory in (d), but a teaching used inside an argument strengthens it.
• Writing frames can hold you back. Pearson’s 2023–2025 reports warn that rigid formulas stop students judging arguments. Use a plan, not a script.

The four kinds of (d) bullet

Situation ethics

Joseph Fletcher’s theory (1966): in each situation, do the most loving thing; agape is the only absolute rule.

Utilitarianism

The theory (Bentham, Mill) that the right action produces the greatest good or happiness for the greatest number.

• A logical chain of reasoning: point → reason → teaching or evidence → what follows. ‘Christians believe X because Y, as shown in Z, so they would agree.’
• Appraisal is what reaches Level 4: judging how strong an argument is and why. Is the teaching clear or open to interpretation? Do most believers hold this view, or a minority? Does the argument apply to the statement’s key word? Does it rely on a literal reading most Christians reject?
• Not appraisal: ‘This is a strong argument because…’ followed by another reason. That is just more argument.
• The conclusion can come at the start, in mini-conclusions, or at the end, and ‘I’ is allowed. It should follow from your appraisal, not from personal opinion alone.
• Older mark schemes (before June 2024) use different level wording (‘deconstructs religious information’, ‘appraisal of evidence’). The question format is the same, so older papers are still good practice: mark them with the levels above.

The four levels, and the Level 2 cap

• Where: the (d) parts of Question 1 (Beliefs) and Question 3 (Living the religious life) on both papers. Each is printed as worth 15 (12 + 3). That is 6 SPaG marks a paper.
• Specialist terms count for a lot: use them correctly and spell them right. Christianity: Incarnation, atonement, eschatology, sacrament, transubstantiation, liturgical, ecumenism, evangelism. Islam: Tawhid, Risalah, Akhirah, al-Qadr, Adalat, Imamah, Laylat al-Qadr, Zakah, Khums, Jummah.
• Capitals: God, Allah, Bible, Qur’an, Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Sunni, Shi’a, Easter, Ramadan.
• Leave two or three minutes to read through your Q1 and Q3 (d)s.

• 1. Lists in (a): three words score 1. Write three sentences.
• 2. No development in (b) and (c), or ‘development’ that is just a new point or ‘it’s in the Bible’.
• 3. Missing or misattributed sources in (c): a hadith called the Qur’an; Ali quoted as Muhammad; a vague ‘the holy book says’ that captures only the spirit.
• 4. Answering a nearby question: Christmas for Advent; the problem of evil for its solutions; the arguments against life after death for Christian responses to them; causes of crime for responses; al-Qadr (predestination) for Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Power).
• 5. Confusing pairs: Six Beliefs, Five Roots and Five Pillars; greater and lesser jihad; capital and corporal punishment; literal and metaphorical; artificial contraception and abortion; informal prayer, set prayer and liturgy; creation of the universe and origins of human life.
• 6. In Islam answers: ‘Gabriel’ for Jibril is not credited; don’t compare with Christianity unless the question asks you to.
• 7. (d) answers that describe instead of evaluate, or that ignore a bullet (capped at Level 2), or add non-religious views nobody asked for.
• 8. Wrong quotations: ‘there is neither male nor female’ is Paul (Galatians 3:28), not Jesus; ‘whoever saves one life…’ is the Qur’an (5:32), not the Bible.
• 9. Time: over-long (a)–(c) answers leave too little time for the last (d).