How to get an A in CSPE?

Mr Rhode Island Red

Amazingly, I'm more concerned about CSPE than Maths P2.

Long story short, the CSPE exam is on Monday. I had a useless teacher for 1st and 2nd year who did absolutely nothing with us. We just watched films and did homework.

In fairness our 3rd year CSPE teacher realised the dire state of the class and managed to help us produce a decent Action Project as well as the write-up.
(We made an information booklet for 1st Years)

She also compiled questions and answers sheets for us on common topics such as TDs, Referendums, Proportional Rep. etc and the 7 concepts of CSPE.

We did a lot of work in class on Sections 1 and 2 of the exam. But this isn't a word of lie when I say I have never done a Section 3 (long Q) before.

So I am looking for advice and tips for the CSPE exam. The marking schemes are a bit vague and don't really point out what gets marks and what doesn't.

What should I know for the exam, other than the politics and 7 concepts sheet? How long should I spend on each section?

Do I always make sure to praise this country and its government to high heavens in my answers or do I give an honest opinion?

For Section 3 how long/descriptive should my written answers be (letters to TD's etc) and how detailed should my poster be, if I decide to do one?

Would you recommend doing a writing-heavy question in section 3 or one that involves a poster?

Sorry for all the questions

emersyn

From looking at the paper I'd recommend spending about 15 minutes on Section 1, 30 minutes on Section 2 and 40 minutes on Section 3, leaving 5 minutes to check over your work.
You should give an honest opinion rather than trying to suck up to the examiner, they get tired of reading the same optimistic sugarcoated answers again and again.
In section 3 it really depends on whether you answer the question thoroughly rather than the length of your answer. I'd say that a letter should be about a page long, but it's always quality over quantity. The same goes for the poster; you should be thinking of what you can do to best express the idea in the question, rather than concentrating on making it detailed and beautiful.
The choice in section 3 really depends on you and the options given on the day; if you read the questions and are immediately able to think of a great, original idea for a poster you should go for that one, but if you find yourself unable to come up with any poster ideas, do a writing question. Don't take the easy option of doing a subpar unimaginative poster just because it's less work.

Mr Rhode Island Red

Thanks for the advice. So many people in my class have the attitude that they can get away without doing any study for it. If I hear "draw a poster, be grand" again I'll go mad:D

GarIT

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. So many people in my class have the attitude that they can get away without doing any study for it. If I hear "draw a poster, be grand" again I'll go mad:D

They're actually not wrong, on the 2006 exam giving the answer "Put up posters, have an announcement made in your school" for every question, and then drawing nearly anything at the end would have guaranteed you a pass.

If you give honest intelligent answers you will most likely fail. If you get the question what do you do if your class is approached by a charity the answer "have a non uniform day in the school" will get you full marks but "Do some research into the charity, the work they do and where the money goes" will get you 0.

If you want to get an A in CSPE you need to see it as a role playing game. When you go in assume you are a busybody do-gooder county councillor who is extremely out of touch with reality and thinks charity will make the world perfect.

In CSPE every charity is a good charity even if that charity is called "cluster mines for African child soldiers"

GarIT

emersyn wrote: »

You should give an honest opinion rather than trying to suck up to the examiner, they get tired of reading the same optimistic sugarcoated answers again and again.

I tried that in the mocks and got a bad D, I've always been somewhat of an expert of political topics and taking a somewhat neutral/investigative approach didn't work for me. In the actual exam I tried the approach of being overly enthusiastic about doing good approach and got a B overall without much of an action project, my report on the action project was to essentially say I disagree with the morality of the action project.

If you look at the marking schemes you will see critical thinking is heavily frowned upon.

spurious

Old marking schemes and the Chief Examiner's report from 2009 might help.

Xgracie

Got 99% in mock, don't think too much about as in they'll probs be questions about raising awareness things like non uniform days, raffles, putting up posters is what they want. Go for the poster Q it's fun hahaha and easy pick up marks in! Don't worry about it you actually don't need to study just expand on all your answers and talk a lot of shíte

maguic24

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Amazingly, I'm more concerned about CSPE than Maths P2.

Don't be, it's only CSPE. I got an A back in the day, I watched the news beforehand, knew the main politicians, that was it.

Oh and drew a very pretty picture at the end of it.

I'm only 22, so I'm guessing it hasn't changed THAT much since I did it.

nanook5

Know your Politicians faces ( I have a sheet of the most popular ones and their departments if you want me to send it on)

Know a bit about the EU and what the different departments do and where they are located .

When it asks to e.g "Name and Explain three actions you might undertake to raise awareness" Actually name them e.g Three actions I might undertake to raise awareness are No uniform day, Car wash,Bake sale and then explain each one in detail as to how it would raise awareness .Stick to what the questions asks .


When doing the long question write as much as you possibly can and go into great detail .

That's as much as I can think of now

Eims14

nanook5 wrote: »

Know your Politicians faces ( I have a sheet of the most popular ones and their departments if you want me to send it on)

Can u send it on to me please?

BeatlesFan1992

maguic24 wrote: »

Don't be, it's only CSPE. I got an A back in the day, I watched the news beforehand, knew the main politicians, that was it.

Oh and drew a very pretty picture at the end of it.

I'm only 22, so I'm guessing it hasn't changed THAT much since I did it.

The fact that you remembered what you answered for your Junior Cert shocks me. I barely remember what I answered in my Leaving Cert

nanook5

I have attached the file with the list of ministers .

You'll need MS word to open it .

If you can't open it let me know .

Don't forget Alan Shatter and Frances Fitzgerald's positions have changed

maguic24

BeatlesFan1992 wrote: »

The fact that you remembered what you answered for your Junior Cert shocks me. I barely remember what I answered in my Leaving Cert

I have a very good memory. My granaunt had kept newspaper articles for me for CSPE. Used to have all of the politicians stuck up on bedroom wall beside my Eminem posters. Cringe.

VG31

I made a list of main Irish politicians, foreign politicians and buildings/parliaments (they have come up before).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5d7uo7xta41moft/CSPE%20S1%20Q1%20Notes.docx

nanook5

VG31 wrote: »

I made a list of main Irish politicians, foreign politicians and buildings/parliaments (they have come up before).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5d7uo7xta41moft/CSPE%20S1%20Q1%20Notes.docx

Thank you

linguist

My advice (teacher here!) is first and foremost to read the questions. The amount of people who cannot follow a simple instruction like 'name and explain three fundraising activities' is incredible. You are required to do two different things there and repeating the name of the activity is not the same as explaining it. If you think explaining a fundraising activity properly, however obvious, is beneath you then you can't blame the examiner for penalising your sense of entitlement:)

Another one is people not differentiating between raising awareness and raising money. Raising awareness is making people understand the issue, so that might be using a guest speaker, holding a school assembly, putting up posters, uploading a video to youtube etc.

Next, be realistic in your suggestions. Examiners are told to account for the fact that they are reading the ideas of fourteen and fifteen year olds. Sadly, that is not meant as a compliment. People write some very silly and unrealistic things!

How should the Government make life easier for people with disabilities? They should make the TV stations show programmes... Really?? So much for a free and independent media then. I think you'll find that would be a paid advertising campaign. Or...they should build ramps! Well, it might be a new job for Alan Shatter I suppose - Minister for Building Ramps. Point is: central government makes laws and allocates money. So what you mean to say there is that the government should pass a law requiring all publicly accessible buildings to be fully accessible for disabled people etc. It is not unreasonable to expect the average fifteen year old to have some appreciation of what is a reasonable suggestion and what is really quite silly!

Next, write well. If you're asked to write a letter to a politician, a school principal etc., do so in a polite manner. I've actually read letters that were quite threatening from third year students!

Finally, I actually find that most students do worse on section 1 than on the other sections. They can waffle on but when it comes to facts, it's pretty terrible. So know the major political figures, national and international. Think about the responsibilities that different government departments have. For 2014, I would expect the electoral system to put in an appearance so know your ballot box, presiding officer, returning officer, proportional representation etc.

There you go...a bit blunt in patches maybe. But if you don't do any of the silly things I've alluded to, you're probably well on your way!

linguist

Sorry guys, one other really important thing. Your freedom of expression in CSPE is in fact restricted by the principle - written into the syllabus - that the subject is to be taught in a positive manner in which the core concepts are key. In other words, you are not actually free, should a question on a minority group in society come up, to suggest courses of action that would deny them their human rights or breach other concepts.

I'd rather not expand too much since there are enough corners of boards.ie where you can read prejudice without writing it here. What is expected of you, after three years of CSPE, is that you understand the positive ideas that are seen by the State as being values we share. You have a lifetime ahead of you to agree or disagree. I just wouldn't go off on a negative tangent next Monday afternoon.

Mr Rhode Island Red

Thanks a million for the advice. I've learnt more about what's expected in the exam from those last 2 posts than I have from 3 years of CSPE classes, honestly:)

pizzamad

Does anyone have ideas for raising money and awareness? Like I know you can say invite a speaker or hold a quiz or something but any other ideas?

nanook5

pizzamad wrote: »

Does anyone have ideas for raising money and awareness? Like I know you can say invite a speaker or hold a quiz or something but any other ideas?

Raising money :
Car wash in school
Sponsored walk
Bake sale
School disco
Bed push
24 hr silence
Bucket collection at school gate
BBQ during/after school
Ice-cream(Or insert any other food here) sale

Raising awareness :
Guest speaker
Posters around school
Assembly presentation
Handing out flyers to parents when entering/leaving school
Website
Facebook/Twitter account


I think that should be enough