Revision tips and techniques for both AS and A2 Sociology!

1. How do I revise
Sociology?
Ideas and Tips for revising Sociology!

2. Use the Book
The book has plenty of ways to help you apply your
knowledge.
• The Quick Check questions: these are helpful for going
over what you have learnt and also highlight important bits
within the topic you should know well!
• The practice exam questions: doing these essays are
very helpful. I would recommend doing them firstly at your
own pace, and then under timed conditions (preferably what
time you would have under the exam). This is good for
repetition and practicing style as well as knowing how much
you can write in limited time. This will help you choose the
amount you can write and therefore determine which bits in
each topic must be included in your essay.

3. Past Exam Papers
These are useful for getting to know how the
examiners like to write questions. Again, doing them at
your own pace (with notes) and under timed
conditions (without notes) is very useful. You may be
able to find an examiners report on each past paper
and these are useful for finding out what the
examiners were looking for a common mistakes other
candidates have made.

4. The Summary
The summary at the end of each chapter is brilliant. It
is what it says on the tin, but it is extremely useful for
helping you to construct the conclusion at the end of
each essay.

5. Post-it Notes
There’s no need to copy each paragraph word for word. Making notes
that you understand is helpful for learning to write precise answers in
a timed exam, but also for going over the content

6. Revision Techniques
• Mind maps: these can be detailed, or can be limited which would
trigger you to think about further information.
• Some sociologists are repeated numerous times in each
chapter, and Feminists/Marxists/Functionalists most likely
have something to say too. You could create a
poster/mind map on each sociologist or perspective and
summarise what they said in each chapter that they’re
mentioned in. A good way for remembering names and
content!
• Learning specific terms are useful for putting in the exam.
In a paragraph these are typically in italics or ‘ ---’.

7. More Techniques
• Power-points
• The yellowy/brown boxes with case studies (usually) may
seem quite pointless and long. Although you are unlikely
to drop a grade for not mentioning them, summarising
what they’re talking about could be beneficial. For
example, the Hinduism case study in Topic 1 and the case
of Dr. Velikovosky in Topic 7 useful for supporting the points
you are making in an essay
• Posters
• Leaflets (this may not seem applicable, but give it a go!)

8. Research Methods
I’d advise making a poster on each method to include…
PERVERTED CAM
• Practical
• Ethical
• Reliability
• Validity
• Example
• Representativeness
• Theoretical
• Evaluate
• Data
• CAM – Compare another method
This is also an ideal structure for an exam answer!

9. Society Today
The books were written years ago and whilst knowledge of
certain events at the time is great, being able to bring in
things going on both in today’s society and recently would
show you can apply what you’ve learnt to your everyday
life and that you understand it. It also shows you interest in
society, which Sociology is about! You can do this through
watching the news, reading papers/magazines for example.
It may sound boring (I found it boring!) but you’ll come to
like it; especially when you can explain why patterns of
crime are like they are!