It is two days after the AS and A level results have been published and I have already been asked to look at photocopied scripts of some of my students’ papers because they didn’t do as well as expected and it is heartbreaking to read some of their responses.
With particular reference to the skill acquisition and sports psychology components, but this applies equally to all areas of the specification, I lost count of the number of times students answered the question well (in terms of theory), i.e. they explained the theory of operant conditioning or the stages of learning, but scored no marks because they failed to use a practical example from sport in their response!! As a result, a number of students achieved grades which did not reflect their ability and their knowledge and understanding of the course material.
In the OCR AS paper in June 2018 the phrase ‘using practical examples from sport or physical activity’ was used in at least 5 questions and in each of those questions the mark scheme was very clear that if no practical examples were provided candidates would score no marks, even if the theory was correct! Not providing practical examples to even a couple of questions could be the difference of a whole grade or more!
So the lesson learned and the take away message is ‘make sure your students give practical examples in their answers’. I know it’s such a simple concept and hopefully most of your students do this all the time, but for those who don’t, it can have a devastating effect on their overall result.
My tip would be to coach your students to include a practical example in each and every answer they write, even if it is not specifically asked for in the question. This is particularly important for the skill acquisition and sport psychology components.
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