a level philosophy essay examples

A Level Philosophy & Religious Studies

AQA Philosophy top band essay structure (21-25 marks)

AQA Philosophy

Note that this is for AQA Philosophy, not AQA Religious studies.

Essay structure is very important as it determines half your whole grade. People tend to think that 25 mark questions are very difficult, that getting 21 or above in the exam is really hard and rare. It’s certainly rare, but it’s not as hard as people, including many teachers, actually think.

The key mistake a lot of teachers make is to think that getting full marks requires an essay that is really philosophically advanced and complex, or requires further reading than is in the specification. For better or worse, this is not true. Plenty of my students have gotten 25/25 in their official exam without those things. It simply requires hitting all the mark scheme criteria of intent, back and forth evaluation (robust defence), integration and weighting. Many teachers get the intent and robust defence part fine, some more get the integration part – but very few teach the weighting part properly and that is usually the reason their students are stuck at 19 or 20.

This page contains detailed explanation of how to hit those other mark scheme criteria.

The mark scheme criteria for the 21-25 band mark range

• The student argues with clear intent throughout and the logic of the argument is sustained.
• The student demonstrates detailed and precise understanding throughout.
• The conclusion is clear, with the arguments in support of it stated precisely, integrated coherently and robustly defended.
• Arguments and counter-arguments are stated in their strongest forms.
• Reasoned judgements are made, on an ongoing basis and overall, about the weight to be given to each argument. Crucial arguments are clearly identified against less crucial ones.
• Philosophical language is used precisely throughout.

Essay structure

Your introduction.

• Outline the argument/theory in question.
• State your intent

Three sections of this structure:

Part 1: A view on the question. An argument/theory/philosopher either for or against the question. If part 1 is a criticism, do integration.

Part 2: A criticism of the view in part 1. Integration.

It is then optional to go back and forth some more with a defence of part 1 and then, again optionally, a counter to that defence, etc (with integration ).

Part 3: Give your judgement as to which argument is correct and why (with integration if countering).

Part 4: Link back to the question using the language of the question. Make sure this paragraph ends in a way that coherently fits with/justifies your Intent.

Your conclusion

Sum up the part 3 evaluative judgements of each section and show how they coherently lead to your conclusion (intent) . If applicable, remark which of the arguments were more or less crucial for reaching you conclusion than the other(s) (Weighting/Cruciality) .

Weighting points  must be put in at least two places throughout the essay. It’s not possible to pinpoint exactly where these will go since that will depend on the point. See the weighting section for more info.

Explanation of the mark scheme criteria

‘The student argues with clear intent throughout and the logic of the argument is sustained.’

Intent refers to your intended response to the question, for example to an ‘assess Theory X’ question, your intent might be to argue that it is false.

The intent must exist ‘throughout’ the essay, meaning stated in the introduction, conclusion and the end of each paragraph.

Sustaining the logic of the (your) argument means that each section must be ended in a way which fits your intent. If your intent is to show Theory X false but end a section dealing with one of its issues with the evaluative judgement that Theory X can be adequately defended from the issue, then that does not fit your intent and the logic of your argument (that Theory X is false) would not be sustained if you left the section like that. So, you either need to add another step showing how Theory X actually does not survive the issue for some further reason, OR you must explain how Theory X surviving this issue does not change your intent/argument because of some other issue you dealt with previously or are about to deal with next. Or, if possible, you could show how in responding to that issue, Theory X opens itself up for some other more fatal criticism.

Integration

‘The conclusion is clear, with the arguments in support of it stated precisely, integrated coherently and robustly defended. Arguments and counter-arguments are stated in their strongest forms.’

‘Integrated coherently’ means that whenever you are writing a criticism, you are making it clear exactly how it undermines what it is criticising.

This must always be done in part 2 but sometimes you might use a criticism for part 1 so it would have to be done there too. You might need also it for part 3 if that involves a criticism. Whenever you use a criticism, you should do integration.

It’s not enough simply to learn a criticism. and then plug it in. You must then explain how that criticism being true undermines what it is attacking. You must write the response and then explain how it responds. This will often be a simple matter of identifying which premise or which part of a theory it undermines, but there are a variety of ways that criticisms attempt to undermine a theory and you need to show understanding of that and its implications.

An argument could:

• Attack a premise of the theory. You should identity how crucial that premise is and the consequence for the theory/argument of it being successfully undermined.
• Establish that the arguments for the theory fail, which might leave the theory unproven, unconvincing/unjustified or lacking in evidence rather than disproven and false.
• Undermine one part of or aspect of a theory and you’d have to decide whether that makes the whole theory false, depending on how important that aspect was to it.
• Show that the theory has some practical limitation which makes it difficult, perhaps impossible, to implement. The question of whether this makes the theory false would then have to be decided.
• Prove that the theory leads to something negative like solipsism, scepticism, nihilism or anarchy. A theory which leads to any of those three is sadly not necessarily for that reason false! Though take care, there might be reasons why it should be considered false for leading to something negative, at least in some respect which you could get credit for explaining.
• Be a deductive, inductive or abductive argument.

Integration also refers to having an integrated understanding of your whole overall argument at the start, throughout and end of your essay.

Integration can also mean connecting paragraphs together by pointing out some reason why it’s logical to bring up the content of the next paragraph given the one you’ve just written, either due to the content or cruciality. However, this will not always be possible and should not be thought of as a requirement in every paragraph.

Weighting/Cruciality

‘Reasoned judgements are made, on an ongoing basis and overall, about the weight to be given to each argument. Crucial arguments are clearly identified against less crucial ones.’

Individual cruciality. Each section should start with an argument for or against the question, followed by a criticism of that argument. You might then optionally do further back and forth of defences and counter-defences, etc. Every step involves an argument, then.

To get the marks for cruciality, you must state how crucial an argument is or how much weight it has. This is most easily done regarding issues/criticisms.

In an essay you will evaluate multiple different issues/criticisms of the argument/theory in question.

You might conclude that the issues all fail, all succeed or that some fail and some succeed. That is not the same thing as weighting/cruciality. The cruciality/weighting of an issue/criticism is different from evaluating its success or failure.

Every issue/criticism should be integrated, so that it is clear exactly how it attacks whatever it is attacking.

Individual cruciality/weighting follows from that.

An issue which attacks a foundational premise is going to be critical and imply that the truth of the argument/theory in question is at stake. It will be potentially fatal.

An issue that undermines one of the arguments for a theory or claims that it leads to scepticism or is not the best explanation might only show that the theory is unattractive or unconvincing or that we have no reason to believe it or something like that.

Explaining the individual cruciality of an issue essentially involves highlighting what is at stake if that issue succeeds. You will then go on the separate matter of evaluating whether the issue succeeds.

The weight to be given to each argument. Making reasoned judgements about the weight to be given to each argument also involves making sure to highlight the strengths of an argument/theory. Bringing out the full strength of each argument/theory, including the ones you ultimately argue against, is important. Explain why an argument/theory is convincing to some philosophers, even if you end up evaluating that it does not succeed.

Relative cruciality. How crucial an argument is in comparison to other arguments that have a similar aim. For example if you evaluate multiple issues, are some more crucial than others?

This could be done in section 2 or 3, in the conclusion, or before the conclusion.

Points about cruciality should also be involved in the conclusion. Your conclusion must logically follow the cruciality of the various arguments you considered and then whether you evaluated them to succeed or fail.

1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology

Philosophy, One Thousand Words at a Time

How to Write a Philosophical Essay

Authors: The Editors of 1000-Word Philosophy [1] Category: Student Resources Word Count: 998

If you want to convince someone of a philosophical thesis, such as that God exists , that abortion is morally acceptable , or that we have free will , you can write a philosophy essay. [2]

Philosophy essays are different from essays in many other fields, but with planning and practice, anyone can write a good one. This essay provides some basic instructions. [3]

1. Planning

Typically, your purpose in writing an essay will be to argue for a certain thesis, i.e., to support a conclusion about a philosophical claim, argument, or theory. [4] You may also be asked to carefully explain someone else’s essay or argument. [5]

To begin, select a topic. Most instructors will be happy to discuss your topic with you before you start writing. Sometimes instructors give specific prompts with topics to choose from.

It’s generally best to select a topic that you’re interested in; you’ll put more energy into writing it. Your topic will determine what kind of research or preparation you need to do before writing, although in undergraduate philosophy courses, you usually don’t need to do outside research. [6]

Essays that defend or attack entire theories tend to be longer, and are more difficult to write convincingly, than essays that defend or attack particular arguments or objections: narrower is usually better than broader.

After selecting a topic, complete these steps:

• Ensure that you understand the relevant issues and arguments. Usually, it’s enough to carefully read and take notes on the assigned readings on your essay’s topic.
• Choose an initial thesis. Generally, you should choose a thesis that’s interesting, but not extremely controversial. [7] You don’t have to choose a thesis that you agree with, but it can help. (As you plan and write, you may decide to revise your thesis. This may require revising the rest of your essay, but sometimes that’s necessary, if you realize you want to defend a different thesis than the one you initially chose.)
• Ensure that your thesis is a philosophical thesis. Natural-scientific or social-scientific claims, such as that global warming is occurring or that people like to hang out with their friends , are not philosophical theses. [8] Philosophical theses are typically defended using careful reasoning, and not primarily by citing scientific observations.

Instructors will usually not ask you to come up with some argument that no philosopher has discovered before. But if your essay ignores what the assigned readings say, that suggests that you haven’t learned from those readings.

2. Structure

Develop an outline, rather than immediately launching into writing the whole essay; this helps with organizing the sections of your essay.

Your structure will probably look something like the following, but follow your assignment’s directions carefully. [9]

2.1. Introduction and Thesis

Write a short introductory paragraph that includes your thesis statement (e.g., “I will argue that eating meat is morally wrong”). The thesis statement is not a preview nor a plan; it’s not “I will consider whether eating meat is morally wrong.”

If your thesis statement is difficult to condense into one sentence, then it’s likely that you’re trying to argue for more than one thesis. [10]

2.2. Arguments

Include at least one paragraph that presents and explains an argument. It should be totally clear what reasons or evidence you’re offering to support your thesis.

In most essays for philosophy courses, you only need one central argument for your thesis. It’s better to present one argument and defend it well than present many arguments in superficial and incomplete ways.

2.3. Objection

Unless the essay must be extremely short, raise an objection to your argument. [11] Be clear exactly which part of the other argument (a premise, or the form) is being questioned or denied and why. [12]

It’s usually best to choose either one of the most common or one of the best objections. Imagine what a smart person who disagreed with you would say in response to your arguments, and respond to them.

Offer your own reply to any objections you considered. If you don’t have a convincing reply to the objection, you might want to go back and change your thesis to something more defensible.

2.5. Additional Objections and Replies

If you have space, you might consider and respond to the second-best or second-most-common objection to your argument, and so on.

2.6. Conclusion

To conclude, offer a paragraph summarizing what you did. Don’t include any new or controversial claims here, and don’t claim that you did more than you actually accomplished. There should be no surprises at the end of a philosophy essay.

Make your writing extremely clear and straightforward. Use simple sentences and don’t worry if they seem boring: this improves readability. [13] Every sentence should contribute in an obvious way towards supporting your thesis. If a claim might be confusing, state it in more than one way and then choose the best version.

To check for readability, you might read the essay aloud to an audience. Don’t try to make your writing entertaining: in philosophy, clear arguments are fun in themselves.

Concerning objections, treat those who disagree with you charitably. Make it seem as if you think they’re smart, careful, and nice, which is why you are responding to them.

Your readers, if they’re typical philosophers, will be looking for any possible way to object to what you say. Try to make your arguments “airtight.”

4. Citations

If your instructor tells you to use a certain citation style, use it. No citation style is universally accepted in philosophy. [14]

You usually don’t need to directly quote anyone. [15] You can paraphrase other authors; where you do, cite them.

Don’t plagiarize . [16] Most institutions impose severe penalties for academic dishonesty.

5. Conclusion

A well-written philosophy essay can help people gain a new perspective on some important issue; it might even change their minds. [17] And engaging in the process of writing a philosophical essay is one of the best ways to develop, understand, test, and sometimes change, your own philosophical views. They are well worth the time and effort.

[1] Primary author: Thomas Metcalf. Contributing authors: Chelsea Haramia, Dan Lowe, Nathan Nobis, Kristin Seemuth Whaley.

[2] You can also do some kind of oral presentation, either “live” in person or recorded on video. An effective presentation, however, requires the type of planning and preparation that’s needed to develop an effective philosophy paper: indeed, you may have to first write a paper and then use it as something like a script for your presentation. Some parts of the paper, e.g., section headings, statements of arguments, key quotes, and so on, you may want to use as visual aids in your presentation to help your audience better follow along and understand.

[3] Many of these recommendations are, however, based on the material in Horban (1993), Huemer (n.d.), Pryor (n.d.), and Rippon (2008). There is very little published research to cite about the claims in this essay, because these claims are typically justified by instructors’ experience, not, say, controlled experiments on different approaches to teaching philosophical writing. Therefore, the guidance offered here has been vetted by many professional philosophers with a collective hundreds of hours of undergraduate teaching experience and further collective hundreds of hours of taking philosophy courses. The editors of 1000-Word Philosophy also collectively have thousands of hours of experience in writing philosophy essays.

[4] For more about the areas of philosophy, see What is Philosophy? by Thomas Metcalf.

[5] For an explanation of what is meant by an “argument” in philosophy, see Arguments: Why Do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf.

[6] Outside research is sometimes discouraged, and even prohibited, for philosophy papers in introductory courses because a common goal of a philosophy paper is not to report on a number of views on a philosophical issue—so philosophy papers usually are not “research reports”—but to rather engage a specific argument or claim or theory, in a more narrow and focused way, and show that you understand the issue and have engaged in critically. If a paper engages in too much reporting of outside research, that can get in the way of this critical evaluation task.

[7] There are two reasons to avoid extremely controversial theses. First, such theses are usually more difficult to defend adequately. Second, you might offend your instructor, who might (fairly or not) give you a worse grade. So, for example, you might argue that abortion is usually permissible, or usually wrong, but you probably shouldn’t argue that anyone who has ever said the word ‘abortion’ should be tortured to death, and you probably shouldn’t argue that anyone who’s ever pregnant should immediately be forced to abort the pregnancy, because both of these claims are extremely implausible and so it’s very unlikely that good arguments could be developed for them. But theses that are controversial without being implausible can be interesting for both you and the instructor, depending on how you develop and defend your argument or arguments for that thesis.

[8] Whether a thesis is philosophical mostly depends on whether it is a lot like theses that have been defended in important works of philosophy. That means it would be a thesis about metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, logic, history of philosophy, or something therein. For more information, see Philosophy and Its Contrast with Science and What is Philosophy? both by Thomas Metcalf.

[9] Also, read the grading rubric, if it’s available. If your course uses an online learning environment, such as Canvas, Moodle, or Schoology, then the rubric will often be visible as attached to the assignment itself. The rubric is a breakdown of the different requirements of the essay and how each is weighted and evaluated by the instructor. So, for example, if some requirement has a relatively high weight, you should put more effort into doing a good job. Similarly, some requirement might explicitly mention some step for the assignment that you need to complete in order to get full credit.

[10] In some academic fields, a “thesis” or “thesis statement” is considered both your conclusion and a statement of the basic support you will give for that conclusion. In philosophy, your thesis is usually just that conclusion: e..g, “Eating meat is wrong,” “God exists,” “Nobody has free will,” and so on: the support given for that conclusion is the support for your thesis.

[11] To be especially clear, this should be an objection to the argument given for your thesis or conclusion, not an objection to your thesis or conclusion itself. This is because you don’t want to give an argument and then have an objection that does not engage that argument, but instead engages something else, since that won’t help your reader or audience better understand and evaluate that argument.

[12] For more information about premises, forms, and objections, see Arguments: Why do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf.

[13] For a philosophical argument in favor of clear philosophical writing, and guidance on producing such writing, see Fischer and Nobis (2019).

[14] The most common styles in philosophy are APA (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.a) and Chicago (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.b.).

[15] You might choose to directly quote someone when it’s very important that the reader know that the quoted author actually said what you claim they said. For example, if you’re discussing some author who made some startling claim, you can directly quote them to show that they really said that. You might also directly quote someone when they presented some information or argument in a very concise, well-stated way, such that paraphrasing it would take up more space than simply quoting them would.

[16] Plagiarism, in general, occurs when someone submits written or spoken work that is largely copied, in style, substance, or both, from some other author’s work, and does not attribute it to that author. However, your institution or instructor may define “plagiarism” somewhat differently, so you should check with their definitions. When in doubt, check with your instructor first.

[17] These are instructions for relatively short, introductory-level philosophy essays. For more guidance, there are many useful philosophy-writing guides online to consult, e.g.: Horban (1993); Huemer (n.d.); Pryor (n.d.); Rippon (2008); Weinberg (2019).

Fischer, Bob and Nobis, Nathan. (2019, June 4). Why writing better will make you a better person. The Chronicle of Higher Education . 

Horban, Peter. (1993). Writing a philosophy paper. Simon Fraser University Department of Philosophy . 

Huemer, Michael. (N.d.). A guide to writing. Owl232.net .

Pryor, Jim. (N.d.). Guidelines on writing a philosophy paper. Jimpryor.net .

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (N.d.a.). General format. Purdue Online Writing Lab . 

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (N.d.b.). General format. Purdue Online Writing Lab .

Rippon, Simon. (2008). A brief guide to writing the philosophy paper. Harvard College Writing Center .

Weinberg, Justin. (2019, January 15). How to write a philosophy paper: Online guides. Daily Nous .

Related Essays

Arguments: Why do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf

Philosophy and its Contrast with Science by Thomas Metcalf

What is Philosophy? By Thomas Metcalf

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• Apr 27, 2019

A Level Philosophy Revision Tips | Long Essay Answers

Updated: Aug 5, 2021

Our new A Level Philosophy series kicks off with tips for how to revise for long essays.

“Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly”

Francis Bacon

I dare not remind you all that exam season looms close by, for fear that you have already heard it ad nauseam; but, nonetheless, it is a fact of school life. Not so long ago, I was an A Level pupil who worked late into the night before exams and made a habit of saying the "once more unto the breach" speech from ‘Henry V’ just before the invigilator gave us the green light to begin. I know, all too well, the stresses, strains, and worries of revision and exam taking.

Now, I know Philosophy is a rather esoteric subject and can often seem pointless (and let’s be real, some of it does seem pretty dry); however, I am here to tell you that writing about it doesn’t have to be! In fact, here is a little bit of advice that got me through my A Levels: if you don’t enjoy what you’re writing – stop writing it that way. The examiner won’t enjoy it, and neither will you. So, without further ado, here are my top tips and tricks to get you writing the most titillating and thought-provoking theses.

How to keep your Philosophy essay simple

“Brevity is the soul of wit”

Polonius, in Hamlet

Yes, the irony of my lengthy preamble is not lost on me – but seriously, keep your points simple, direct, and concise. This may sound like a tall order, as Philosophy is of course complex by nature – it isn’t easy to define ‘knowledge’ or ‘God’ in one pithy irrefutable sentence. So, your argument must be layered and balanced, but make sure the complex thesis is composed of shorter, more understandable sentences.

Imagine that your thesis is like a house, or a wall – the structure itself is complex, and relies on a variety of factors and pieces to keep it standing; however, each individual part is simple and straightforward. My advice to you is to build your thesis brick-by-brick.

Let me give you an example of what this might look like. Let’s take a simple argument from Locke – he wants to prove that colour is not part of an object and is merely a sensation in the mind. What is part of the object are its ‘primary qualities’, things like its shape and number.

Now, when this was first introduced to me, it was done in a rather verbose manner and I quickly became lost. However, if you restructure Locke’s argument (in this case the ‘Almond Analogy’) his argument becomes much easier to understand.

(P1) When you pound an almond, its colour changes.

(P2) When you pound an almond, the only thing you change is the ‘texture’ of the particles which composed the almond.

------------------

(C) Hence, the colour of the almond is nothing but a sensation in your mind, which changes because the particles which composed the almond now reflect light differently.

Notice how the argument is comprised of short premises and a conclusion. These premises are the bricks I mentioned before. Build your essay up, from the starting point of your thesis, with these short little premises on which your conclusion(s) will rest.

Which leads me nicely on…

How to construct the introduction to a Philosophy essay

"On this rock I will build My church”

Matthew 16:18

Make sure you state your thesis clearly! This was drilled into me by a mentor I had during my A Levels, and I am surprised by the number of peers and pupils who, even at University, do not do this! I was advised to always write, as my opening line, "this essay will argue that […]", which lends itself to a rather unfortunate, yet memorable mnemonic — ‘TEWAT’. If you do this, you ensure you directly answer the question, and show the examiner what direction you are taking your argument.

If I take a cursory look through the mark schemes for both OCR and AQA (for their Philosophy and Religious Studies papers), the mark schemes allocate specific marks for coherence and structure of your argument, that is to say, your thesis. A Levels are as much a test of your knowledge as they are a test of your skill in the application of such erudition within the confines of their rubric.

Quoting from the AQA A Level Philosophy specification (7172) , they say a marking criterion is ‘ AO2: Analyse and evaluate philosophical arguments to form reasoned judgements ’. What they want from you is to construct a balanced argument that makes judgements . That means you’ve got to come down on one side – and that should be articulated in the form of your thesis statement.

Let me walk you through what such an introductory paragraph or opening may look like. I’ve taken an extract from one of my first papers I wrote at University (which received a First):

“This essay will argue that ‘freedom of thought’ (FoT) and ‘freedom of expression’ (FoE) are not inextricable in their nature and value. This essay will posit that the two freedoms in question can be held and experienced independently of one another; however, this in turn diminishes them in their supposed value, thereby resulting in full value experience only when the two operate in tandem.”

Let’s break this down. Note:

1. My very first line: I state my thesis – you should too! Let the examiner know where you are going to go.

2. My next line gives a rough overview of why I might think my thesis is correct – essentially, I have told the examiner where I want to go, and this is roughly the path that will take me there.

3. My penultimate and final clause of the second line gives some nuance to my essay. I know that to score top marks, I must show that I give the time of day to counter-arguments of my thesis. This is to ensure that I give a balanced view. I say that I think these two phenomena are extricable but there is a consequence of such a belief that I must elucidate.

Stay with me here! I know that this is tough to get through, but I promise it will pay dividends come your final exams. Once you nail this exam technique, you’ll be off to the races and churning out practice papers at a rate of knots.

How to signpost effectively in your essay

“Good order is the foundation of all things.”

Edmund Burke

So, you’ve got your thesis and you’re going to build it with small steps. However, the journey isn’t over yet! Examiners are notorious for bad habits – namely, they get distracted whilst marking your papers! No matter how captivating your writing, you can’t risk having your examiner losing their train of thought when marking your essay!

Now, I know what you might be pondering – without hunching over the examiner’s desk and watching them mark, like some kind of freak combination between Miss Trunchbull and Quasimodo, how do we ensure that the examiner stays on track whilst marking your hard work? Well, the key is signposting.

I know you’ve almost certainly heard this advice, but I will reiterate it with a little twist. Signposting is where you indicate to your reader what you are going to write about next. For example, a basic signpost might read: "this essay will now analyse the ontological claim for the existence of God". This would be slapped at the start of a paragraph and clearly show where the essay is headed.

This is good advice, don’t get me wrong, but I do get worried when students hear this advice and take it to heart too much . Every other line shouldn’t be a signpost and do try and vary up the phraseology of the signposting – the examiner may not lose track of your line of argument, but they might get bored of repetitive vocabulary!

What I tend to do in my essays (disclaimer: this is a stylistic point and so should not be taken as gospel) is to insert subtitle headings. These headings can be simply named, such as, ‘Introduction’ – or they can be more exotic, to catch attention: ‘Sartre’s Simple Solution’. Whatever they might be named, they serve as a signpost in themselves, effectively dividing up the essay into manageable and comprehensible chunks. This allows you to better plan your essay and see it visualised, as well as aiding the examiner in following your work.

Your work’s headings and structure might look something like this (taken from another paper of mine, on the Meno Paradox; also graded as a First):

1. Introduction

2. Explanation of the Paradox

3. Proposed Solution

4. Circularity Issue

5. Appropriateness

6. Verification

7. Conclusion

Tips and Tricks for Revising A Level Philosophy

“I know that I know nothing”

Socrates (supposedly…)

Okay, you’ve had me drone on about exam technique and essay writing for far too long now, I know. So, let’s briefly touch on, arguably, the most important part of your Philosophy/Religious Studies exams – knowledge. It is true when they say knowledge is power, if by knowledge they mean remembering what Aquinas said that one time, and by power they mean an A*. Of course, I’m being facetious, but in all seriousness, make sure you know your content inside out.

Unfortunately, exam boards differ in what they want you to know for your A Level Philosophy/R.S. exam, and because the syllabuses change regularly, I don’t want to get bogged down talking about the minutiae of content. However, this is no excuse for not knowing your stuff!

There are loads of revision guides, tips, tricks, and so on, out there – but, I know revising Philosophy content is tough and often not as easy as whipping out a copy of Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’ and learning it by rote (just the thought of that ordeal has genuinely made my eyes water…).

So, here are my tips, taken from experience, with regards to revising Philosophy.

1. Flashcards are gold-dust.

For me, flashcards allowed me to memorise quotes, definitions, and key terms very quickly. Colour code your cards accordingly and prepare the content on them early. The earlier you have those flashcards, the more you can use them and make sure that content sticks to your grey cells!

2. One-page summaries.

a. Philosophy is a bottomless pit when it comes to content. Therefore, make sure you distil your notes down to concise and specific chunks of knowledge.

b. I like condensing it all down onto one piece of A4 paper. The text is very small, but it gives me a nice crib sheet to memorise and use when I’m churning out past papers and practice questions.

3. Enjoy the content – make it relatable.

a. I accept that you can’t always be pondering the existence of God, or trying to establish virtue ethics, but honestly, try and enjoy this process of revision.

b. The skills and content you are learning now are unbelievably useful, so try and make what you’re learning relevant to your quotidian or future life.

c. When I studied Paradise Lost for English Literature A Level, I was wondering what use it would be – the way I got to enjoy learning about it was finding paintings and drawings that were inspired by the text and vice versa. This sparked off some excitement about my writing and incorporated this additional knowledge into my final exam (who knew some interest in a few brush strokes could net me a whopping 100% mark!).

4. Past papers make you practice until it's perfect.

a. One of the best ways to test your knowledge is to write as many practice essays as you can. The more you write, the more you will improve your style and application of knowledge.

b. Use this practice to get a sense of time management, as well as coping under the added time pressures.

In Conclusion

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it”

I know that for a lot of you Philosophy is something that is difficult, hard to enjoy, or just a little bit confusing – don’t worry, it was for me too (and let’s not kid ourselves here, I still find it difficult and confusing sometimes!). But, to me, that’s the beauty of it; I love the questioning, the inquisition, arguments, debates, and, on special occasions, some solutions.

My parting advice to you is this: Philosophy is an artificial creation – it was born out of humanity’s desire to question everything, even the most fundamental and intuitive truths. Relish in the fact that you are not merely standing on the shoulders of giants like Plato , but you are engaging in a historical debate that has raged over many millennia.

So, when you sit down at that fateful exam table, just remember that beside you, and all around you, sit not just other students, but, in spirit, some of the greatest thinkers of history – you have earned a seat at the greatest discussion of all time: Philosophy. Oh, and with some smart strategies and dedication you’ll get that A* along the way too!

References & Important Links

Exam Board Mark Schemes/Past Papers

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/philosophy/as-and-a-level/philosophy-7172

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/religious-studies/as-and-a-level/religious-studies-7062

https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-and-a-level/religious-studies-h173-h573-from-2016/

https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/Religious%20Studies/2016/Specification%20and%20sample%20assessments/Specification_GCE_A_Level_in_Religious_Studies.pdf

External Guidance & Assistance

http://www.philosopherkings.co.uk/

https://www.philosophybasics.com/

http://sqapo.com/

Academic Reference

https://plato.stanford.edu/

https://www.iep.utm.edu/

https://philpapers.org/

Blog Post Crafted by Neville

Neville is currently working towards his BA in Philosophy at Warwick University , having bagged three A* grades at A Level.

He has entered the Times Advocacy Competition three times, and each time was shortlisted into the top ~20 candidates in the country. In his free time he writes his own scripts, as well as other fictional and non-fictional works.

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The AQA philosophy A level (7172) assessment is sat at the end of the course and consists of two 3 hour examinations:

• Paper 1 will have 5 questions on epistemology and 5 questions on moral philosophy
• Paper 2 will have 5 questions on the metaphysics of God and 5 questions on metaphysics of mind

Each paper is worth 50% of the overall grade.

There are 10 questions per paper (5 for each module) in the following format:

• 3 mark question
• 5 mark question
• 12 mark question
• 25 mark question

This makes a total of 20 questions across both papers and 200 total available marks . This can be broken down into 100 marks per paper or 50 marks per module .

Assessment Criteria

The questions in the papers are assessed according to two key criteria:

• AO1: Knowledge and understanding of key philosophical texts and ideas.
• AO2: The ability to critically evaluate these ideas and argue toward a conclusion.

Each paper asks a series of questions that test these skills to differing degrees.

The majority of marks are awarded for AO1.

AO1 tests your knowledge and understanding of key ideas and philosophers. You do not need to argue for or against a view, or give your opinion.

All questions except 25 mark questions are 100% AO1. This is simple enough when it’s a small question – e.g. 3 marks – you might just need to give a short definition of the key points.

Longer questions – such as 5 marks and 12 marks – are a little more difficult, but still 100% AO1 . The topic you’re asked about is likely to be more complicated, requiring you to go into more detail to demonstrate your understanding and pick up the AO1 marks.

Even so, you are not required to evaluate the arguments or give your view. You only need to explain . No marks are awarded for argument.

25 mark questions award 20 marks for AO2 – evaluation and argument .

So, instead of just explaining a philosophical view, you have to argue whether it is or isn’t the correct one.

The format of a good A level philosophy argument might look like this:

• Define key points
• Explain which side you are arguing for
• Response to this response
• Response to this argument
• Conclusion: X is correct because of the arguments above

The key phrase in the syllabus for AO2 is ‘arguing with intent’ . This means that you argue consistently for or against a viewpoint (e.g. act utilitarianism is wrong). You provide the arguments in favour of your view, and also respond to any possible objections to your view.

A good argument goes into detail . It is better to give one or two strong and detailed arguments for your view than to simply list everything you’ve learned on the topic without any substance (if in doubt; think point, evidence, explanation). Quality is better than quantity.

When you come to write your conclusion, make sure it is consistent with what you’ve written previously (and what you said you’d argue in your introduction). Finally, don’t introduce new ideas here – your conclusion should only be a summary of what you’ve previously argued.

For more detail on structuring 25 mark essays, see this post . And for examples of A* grade 25 mark answers, check out the example essays page .

Grade Boundaries

Below are rough ballpark minimum percentages needed for each letter grade boundary:

Grade boundaries differ from year to year. If it’s an ‘easy’ paper and everyone gets a high mark, for example, then the grade boundaries for each letter grade will be slightly higher. 

2024 Exam Dates

• Paper 1/Epistemology and Moral Philosophy: 16th May 2024 (afternoon)
• Paper 2/Metaphysics of God and Metaphysics of Mind: 22nd May 2024 (afternoon) 

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Writing Philosophy essays

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Preparation

Referencing & help.

• Good essay writing begins with good course preparation. You should remember that just attending courses is not enough. You will engage with the lectures and seminars only if you do the required primary and secondary reading. By the time you come to write your first essay you should already know enough to approach the subject confidently.
• Make sure you have properly understood the question. If you do not, ask. Review your lecture notes and the course outline in order to put the question into context and to relate it to other aspects of the subject. If you can break down the question into parts, do so. Decide which are the most important and weight each part accordingly.
• Read the suggested texts with your question or questions in mind. If you find the reading hard to understand, try reading a whole article or chapter to get the gist and then re-read slowly, making notes.
• Think for yourself. Don't borrow thought or ideas without giving yourself time to digest them. Discuss them with your fellow students. It can be very helpful to discuss the articles and books you read with others. Also, when you take notes, don't simply excerpt long passages, write them in your own words.
• Always start from a plan, however rudimentary; but you will inevitably find your argument developing a dynamic of its own, so do not be afraid to revise your plan as you go along. As Socrates says in Plato's Republic: 'Where the argument takes us, like a wind, hither we must go.'
• Write a draft, leave it for a while, then come back and revise it. On the first draft concentrate on getting the content and structure right and do not dwell on the style. Do not be held up by the precise formulation of a sentence, jot down a phrase and move on.
• Write the final draft. Check the spelling, grammar and make sure all the bibliographical details are correct. leave a wide margin on the right hand side of your page for the marker's comments. Be kind on your marker: use a font that is easy to read and a line spacing of at least 1.5 or 2. Make a photocopy of your essay as a precaution, since they sometimes can go astray.
• Your essay should contain a clear exposition of the theory you are studying, a detailed discussion and critical assessment of that theory. The criticisms you look at may be your own, or those of other philosophers.
• Make sure you indicate when you are expounding the view of someone else and when you are writing in your own voice. Don't just write a long list of objections to a particular argument. Indicate whether you endorse or reject them and give your reasons.
• Use examples to illustrate your point. Preferably, choose your own examples. Always make the point of your example clear to the reader.
• Don't worry too much about the 'originality' of the content of your essay. Nobody expects you to come up with a new philosophical theory in your first four pages of writing. Your essay will be original enough if you think for yourself, use your own words, give your own examples and always provide reasons for accepting or rejecting a particular view.
• Avoid rambling introductions and conclusions. Some books begin with a portentous opening sentence e.g., 'Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.' (B. Russell) You can get away with such a sentence as the opening line of a 400 page book, but not as the opening line of a 4 page essay. State briefly what you think the question involves, if this is not obvious, and get stuck in to your answer. With conclusions, sum up your argument if you want to and leave it at that.
• Think small or be methodical. There is a gap between your brain's ability to grasp something and your ability to express in writing what you have already understood. It is as if your intuition can leap up whole flights of stairs at once, whereas your written explanations climb one step at a time. This means that you can easily get ahead of yourself, producing the illusion that your ideas are far more lofty than they really are. Only by patiently stepping through the details of an argument can you avoid such illusions. So be patient! If you are not sure whether you have made your point, try putting it another way; 'The upshot of this argument is...', 'the point of this example is...'. Do not simply repeat yourself, try instead to look at your subject from different angles. Sometimes it will feel as if your point is trivial and not worth making. But a trivial point can be a solid step in an interesting argument. The ability to tease out the subtleties of a small point will serve you better than a grand philosophy of life, the universe and everything.
• One way to structure your essay is to outline an argument, consider an objection, then reply to the objection and then move on to the next point. Avoid the two extremes of length and unbroken paragraphs on the one hand, and staccato sound bytes on the other. Divide your essay into clearly defined paragraphs and devote a whole paragraph to each point. Make the connections between them explicit, by telling the reader what they are. Write things like, 'There are two major objections to this line of thought...' or 'what this example shows is...' Think of these connections as signposts telling the reader where she is, where she has been or reminding her where she is heading.
• 'Style is the feather in the arrow, not the feather in the cap.' Do not worry about repeating important words or phrases. In philosophy it is more important to be consistent in your terminology than to find new and imaginative ways of saying the same thing. Clear prose has its own elegance, wordiness can sometimes cloud the issue.
• Empathise with your reader. Once you understand something, you forget what it was like not to understand it; but doing just this will help you to get your point across. To write clearly you have to put yourself in the place of your reader. Imagine the reader is someone who knows nothing about the subject. What would you have to do firstly to convince them and secondly to maintain their interest. Generally speaking a concrete example will get you much further than a passage of purple prose or a string of high-falutin' epithets. One useful way to attain clarity and simplicity of style is to write in short sentences. It is easier to waffle in long rambling sentences.
• Use 'signposts' to let the reader know what you are trying to do. You can say things like , 'one objection is...', 'A possible reply to this is...', 'What this example shows...', 'This importance of this point is that...', 'What X is assuming is that...'. Be explicit about what you are arguing and why.
• Stylistically it is vital to use your own words. Quite apart from the dangers of plagiarism, if you borrow chunks of text from another author and then insert them into your essay, you will end up with a patchwork of different styles that reads awkwardly. By all means paraphrase someone else's view, although make it clear that you are paraphrasing. This will help you to understand the position you are adumbrating; and there is a lot of skill involved in a lucid and concise exposition of somebody else's argument.
• Occasionally you will want to cite somebody else's words directly. Be sparing in your use of quotation. There is much less skill to quotation than to paraphrase or précis. When you select a passage for quotation, make sure it is both brief and relevant. There is nothing worse than reading a string of long quotations interspersed with brief and gnomic comments.
• Use a dictionary (or spell check) and a grammar. Good spelling and good grammar are not wholly unrelated to the content of your essay. The thread of an essay is easier to follow if the reader does not have to guess the word which you actually meant to write. Good grammar makes not only for elegant but for precise prose. So do not be ashamed to use a dictionary. I prefer the Chambers to the Collins single volume dictionary, but both are good. (Webster's and M.S. Word dictionaries are American.) Michael Dummet, the philosopher, has written an excellent little English grammar for his students, published by Duckworth.

Use of sources

• All verbatim quotations, whether long or short should be enclosed in inverted commas or indented, and the precise source given. Make sure that you give enough information for the reader to find the passage, i.e. author, work, edition page number or section.
• Passages of close paraphrase should be acknowledged, and the purpose of these paraphrases made clear e.g. as a summary of a view to be discussed disputed or agreed with.
• When a point has been derived directly from an author, even though it mode of expression may be original, this should be acknowledged in a footnote or parenthesis.
• Extensive use of an essay written by another student should be acknowledged. This applies to essays borrowed from the 'Essay Bank' and to essays which are borrowed on a personal basis. Just as the rule that you should acknowledge your dependence on published sources is not supposed to discourage you from reading widely, the rule that you should acknowledge your dependence where it exists, on other students' essays, is not supposed to discourage you from reading each others' essays. In the end however the only thing of value to you and of interest to us is work in which you express and develop your own thoughts.
• At the end of any essay to be submitted for formal assessment (not tutorial essays) write a list in alphabetical order of all the works consulted or read during the preparation and writing of the essay, as well as those from which you quote directly (see Referencing).

Referencing

The Philosophy Department accepts the Harvard or MLA styles of referencing.  Please refer to the specific information below on each permitted style.

Additional help

You may find the extra help below useful when writing Philosohy essays.

This guide to writing Philosophy essays was written by Gordon Finlayson

Department of Philosophy University of York , York , YO10 5DD , UK Tel: work +44 (0)1904 323251 | Fax: fax +44 (0)1904 324023 | [email protected]

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Sample Answers

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The following are real answers to Tripos questions. Following each answer is an indication of the expected class of an essay at this level together with a brief justification. They are supposed to give you some idea of what the examiners are expecting to see.

 We are very grateful to those undergraduates who agreed to release their papers for this purpose.

• 2i/2ii borderline answer for Paper 1 Metaphysics
• 2i/2ii borderline answer for Paper 1 Metaphysics (2)
• 2ii answer for Paper 1 Metaphysics
• First Class answer for Paper 2 Ethics and Political Philosophy
• 2i/2II Borderline Case for Paper 2 Ethics and Political Philosophy  21
• First Class answer for Paper 3 Logic
• First Class answer for Paper 4 Set Texts
• First Class for Paper 4 Set Texts (21)  
• First Class for Paper 4 Set Texts (21-2)  
• Model Answer and Marking Scheme for Paper 5 Formal Methods
• 2ii answer for Paper 1, Metaphysics and Epistemology
• 2i answer for Paper 3, Ethics
• Second 2i answer for Paper 3, Ethics
• First Class Extended Essay for Paper 3 Ethics Part 1  
• First Class Extended Essay for Paper 3 Ethics Part 2  
• First for Paper 5 Early Modern Philosophy (21).    
• First Class answer for Paper 1, Metaphysics
• First Class answer for Paper 8, Philosophical Logic
• 2i answer for Paper 1, Metaphysics
• 2i answer for Paper 11, Aesthetics

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