My Thoughts: Religious Studies B Exam – 9 June 2011

This afternoon me – along with the rest of my year – sitting the Religious Studies B exam, in Religious Philosophy and Ultimate Questions.

Like all of my other public examinations, I was in the library for it in order to obtain my extra time. However, due to the fact that this subject is not optional, there was a greater range in demographic of candidates. To my shock, one girl walked out just minutes after opening the paper – for me, at least it wasn’t that bad.

It didn’t go brilliantly though. I found the first questions really tricky, asking about the argument from morality, but I was keen to ensure that it didn’t throw me, so I left them blank in case I had time to come back to them. In the end, I didn’t, and my primary concern is that I’ll have put too much for the low-mark-questions, and written too little for the higher-mark-questions.

Above is the opinion poll I asked on Facebook, seeing how my classmates and peers found the RE exam. As you can see, I opted for the ‘Pretty tough’ radio button, like many others. This has made my feelings a little bit better, knowing I’m not the only one to have struggled with this exam. However, although correct at time of publishing this post, it’s not been online for long enough for everyone to respond – at present, only ten people have voted.

I’d been hoping to draw partly on my involvement with my church of St Luke’s, Maidenhead. Although I could use it a bit (most notably in a question asking how religious believers are able to help those who are suffering), it didn’t help with some of the more philosophical questions.

My post-exam negative feelings about this one are not because I found it hard to convey my thoughts in response to the question. Perhaps, though, my thoughts weren’t deep enough. I don’t think that’s completely down to revision: I had done a fair bit in preparation, unlike a few of my classmates. But it was hard, and I found myself rewriting bits once or twice.

On the plus side, my mock RE exam came back better than expected, but I submitted it having answered every question. Now, I’m relying on the questions that I did answer in the real thing to have sufficient material in them to gain me a moderate grade.