GCSE (for first teaching in 2009) Religious Studies: World Religion(s) - J620

Structure

• There is a unitised approach to content
• Learners study four units for a full course, and two units for a short course.

• The allocation of topics to the world religions units.

Content

• Christianity through a study of either Luke or Mark has been divided into two units
• There is an option to study two gospels instead of one
• Two optional units on Jewish scriptures have been added
• Two optional units on Muslim scriptures have been added
• Content has been revised and updated to reflect the faith-specific language
• Christian Perspectives unit is now called Ethics and can be studied from the perspective of other religions
• Religion, the Media and the Entertainment unit has been withdrawn from World Religions.

• The main topics for study within the world religions units remain the same. Some language and key areas have been revised to ensure that they are still up to date and relevant. They are:
• Core beliefs
• Special days and pilgrimages
• Major divisions and interpretations
• Places and forms of worship
• Religion in the faith community and family
• Sacred writings
• The opportunity to study Christian scriptures.

Assessment

• There is no coursework/controlled assessment
• All examinations are 1 hour
• There are two assessment objectives instead of three
• The allocation of marks to questions has changed to reflect the 50/50 weighting of the assessment objectives
• The full course is now four examination papers instead of two/three
• Learners will be asked to complete two questions from a choice of three
• Unit B603 is available for assessment in January and June.

• The question pattern and structure remains the same
• The part E question includes a prompt
• The overall examination time remains the same
• Learners will be required to answer the same number of questions.