Writing A Level Religious Studies essays: ten top tips

Richard Barrow, Religious Studies Subject Advisor

Teachers regularly ask: “how should our students write essays for A Level Religious Studies?” I spoke to the principal examiner for H573/01: Philosophy of religion and gathered the views of other principal examiners. Here, I collate their responses as tips for you to share with your students.

1. The question is supreme

Students should respond to the question actually posed, rather than one they have pre-learnt an answer for. 

We saw this with question 1 in the summer 2023 H573/03 Developments in Christian thought paper: Assess Augustine’s claim that only God’s grace can overcome human sin. For this question the focus was grace rather than the general topic of the Fall and Original Sin.  

Points can be made relevant to the question and all credit-worthy material will be rewarded.

2. Be selective with material – it’s as much about what you don’t write

Teachers and students ask how it’s possible to write a whole essay in 40 minutes. While this challenge should not be under-estimated, the concern betrays an underlying misconception. Questions are unlikely to be of the form: “tell us everything you know about X”. 

Careful selection of material enables students to meet time constraints and clearly focus on the question. Students should be reassured that they will be assessed positively on their selection of material rather than judged harshly for what they have left out.

3. Plan

As the principal examiner for H573/01 noted:   

Effective planning means selecting the points and material to enable you to respond to the specific question. Such planning will necessarily be quite brief but can really pay off in terms of structure. 

In terms of the focus of planning, here is some useful advice from the PE for H573/03: 

Often the best plans that we see are AO2-led. An AO2-led plan for the Augustine question mentioned in 1) for example would contain a couple of arguments showing the strengths and weaknesses of whether Augustine is right that only God’s grace can overcome human sin.

4. Scholarship, not (necessarily) scholars

The Levels of Response for A Level Religious Studies talk about “scholarly views”, not about scholars. There is no specific requirement for, minimum, or preferred number of scholars. Students sometimes shoe-horn scholars into essays when it doesn’t contribute to the discussion or argument. Examiners want to see scholarship: in-depth and nuanced understanding of the material. 

Having a range of “scholarly views” means using this scholarship to outline and decide between different possible positions on a question or issue. In practice, often these positions will be explained with reference to scholars, but it’s not the naming of people itself that should be the focus. 

Scholarship also covers things that students can do to enhance their knowledge and understanding. While grasping the fundamentals is key, students can deepen their knowledge of the material on the specification through primary or secondary reading where possible. Students will be rewarded for any credit-worthy material. This includes discussion of material that goes beyond the specification but there is no requirement for this.

5. Subtlety of understanding

Religious Studies is a demanding discipline – part of what makes it so interesting – and at A Level the concepts and discussion are often subtle and nuanced. We saw this with Q2 in the 2023 H573/01: Philosophy of religion paper, which was: Critically assess the views of William James about religious experience. 

The Principal Examiner for H573/01 said that: 

A notable proportion of responses did not address specifically James’ views but wrote about religious experiences in a more general sense and showed little direct knowledge of James’ views. James’ classifications of religious experience apply to mystical experiences rather than all religious experiences. James did not comment on the Toronto Blessings or corporate religious experiences. 

James is a good candidate for the sort of primary reading suggested in tip 4. The Varieties of Religious Experience is available as a free PDF. 

This was also noted by the Principal Examiner for H573/02: 

There was at times a lack of nuance and sophistication in the approach to ethical theories: situation ethics is more than just doing the most loving thing; Kantian ethics is more than just following rules and doing one’s duty. There was also a more noticeable confusion and conflation of ideas/terminology between the ethical theories.

6. Don’t forget AO1

In the 2023 series, AO2 marks were in general higher than in previous years, which should be celebrated. However, AO1 marks seemed to dip. As the Principal Examiner for H573/02 said: 

Candidates on occasions didn’t outline the idea to be assessed or wrote generally about the topic without specific focus on the question. 

Using the examples of the H573/03 Developments in Christian thought questions, a greater focus on AO1 would mean explaining what grace actually is, what alienation and exploitation actually are, and so on.

7. …but don’t get hung up on classification

Teachers and students are often concerned about classification. An example is Natural Law - students can get hung up on whether it is deontological or teleological. In fact it can validly be understood as either – provided the candidate has justified their understanding. From the examiners’ point of view the quality of explanation is more important than classification.

8. Synoptic links – great if relevant, but not required

A persistent myth about the OCR A Level in Religious Studies is that making synoptic links is a specific requirement of the assessment. It is not, and synoptic links that are shoe-horned in risk irrelevancy. 

Synoptic links will be credited if they are relevant to the question. For example, Q1 in the 2023 H573/01: Philosophy of religion paper was: Evaluate the verification principle. Some students made excellent use of Anselm’s ontological argument to show how an a priori use of religious language could still fulfil the verification principle’s criteria, but the synopticity alone was not inherently credit-worthy.

9. Effective evaluation – a golden thread

It’s important to note that there is no preferred style for essay writing or evaluation. However, the Principal Examiner for H573/01 noted that in general, successful essays: 

• embedded the evaluation throughout the essay, using the material as a vehicle for discussion 
• focused directly on the question rather than more general issues raised by the topic
• outlined what was going to be argued at the beginning of the essay with a hypothesis and reasons, and developed this through the essay

This approach is described by the Principal Examiner for H573/03 as having a ‘golden thread’ running throughout the essay.

10. If it’s on the specification…

The specification is the definitive guide to the material that the students study and to the types of questions that they prepare for. Questions can be quite specific and we can ask a question on any area of the specification. 

For example, question 4 from the 2023 H573/03 Developments in Christian thought paper was Critically assess Marx’s teaching on alienation and exploitation. This is clearly referenced in the specification and hence there can be a question about it. 

Some questions are fairly broad in their scope, while others can be very focused. An example is Q3 from the 2023 H573/05 Developments in Jewish thought paper: Evaluate the view that the gemara is more important than the mishnah in understanding the Talmud. This is from the Jewish Oral and Written Law section of the Foundations part of the paper, but this is not simply a question generically about Oral and Written Law.

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About the author

Richard studied philosophy and has a BA, MA and M.Phil from the University of East Anglia. Before joining OCR, he taught religious studies and philosophy for nearly 20 years at sixth form and university level, and has particular research interests in Learning Theory, Retrieval Practice and Flipped Learning. In his free time he enjoys weightlifting, rugby, gardening, nature/conservation and military history and also spends a lot of time looking after his children’s pets.