Today marks the first day of the challenge and I set three questions this morning for students to answer (as above).

The first question asked students to outline 2 ways in which schools promote meritocracy. A commonly asked question – in fact in the 2021 November Exam, the 30 mark essay question was on meritocracy in the education system. 4 and 6 markers are broken down into 2 (or 3) sets of two marks – so students would get one mark for identifying a way, and a second mark for explaining how this happens. Through the day I sent out an image, highlighting some of the ways this is done.

The second question looked at how education serves capitalism – again another common question – I think it was a ten marker in either 2018 or 2019 – but to get full marks on this students would need to identify a way (well, 3 ways) and explain how it served capitalism. I’d advise students in this type of question to be really explicit on how education serves capitalism by writing – ‘which serves the needs of capitalism by…’. Again, here are some of the hints I sent out around lunchtime.

The final question was a 10 mark apply and analyse question. Students must explicitly reference the item in my opinion. Some will suggest they can make an implicit reference, but I liken doing exams to sitting your driving test. You exaggerate each time you check your mirror, you keep your hands at 10 and 2, you feed the wheel… While they may be awarded marks for implicit references, it’s best not to take chances to be on the safe side. Again, I sent out a brief cheat sheet for students to draw information from.

So the first day of the 2022 Challenge is done, join me for Day 2 tomorrow when… oh wait…you all want the answers? Okay, click on the link below. Remember, that other responses may get full credit and that this is just one suggested way of answering a speculative question I made up. Hopefully it’ll be useful though.

Join me tomorrow for question 4-6 out of the 125 that I will be covering over the next 76 days… a little sneak peak of what might come up follows.