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GCSE Religious Studies B

 

 

New Ethics, Philosophy and Religion in Society specification

We wanted to give you and your students much more flexibility and choice. So we consulted RS teachers and designed a full and a short course with:

  • a modular structure and more assessment options
  • greater choice of topics with no compulsory unit
  • accessibility to students of any or no religious persuasion
  • no stressful coursework and no controlled assessment.

With our new spec, you can choose to:

  • construct a course to suit your specialism and students' religious backgrounds and interests
  • follow a thematic study of religious responses to fundamental questions of life
  • adapt the number of world religions studied to suit your local syllabus
  • trace links between religion and Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
  • use existing resources from our outgoing spec wherever possible.

All about our Religious Studies B spec

Course structures and assessments

You can spread assessments, in any order, for this specification over two years or allow students to sit all units at the end of one or two years, with a re-sit option.

Question Structure

Full course

  • Any two of six units available
  • One exam, lasting 3 hours
  • Each unit attracts 50% of the total mark

Short course

  • One of six units available
  • One exam, lasting 1 hour 30 min, for 100% of the total mark
  • Can be 'topped up' to a full course, by taking another unit

Written exams

  • Externally assessed
  • 1 hour 30 min for each unit
  • One structured essay question on each of the six unit topics; students must answer four
  • Stimulus material may be used
  • Each question attracts 18 marks; each unit a total of 72 marks

Religious Studies B units available

Each unit comprises six topics of study
Unit 1 Religion and Citizenship Unit 4 Religious Philosophy and Ultimate Questions
Unit 2 Religion and Life Issues Unit 5 Religious Expression in Society
Unit 3 Religion and Morality Unit 6 Worship and Key Beliefs
Units 1 to 5 allow study of one, two or more religions, in varying degrees.
Unit 6 offers a balanced study of two of the six major world religions.