Learn from others: Browse anonymised top 3 and middle 3 mock exam results. No candidate numbers shown.
Click on column headers to sort the table.
| Question | Topic / Title | Max Marks | Class Avg | Performance % | RAG Rating |
|---|
Click on column headers to sort the table.
| Question | Topic / Title | Max Marks | Class Avg | Performance % | RAG Rating |
|---|
Overall: The cohort of 27 students achieved a class average of 40.8/80 (51%) with a pass rate (Grade 4+) of 67% (18 of 27 students). The strongest performance was in the multiple choice and short-answer sections, with Q7b (Institute for Government view, 89%), Q7a (Blair view, 93%) and Q1b (discrimination, 100%) all scoring very well. The weakest area by far was Q7c (Source Agreement, 13%), suggesting students struggled to identify points of agreement between the two sources. The higher-tariff extended writing questions (Q7d and Q8) also showed significant room for improvement.
"Which view do you agree with more?" (12 Marks)
Hover over the highlighted text to see the examiner's commentary.
"The ages of responsibility should be increased." (15 Marks)
A community is a group of people who are in regular contact with each other and share common interests or values. A neighbourhood is different: it is the local area where people live close to one another and share the same living space, such as a street, an estate or a village. In a small village, a person’s neighbourhood and community may be almost the same. In a large city such as London or Manchester, a neighbourhood might be just a few streets, while people’s communities are often spread across many different areas.
Communities can be based on many things. Some are based on religion, such as Christian, Muslim or Sikh communities. Others are based on heritage – where a person’s family originally comes from, such as Nigeria or Pakistan. Some are based on a shared passion, such as supporting the same football team, and others on membership of a club or organisation, such as a local youth group. A young person might therefore belong to their school community, their local neighbourhood, a religious community and a local sports club all at once, and may also feel part of a wider British community. Because of all this, most people in the UK belong to more than one community, and each one can shape how they see themselves and where they feel they belong.
Blue: points quoted from the source. Green: own knowledge that is not in the source. A full-mark answer has three of each.
The source explains that a community is a group of people who “share common interests or values”EXAMINER: Source point 1: quoted in inverted commas and used to answer the question., while a neighbourhood is simply where people live. In a large city, “people’s communities are often spread across many different areas”EXAMINER: Source point 2: quoted in inverted commas and used to answer the question., so a young person might belong to a school, a sports club and a religious community at once. Using my own knowledge, this means people have multiple identities – for example, someone might see themselves as British, Muslim and a Londoner all at once, or describe themselves as ‘British Asian’EXAMINER: Own knowledge 1: accurate, relevant, not in the source, and linked back to the question..
This matters because, as the source says, each community “can shape how they see themselves and where they feel they belong”EXAMINER: Source point 3: quoted in inverted commas and used to answer the question.. Belonging to several groups links people from different backgrounds, which helps community cohesion – when different groups share values such as mutual respect and tolerance, which are among the fundamental British valuesEXAMINER: Own knowledge 2: accurate, relevant, not in the source, and linked back to the question.. Many people also belong to online communities, such as gaming or fan groups, which connect people with shared interests across the world rather than in one placeEXAMINER: Own knowledge 3: accurate, relevant, not in the source, and linked back to the question.. This shows identity is not tied to one place.
Instead of writing: People are in lots of groups like school and football.EXAMINER: This only repeats the source. There is no own knowledge and no explanation of how it affects identity.
| Level | Marks | Descriptor |
|---|---|---|
| Level 3 | 5–6 | Uses the source well to explain why people belong to several communities (shared interests/values vs. where they live; religion, heritage, passions, clubs) AND how this affects identity. Applies at least two well-developed pieces of own knowledge, e.g. multiple or hyphenated identities (British Asian, Black British, Scottish and British); community cohesion and the fundamental British values of mutual respect and tolerance; online/virtual communities; volunteering and community groups. |
| Level 2 | 3–4 | Clear answer explaining the difference between community and neighbourhood and that people belong to several communities (from the source). Applies at least one piece of own knowledge, such as the idea of multiple identities. |
| Level 1 | 1–2 | Simple answer that identifies a community from the source (e.g. ‘people are in a school and a sports club’). Relies almost entirely on the source. |
| Level 0 | 0 | No rewardable material. |
Features of a good answer:
© 2025 GCSE Citizenship Podcasts. All Rights Reserved.