The big idea: Fourteen essay questions on the six in-depth traditions, in two sections.
You answer two, one from each section. 1 hour 30 minutes, 30 marks, 45% of your grade — the largest single component in the course.
| Section | Questions | What is there |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1–7 | Two each on Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, then one open-ended question |
| B | 8–14 | Two each on Judaism, Christianity and Islam, then one open-ended question |
The open-ended question: Question 7 and question 14 may be answered on any of that section's three religions.
The guide is blunt about how: use specific examples, and contextualize them by denomination, culture and geography. "Broad generalizations will not be given credit."
One from each section: Both essays from Section A does not work, however well you know Hinduism and Buddhism.
Your two in-depth traditions were chosen from different columns for exactly this reason.
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Paper 2 is AO3: synthesis and evaluation. The guide notes that lesser-order terms appear occasionally too — a question may say identify inside a discuss.
Step through the three objectives and notice that what changes is the shape of the answer, not its length.
The guide's own classification, with the answer shape each objective asks for.
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| Command term | What the essay has to do |
|---|---|
| Discuss | Present several sides with supporting evidence, then a balanced conclusion. The most common term in this paper |
| Examine | Take the issue apart and show the assumptions and relationships inside it |
| To what extent | Take the statement seriously, argue both ways, and say how far — not simply yes or no |
| Evaluate / Justify | Weigh strengths and limitations, and land on a position you have argued for |
| Compare / Contrast | Similarities / differences — and compare and contrast wants both, throughout, not one then the other |
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Four moves in ninety minutes' worth of essay
Set up the question
Two or three sentences. Define the key term in the tradition's own words, and say what the question is actually asking — which is where a to what extent essay declares that it will be arguing degree, not yes or no.
Build the case
Your strongest side, with specific examples. Name the school, denomination or text. The band descriptors ask for connections between beliefs, concepts, practices and teachings — so link them explicitly rather than listing them.
Give the other side its best run
Not a token paragraph. Where a tradition genuinely disagrees with itself — Orthodox against Reform, Theravāda against Mahāyāna — that internal disagreement is the other side, and it is examinable content.
Conclude by answering
A conclusion supported by the evidence you presented. "To a considerable extent, though not in Reform practice" is an answer. "There are arguments on both sides" is not.
Set up, build, answer back, decide.
Forty-five minutes each: Two essays, ninety minutes. Spend five planning and forty writing, and start the second essay at the halfway mark whatever state the first is in.
An unfinished second essay costs more than a slightly thin first one: the bands reward a completed argument with a conclusion.
How this is tested. You will have studied two of the six traditions, so ten of the fourteen questions are not for you. The real choice is between three: your tradition's two, and the section's open-ended question.
Your two specific questions
- Written for your tradition, so the examples are obvious
- One will be on a theme you know better
- Check the command term before deciding
The open-ended question
- Answerable on any of the section's three religions
- Good when it hits a theme you are strong on
- Dangerous if you have no specific examples
How to pick in two minutes
- Which one can you name three examples for?
- Which has a genuine two-sidedness you can argue?
- Which command term do you know the shape of?
The open-ended trap: It looks easier because it is broader. It is marked harder for exactly that reason.
"Broad generalizations will not be given credit" — so an open-ended answer needs more named denominations, places and practices than a specific one, not fewer.