Here’s my view on what might come up this May and how to approach your A2 revision.

The first thing you need to do is print the syllabus off (available in the ethics section under your syllabus and revision tips) and grab a couple of highlighter pens. What we observe about the syllabus is that there are only six sections. Clearly it is dangerous to avoid an entire area, although if I was to avoid any area I would maybe avoid meta-ethics this year, simply because in June 2011 and Jan 2012 they set two hum-dingers of a question on meta-ethics (meaning really good meaty questions). Now, highlight in one colour the twist a question has been given in the past and in another, the possible future twist.

So what can we do to try and maximise our chances?

1. Give an issue a twist. The examiner likes to give a syllabus area a twist, so for example, in Jan 2012 they linked conscience to sexual ethics. Nice twist! Go through the last three years’ papers and highlight what twists there have been. For example, in June 2011 the meta-ethics question had an emotivist twist, “”ethical statements are no more than expressions of emotion”, and in January 2012 a prescriptivist twist (from what I can tell from the examiners’ report, does anyone have the actual paper?? It’s not yet on the OCR site!!).

Now work out the kind of twist that hasn’t come up. What about meta-ethics and intuition ism? Why not a question like “Moral judgements are merely a matter of intuition” Discuss. This is a good question as it cuts across two syllabus areas, meta-ethics and conscience. Do the same analysis for the whole syllabus.

2. Look at the applied areas. There are only two. Sexual ethics came up in Jan 2012 (linked to conscience), June 2011 and Jan 2011 – in June they linked Virtue Ethics to extramarital sex (adultery). In Jan 2011 to premarital sex was examined, and in June 2010 homosexuality. It seems they either take a general question “to what extent are ethical theories useful…” or they link it directly to one of the AS theories eg “natural law is the best approach to issues about premarital sex” (Jan 2011). So prepare for both possibilities.

But contraception is really due for an appearance. So my tip would be, especially revise approaches to issues surrounding contraception – it hasn’t come up for a while.

3. The environment and business ethics may well appear this summer, if you look at past trends, especially something about business ethics. Next week I am going to examine the issues surrounding the environment and business ethics, and give you my view of the type of question that could come up this year. In Jan 2011 they asked this question “the environment suffers because business has no ethics” Discuss. It’s a good question. In June 2010 this was the question “assess the usefulness of Religious ethics as an ethical approach to business”. But this is the only two times the phrase “business ethics” has come up. So we need to consider next week what sorts of business ethics questions might be asked, and how we should handle them.

Meantime, don’t forget you can always consult my A2 revision guide for more detailed thoughts on exactly what are the issues surrounding the environment and business ethics.  Click the header ad on this page and pop over to the shop!