AQA AS Media Studies | How To Get The Top Grades
Examiners and moderators often see work by students who aren’t perhaps in the top ability bands yet manage to reach the higher mark bands because they REALLY understand what is required of them.
Below are some ideas and strategies which have been proven to help raise achievement in both exams and coursework modules. These are focused on the AQA Media Studies AS level course, although much of the advice could be adapted for other awards.
MEST 1 | Unseen Text
(There is more information available on this site, including exemplar responses to a past question with brief commentaries. See ‘Related Resources’ at the bottom of this article.)Read the supplied information
Do teach the students to read the information on the question paper, highlighting relevant areas. They’ll be given a few minutes to do this at the beginning of the exam, as well as the time as they wait for the DVD to start if they’re given a moving image text. This will give all sorts of helpful information, including institution, audience, etc.For example: In one previous paper, students were told that an advert for Xbox was placed in the Guardian Weekend Magazine in November. The information given included that this was aimed at middle class families and produced in the run-up to Christmas. By reading this carefully, students could add their understanding of the newspaper market so start their exam responses knowing that this was aimed at an ABC1 audience, older age group, and that the institution was aiming at the Christmas market. Using a Sunday supplement meant that audiences have more time to read the advertisement, so it could afford to be fairly text-heavy. All of this information could be deduced before the advert itself was even looked at!Candidates who ignore this valuable information often waste time speculating about the text ~ this type of (often irrelevant) supposition when they’ve already been given purposeful information can prevent them from actually getting down to answering the question – therefore preventing them from reaching the higher mark bands.
Once they looked at the text they could then see how the models used reflected this target audience, (middle-class family; well dressed) allowing audiences to self-actualise; how the text was used to appeal to this particular audience, etc.
Keep focus on the question
Make sure they keep referring back to the question in each of their responses. Be really explicit about this. So, if for the media forms question candidates are asked how an advert is made to look like a trailer then they need to keep identifying features of the advert and saying how they are made to replicate the features of a trailer.Similarly, when asked to consider the representation in a text, they could be taught to start each paragraph with a reading of the representation:
Eg. “Technology is represented here as cutting edge… [then give an example from the text to support this reading.] It is also represented as a necessary addition to the audience’s lifestyle ….”[again, you must include a specific moment from the text to support this].
The Institution question isn’t really difficult!
The institution question is often the one students feel most shaky about. From a teaching point of view, I’ve found it works best by coming to it via their own experiences:-- A good starting point is to discuss with them which “institutions” they / their friends work for, and consider the brand-values of these institutions. Those who have Saturday jobs in Waitrose will be able to talk about different brand values than those who work in Morrisons; those who work in New Look vs. those who work in Ralph Lauren…
- Then get them to think about the institutional values of your school / college, (value hard work; politeness; good timekeeping; respect) and give specific examples of where these values are promoted – such as posters on the walls, school planners, sixth-form brochure, website, rewards systems, etc.
- By this time, they should have a good understanding of institutions and can now move on to the main media institutions. Here they could look at BBC and Channel 4’s Mission Statements, choosing texts from across all three platforms which these institutions produce to support these statements.
For example, BBC includes “educate” in its statement: can students find an example of where they are fulfilling this – not just the obvious ones, such as news and current affairs ~ look at a copy of BBC Wildlife magazine; how many “science” programmes in one week’s BBC TV listings, etc? A previous institution question asked how well a trailer for Channel 4 promoted the channel in line with its values, (which the candidates were told in the information section of the paper – see above!) It was perfectly acceptable for students to make some criticism here – top mark candidates demonstrate critical autonomy in their responses.
- Other institutions to research could include the BBFC, Press Complaint’s Commission and the Advertising Standard’s Authority. A good homework here can be to set students to research one/some of these, making sure they always give specific examples from the institution’s promotional material to support their understanding of the institution and its values.
- Having done all of this, they should be ready for more abstract institutions – a previous MEST 1 paper asked about the institution of Hollywood (see exemplar on this site for potential response to this).
Theory
Adding theory will help students gain high marks, but not if it is just thrown at the exam paper for the sake of it! Candidates often seem to believe that by mentioning a theory they will get credit, regardless of its relevance. Higher grade candidates start with the text – if you think, when you analyse it, that a particular theory is relevant, then use it, but don’t try to impress your examiner with a list of theories which you don’t then go on to use to analyse the text / answer the question.The most popular theories to use, but also to “misuse”, are Propp and Laura Mulvey!
Propp was writing, in the 1920s, about generic features of fairy tales, which he felt invariably involved some kind of quest, prompting a journey and written using 31 stock functions and 8 stock characters. As soon as they see a character doing anything heroic, less able candidates do tend to throw in Propp’s name, without making this theory relevant to the text.
A trailer for a film like Narnia, Stardust and even Star Trek may well suggest a Propp-style narrative. Even some adverts might: a quest for the cleanest kitchen, where the germs are the “villain”, the manufacturer of the product becomes the “donor” and the germ-free surface the “Princess / Prize”! But just because someone could be seen as “heroic” doesn’t mean that Propp is necessarily relevant!
Laura Mulvey’s original text, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (written 1973, published 1975) may need interpreting for students, but they really should be exposed to her original ideas before they throw “male gaze” down onto an exam paper at the first sight of a sexy looking woman! It may be a relevant theory to use if they read the text as one which invites the audience to focus on a woman in a way which objectifies her. If this is the case, candidates need to specifically explain how this is achieved. To get the really top marks, they should also be considering why this is so, perhaps relating this to the genre or intended audience of the text.
MEST 1 | Case Study
(There is more information available on this site. See ‘Related Resources’ at the bottom of this article.)Top marks can be gained by students producing a good case study, with a wide range of products from across all three platforms. Check that studies include products which allow students to cover a wide range of audiences and that they have some really specific examples which they can quote in the exam.
A folder or a scrap book where they keep all of their material will help to keep them organised and make revision easier.
One “teacher-taught” product in a case-study is fine, to allow the students to see what they could/should be producing, but they should then go on to research their own further products, (two in really good depth should be fine) and these are the ones they should really focus on in their exam response. Examiners mark a centre at a time. If they find all candidates responding with exactly the same material then they are unlikely to be able see individual student’s sense of “engagement” with their material, which is one of the requirements of the highest mark band.
Put a poster on the classroom wall where they each have to write in their case-study products, eg. Film and Broadcast Fiction:
In the exam, don’t ignore the question and just write “everything I know about my case study!” The question will have a focus, which will be expanded further in the second bullet point – this expansion will give you a strong clue to what is expected of you in your response, so don’t ignore it!
A brief outline of your case-study in the opening paragraph is sufficient. Top mark students will work the question into this. Practicing these opening sentences will help students to reach the high mark bands.
Giving a specific example for every point they make will also enable them to demonstrate the skills rewarded in the top mark bands – a range of detailed examples.
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