past question 4s for Com&Cul

June 2013

‘Home is where the heart is.’

‘It ain’t a house, it’s a home.’

‘To speak of home in relation to a building is simply to recognise its harmony with the

things we believe are most important.’

Task: These sayings suggest that a home can be more than simply a place to live.

Think of a place you call home.

Discuss the significance of this place in terms of your culture and your identity.

(20 marks)

June 2012

Tourism appeals to the human imagination. As an activity it knows no bounds: it is

global and it affects the environment it occurs in, the people who host it, the economies

it seeks to benefit and the tourists who consume it as an experience, product and an

element of their lives. (Stephen Page, Tourism Management: An Introduction)

 As a Communication and Culture student, explore some of the meanings of the

‘tourism experience’ (going on holiday). (20 marks)

June 2011

When A-level Communication and Culture was launched in 2008, it was not well

received in all quarters. Several newspapers, including the Daily Mail, questioned the

legitimacy of an A-level dealing with popular culture and everyday life. Read the extract

from the Daily Mail, 26 May 2008, before attempting the task below.

For anyone who spent two years poring over the intricacies of the War of the Spanish

Succession to scrape an A-level in foreign history, it may be best to look away now.

You might have felt duty bound in those days to ration the time you spent shopping,

listening to pop music or discussing dates.

But there is no such problem for today’s teenagers...because they can get a

qualification in it.

As part of a controversial A-level in popular culture, pupils will learn about the tradition

of kissing in cinemas and ponder such questions as ‘is skateboarding better than polo?’.

The qualification, being offered by the country’s biggest exam board from September,

also entails a study of celebrity body images and allows pupils to write about clothes

and hairstyles.

One assignment requires them to ‘explore the relationships between cinema-going and

dating’ with the aid of source material like The Drifters hit Kissin’ in the Back Row of the

Movies.

Another asks students to describe the cultural significance of their bedrooms and

friends.

The A-level in ‘communication and culture’ is billed by the Assessment and

Qualifications Alliance as ‘excellent preparation’ for higher study.

The course spec insists the ‘everyday is worthy of study’ but critics are concerned it will

lack academic rigour.

They also warn it could help schools maintain strong league table positions while

sidelining disciplines such as history and English literature.

 Task:

 How do you respond, as a student of this AS level, to the Daily Mail’s attack?

 (20 marks)