Questions from sample assessment materials with student
responses and commentaries – 2 and 5 mark items
1
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What is empiricism? (2 marks)
Response 1:
Our senses.
Comments
Although sense experience is a key point for empiricism, this really isn’t enough to justify a mark.
0 marks.
Response 2:
Everything comes from our senses.
Comments
This could be interpreted as one (rather extreme) form of empiricism – especially if the student had
made the link to knowledge, which would have made it a partial answer. As s/he doesn’t, again, it
isn’t enough for a mark. 0 marks.
Response 3:
Empiricism is a kind of philosophy which Locke, Berkeley and Hume followed. They all argued
that knowledge started in the senses – so we experience sense data. Locke had primary and
secondary qualities. Berkeley had God. Hume denied causation.
Comments
There is significant redundancy here. We are not interested in who was an empiricist, or in the
detail of their theories. The second sentence gets to the point and is a partial answer. The student
makes the point about the senses and experience and sense data. This would get 1 mark.
Response 4:
All our concepts are based on sense experience and this is the basis for all our knowledge
that isn’t just about definitions.
Comments
This is a difficult one. It is clear and basically correct and there is no redundancy. It would have
been better had the student used the terms a posteriori and analytic. Giving this the benefit of the
doubt, it would get 2 marks, but it is borderline.
Response 5:
All our concepts and all synthetic knowledge ultimately come from sense experience (a
posteriori).
Comments
Clear and correct, with no redundancy. 2 marks.
2
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3
Copyright © 2014 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Version 1.0.
Explain why, for Locke, extension is a primary quality? (5 marks)
Response 1:
Because it is the first thing we see in the object
Comments
0 marks
Response 2:
Primaries are in the objects, not in the mind. A thing has motion in itself.
Comments
Two fragments, with no logical structure. One mark for the idea that a primary quality is in the
object. 1 mark.
Response 3:
Extension is in the object itself. It is not in the mind, like colour, which depends on the mind
as much as the object.
Comments
There are two points here – extension is in the object itself. Colour (a secondary quality) is minddependent. The link between the two sentences isn’t made clear and the answer is not precise.
2 marks.
Response 4:
Because it is in the object itself and not in the mind. No matter what, an object has
extension, but it doesn’t have colour in the dark.
Comments
The substantive content of this explanation is correct. It is not a full explanation and it isn’t precise
– the student doesn’t explain why s/he makes reference to colour. There is an attempt at logical
linking between the two sentences. 3 marks.
Response 5:
Primary qualities are those that are really part of objects and are as we perceive them.
Extension is a primary quality because it is in the grain of wheat no matter how many times
we cut it up – unlike colour. It takes up space no matter what. Locke thinks that means that it
is in the wheat itself. The problem is that it might be that a part of the grain still has
extension, but we don’t know what that extension is. There is the world of difference
between the extension of a whole grain and that of the tiniest part. An atom wouldn’t have
extension.
Comments
This has a clear explanation in it, in the first three sentences. The problem is that there is a deal of
redundancy here and the student is not doing what s/he has been asked to do. The text from “The
problem …” is irrelevant to the question.
So clear, with logical links, but some redundancy. 4 marks.
4
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Response 6:
A primary quality is the property of the object, so it is intrinsic to the object. It is
independent of how we perceive it. In contrast, a secondary quality depends on the perceiver.
For example, colour is secondary, because what we see depends on the context (all horses are
grey in the dark). A primary quality does not depend on the perceiver.
Extension is a primary quality because a thing occupies space no matter what the condition.
So, if we took a grain of wheat and cut it in two, each piece would occupy space. If we took
the grain in a dim light, it would not be yellow, but it would occupy space.
Comments
This is a full, clear and precise explanation. The student chooses to explain by drawing a contrast
with secondary qualities, which is fine. There is no redundancy. This gets 5 marks.
(The student uses Locke’s (problematic) example, but does not make any comments about
whether or not Locke is right – that is not what is being asked for, so that is fine.)
5
Copyright © 2014 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Version 1.0.