The 3-step active recall method

Re-reading notes is a futile process when your aim is to remember the information and successfully apply it in exam settings. Active recall is the method you use to ensure the information sticks for a long period of time. But even active recall can be futile unless you have a structured way of implementing it. This is where the 3-step active recall method comes in, a structured method that is signature to the Levo Learning guides.

1. Step 1

   Answer up to 10 questions cold, closed book, even if you are unsure on the topic.

2. Step 2

   Answer the same questions again, but open book. Write the correct answer down even if it seems pointless.

3. Step 3

   Repeat as step 1 and answer the questions closed book again.

Worked across the Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies specification, one subtopic at a time.

The subject, and what is assessed

Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies (specification 9RS0) is assessed by three written papers, each lasting 2 hours and carrying 80 marks. Paper 1 covers philosophy of religion and Paper 2 covers religion and ethics. For the third paper a student sits either New Testament Studies or one of the world religion options. The choice made for the third paper decides which material is examinable, so the remaining options can be left aside.

Memorisation, then application

Marks are given for applying content to the question that has been set, which cannot happen while the content is still being looked up. Step 1 shows what is actually held. Step 2 puts the correct wording in front of you while the gap is still fresh. Step 3 repeats the cold test, and the difference between the first and third attempt is the part that has moved.

Every question in the guide is paired with its answer in the same document, so step 2 is done from the guide itself rather than from a separate set of notes.

What is inside the guide

Questions are grouped by topic and then by subtopic, following the Edexcel specification. Open a topic to see its subtopics.

Sample questions

Taken from the Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

1. Philosophy of Religion

   Why do two people look at the same natural world and only one of them sees design?

   Show the answer

   Because the argument turns on how evidence is read rather than on disputed facts. Believer and sceptic agree that eyes focus light and that planets keep to their orbits; they disagree about what those facts show. One reads them as the marks of intention, the other as what unguided processes throw up. The argument is therefore an invitation to compare two interpretations of a shared world, not a discovery of new data.

2. Religion and Ethics

   What do Jews and Christians usually mean when they call humanity a steward of creation?

   Show the answer

   That the earth belongs to God and human beings hold it in trust rather than owning it. Reading the Genesis creation accounts this way, Jews and Christians take dominion to mean responsible care for which humanity is answerable to God, not a licence to exploit. Muslims express a similar idea through khalifah, humanity as God's trustee on earth.

3. New Testament Studies

   Why did descent from David matter to Jewish messianic hope?

   Show the answer

   God's promise to David was remembered as a promise of a lasting royal house. Jewish hope in the period therefore often pictured the anointed one as a king of David's family who would restore Israel, throw off foreign rule and establish justice from Jerusalem. Not every strand of expectation was royal, but the Davidic strand was strong enough that a claim to be the Messiah invited the question of ancestry.

4. Buddhism

   What are the Three Poisons, and what does each one do to the mind?

   Show the answer

   Greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha). Buddhists treat them as the forces that keep beings turning in samsara: greed drags the mind towards what it wants, hatred shoves away what it dislikes, and delusion misreads reality so that both reactions feel justified.

5. Christianity

   What are the four marks of the Church?

   Show the answer

   One, holy, catholic and apostolic, as confessed in the Nicene Creed. They function partly as description and partly as vocation: they state what Christians believe the Church already is by God's gift, and what it must continually become. Almost every serious argument between denominations can be framed as a disagreement about what these four words mean and where they are found.

6. Hinduism

   Many Hindus prefer to call their tradition Sanatana Dharma rather than Hinduism. What are they claiming when they do?

   Show the answer

   That what they follow is the eternal, perennial dharma: not one founder's invention with a datable start, but the enduring order of reality itself, which sages perceived and passed on. The phrase also sidesteps 'Hinduism', a label pinned on the tradition from outside, and it presents the teaching as available in principle to anyone rather than as one competing creed among many.

7. Islam

   What are the six articles of faith that Sunni Muslims traditionally list?

   Show the answer

   Belief that Allah is one; belief in angels; belief in the revealed scriptures; belief in the prophets; belief in the Day of Judgement; and belief in divine decree, qadr. Sunni tradition calls them the pillars of faith, arkan al-iman, and summarises them in a set creedal formula that many Muslims learn by heart.

8. Judaism

   How do Jews describe God's relationship to the world as creator and sustainer?

   Show the answer

   God is held to have brought everything into being from nothing, and to hold it in being continuously. Creation is not treated as a finished event God has walked away from: the daily morning liturgy speaks of God renewing the work of creation every day.

Questions about this guide

Other Edexcel A-Level guides

All Edexcel A-Level guides · All A-Level guides