Notes · PersianUK · A-Levels

Paper 1 Section C: the research question (بخش ج: پرسش پژوهشی)

This topic carries Paper 1 Section C, the independent research question. Read the frozen topic id with care: in the Edexcel 2018 family there is no speaking paper, so the independent research is not a speaking task and calling it one would be wrong. It is a written question in Paper 1, worth 40 marks, with a recommended one hour and twenty-five minutes, in which the student reads one unseen Persian text on an aspect of their chosen research subject and responds to a statement about it, using information and ideas from both the text and their own research findings, in a recommended 300 to 350 words of Persian. Forty marks is half of Paper 1 and 20 per cent of the whole A-Level — the largest single task in the qualification. It is marked by three levels-based grids applied to the one answer: knowledge and understanding of society and culture via research (AO4) out of 20, understand and respond to written language in writing (AO2) out of 10, and accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 10. No dictionary and no documentation relating to the research may be taken into the examination room.

5 sections~32 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·121212 / 12

Exam profile

AO4 · Show knowledge and understanding of, and respond critically and analytically to, Iranian or Afghan society and culture through independent researchAO2 · Understand an unseen Persian text and use it to contribute to an argumentAO3 · Write accurate Persian with a range of structures across three hundred and fifty wordsAO4 · Sustain a line of argument and draw conclusions on an aspect of a researched subject

Operators:تحلیل کنیدارزیابی کنیداستدلال کنیدنتیجه بگیریدمقایسه کنیدتوضیح دهیدشاهد بیاوریدنقد کنید

basic level

At first-year standard the expectation is that the student has chosen one research subject, is covering all three of its aspects, is gathering evidence from Persian-language sources rather than English ones, and can write a clear position on a statement with a reason, in correct Persian.

higher level

The full A-Level expects a sustained argument that uses the unseen text as an interlocutor rather than as decoration, evidence that is specific and remembered rather than general, every interpretation attributed, the writer's own judgement marked and defended with a stated defeater, and Persian of deliberate range sustained under time pressure.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Paper 1 Section C: the research question (بخش ج: پرسش پژوهشی)

What Section C is, and why it is the largest task in the qualification#

FoundationPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 1 Section C (writing — research question, 40 marks, recommended 1 h 25)Pearson Edexcel 9PN0: this qualification has no speaking assessment

Begin by correcting an expectation that travels from other language A-Levels. In several Edexcel modern-language specifications the independent research project is assessed in a speaking examination. In this one it is not, because this qualification — Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (listening, reading and writing) — has no speaking paper at all. The research is assessed in Paper 1 Section C, in writing, in Persian. Everything about how you prepare follows from that: you are not rehearsing a presentation, you are building a body of remembered material that you can deploy in written Persian against a statement you have not seen.

The mechanics are specific and worth memorising. You select one research subject, from the four printed in the specification, before the examination. In the examination you read one unseen text in Persian on an aspect of that subject, and you respond to a statement based on the subject. You must use information from both the unseen text and your research findings. You are expected to analyse the statement critically and to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the research subject by presenting ideas, arguments and conclusions supported by relevant information, examples and references from your research and from the text. You should write approximately 300 to 350 words. The recommended time is one hour and twenty-five minutes. And you have no dictionary and no research notes with you.

Forty marks is half of Paper 1 and 20 per cent of the whole A-Level, which makes this the largest single task in the qualification — larger than either Paper 2 essay, larger than the whole of Paper 3 Section A. It is worth stating that plainly because the frozen topic name and the phrase independent research together make it sound like a coursework appendage, and it is nothing of the kind. Two consequences: begin the research early in the year, as the specification recommends, and rehearse the written task repeatedly, because eighty-five minutes of unseen reading and argument in Persian is a performance that improves with practice.

The three grids tell you what the eighty-five minutes should produce. Knowledge and understanding of society and culture via research (AO4) out of 20 assesses the substance of your answer and your ability to sustain a line of argument and draw conclusions. Understand and respond to written language in writing (AO2) out of 10 assesses your use of relevant information from the unseen text to contribute to those ideas — note contribute, which means the text must feed the argument, not sit in it. And accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 10 assesses your Persian. The specification prints the AO4 and AO2 grids side by side precisely because they are connected: the research supplies the substance and the text must be used to build on it.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: a full answer plan built from a statement and an unseen text

Your research subject is the Theme 1 subject, فرصت‌های کاری برای جوانان, based on Iran. The statement is «تحصیلات دانشگاهی دیگر تضمینی برای یافتن کار نیست.» The unseen text discusses graduates working outside their field. Plan the whole answer, in Persian, with word counts.

Ten minutes: read the text and interrogate the statement
The statement contains one word that decides the whole answer: تضمین, guarantee. It does not say a degree is useless, or that graduates are unemployed; it says a degree no longer guarantees work. So the first paragraph must separate تضمین from فایده, benefit — a degree may be very useful and still guarantee nothing. Candidates who miss this argue against a claim nobody made. Ten minutes reading and thinking, before a word is written, is not wasted time; it is the highest-return ten minutes in the paper.
Ten minutes: plan four paragraphs against the three grids
Paragraph one, sixty words: refine the statement and take a position. Paragraph two, ninety words: the unseen text, used to establish the phenomenon of graduates working outside their field, with an explicit مطابق متن ناخوانده so the AO2 marks are visible. Paragraph three, ninety words: your research, marked with پژوهش من نشان داد, covering a second aspect of the research subject. Paragraph four, ninety words: the counter-position, your marked judgement, and a defeater. Write this plan in Persian nouns in the margin.
Fifty-five minutes: write, and plant the language deliberately
As you write, place the structures the AO3 grid rewards where they belong naturally. The refinement in paragraph one wants a نه ... بلکه or a این نیست که ... بلکه. Paragraph three wants a past perfect for what your sources had said. Paragraph four wants a conditional and a subjunctive for the defeater: اگر پژوهشی نشان دهد که ... آن‌گاه ... . Fifty-five minutes for three hundred and thirty words is about six words a minute, which is slow enough to write carefully and is exactly why the accuracy grid is winnable here.
Ten minutes: check four things, in this order
First, country: is everything Iranian, with no drift into another country? Second, coverage: have all three aspects of the research subject been touched, even briefly? Third, the text: has the unseen text been used to contribute rather than merely mentioned? Fourth, grammar: verb endings, را on the specific objects only, a subjunctive after every trigger, and every sentence finished. Ten minutes is enough for all four if you check in that order, because the first three are quick and the fourth is where the time goes.

Result: Ten minutes reading and interrogating the statement; ten minutes planning four paragraphs in Persian nouns; fifty-five minutes writing at about six words a minute with the structures planted; ten minutes checking country, coverage, use of the text and grammar, in that order.

Typical mistakes

Preparing the research as an oral presentation. It is assessed in writing, in Persian.
Leaving the research until the second year. The specification recommends deciding as early as possible in the academic year.
Treating the unseen text as an obstacle rather than as ten marks. It is a third of the non-language marks.
Assuming notes will be allowed. No documentation relating to the research may be taken into the room.

Active revision

ساختار بخش ج را از حافظه بنویسید: نمره، زمان، شمار واژه‌ها، و سه سنجه با نمره‌ی هر کدام؛ سپس در یک جمله بنویسید که چرا این بخش بزرگ‌ترین تکلیف کل مدرک است

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

The four research subjects, the country rule and the cross-paper trap#

StandardPearson Edexcel 9PN0: research subjects for Themes 1 to 4; all three aspects; one country onlyPearson Edexcel 9PN0: the independent research must not relate to or reference any Paper 2 work

The four research subjects, their aspects and their rules

Fig. 1One of these four is a fifth of your A-Level. Read the third column before you choose and the fourth before you start reading, because each subject has one characteristic way of going wrong and three of the four traps are avoidable in advance. Note that only the Theme Two subject permits a choice of country, and that its unseen text is written to be general in consequence. The table is in English because the figure engine emits no direction attribute and has no bidi handling; the Persian titles are in the prose above.

There are exactly four research subjects and you choose one. Theme 1 offers فرصت‌های کاری برای جوانان, work opportunities for young people, with the transition from traditional trades to new occupations, migration from rural areas into urban work and its effects, and unemployment. Theme 2 offers توسعه‌ی رسانه‌های اجتماعی و اینترنتی, the development of social and online media, with the display of Western values, the effect on ways of living, and the widening of access to information and the transmission of news. Theme 3 offers انتظارات زنان در جامعه, women's expectations in society, with access to education, movement towards equality, and participation in the advancement of the arts. Theme 4 offers جنبه‌های هنر معاصر ایران, aspects of contemporary Iranian art, with Kamal-ol-Molk, the Saqqakhaneh school and European influence.

The country rule is not negotiable and it has two branches. For research subjects taken from Themes 1, 3 or 4, the research must be based on Iran only. For the research subject from Theme 2, the student chooses Iran or Afghanistan and writes about that one country alone. If a candidate refers to more than one country, examiners for Themes 1, 3 and 4 mark content based on Iran only; for Theme 2 they mark positively by crediting whichever country yields the higher mark. Either way the second country's material earns nothing and consumes words you needed. And note the consequence the specification spells out for Theme 2: because a candidate may research only one country, the unseen text for a Theme 2 subject is written to be general in nature and equally relevant to both.

All three aspects must be covered. That phrase — students must cover all three aspects of the research subject — is the specification's own, and it is the requirement most often half-met. In practice the examination asks about an aspect, not about the whole subject, so a candidate whose third aspect is thin may simply be unlucky. Cover all three properly and you are safe whichever aspect the paper picks; cover two and you are betting a fifth of your A-Level on which statement appears. Note also the aspect-count trap that runs through this specification: most sub-themes and research subjects have three aspects, but not all parts of the specification do, so count the lines in your own copy.

The cross-paper trap is the rule most likely to disqualify a well-prepared candidate, and Persian is one of the specifications that has it. The independent research must not relate to, or make reference to, any of the literary works or films studied for Paper 2, and teachers are required to ensure that students do not intend to use them. The collision risk is not evenly spread: the Theme 3 research subject on women in the arts is the highest-risk of the four, because Appendix 1 contains novels by women writers and a film by a woman director. The Theme 4 subject on contemporary art carries a similar risk if your Paper 2 film is treated as an artwork in your research. Write the exclusion list before you choose.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: choosing a research subject in the right order

You are at the start of the course. Work through the choice of research subject as a sequence of decisions, and account for the order.

Decision one: fix your Paper 2 works first
The Paper 2 works constrain the research and not the other way round, because the works list is fixed by the specification and the research subject is your free choice. So choose the two works, then write the exclusion list — both titles, both authors or directors, and the obvious subjects they pull towards. Only then look at the four research subjects. A candidate who chooses the research first and the works second will sooner or later have to redo one of them.
Decision two: pick the subject you can source in Persian
The specification requires evidence gathered independently from at least two authentic sources in the assessed language. So the real question is not which subject interests you but which one you can read about in Persian at a level you can handle. Test it before committing: spend an hour searching for Persian-language material on each candidate subject and see which produces sources you can actually read. A fascinating subject with no accessible Persian sources is a year of frustration.
Decision three: check the country rule against your material
If you are drawn to the Theme 2 subject, decide Iran or Afghanistan immediately, because the two have different media histories and different available sources, and material about the wrong one is worthless. If you are drawn to any other subject, confirm that your sources are about Iran. This is worth checking explicitly rather than assuming: Persian-language media are produced in several countries and a source about the diaspora or about another Persian-speaking country will not do for a Theme 1, 3 or 4 subject.
Decision four: sketch all three aspects before committing
Write one research question per aspect and check you can imagine answering all three. If one aspect leaves you blank, either find the sources now or choose a different subject. The requirement to cover all three is a specification rule, and the examination may set its statement on any of them. Making this check at the start of the year costs an afternoon; discovering the gap in the examination hall costs a fifth of an A-Level.

Result: Works first, then the exclusion list; then the subject you can genuinely source in Persian; then the country, decided explicitly; then a research question for each of the three aspects, sketched before you commit.

Typical mistakes

Comparing two countries to show breadth. The second country's content earns nothing.
Covering two aspects thoroughly and the third in a clause. The examination may ask about the third.
Choosing the Theme 3 subject on women in the arts without checking Appendix 1. Three of the six prescribed works are by women.
Expecting the Theme 2 unseen text to be about your country. It is written to be equally relevant to both.

Active revision

چهار موضوع تحقیق را با هر سه جنبه‌ی هر کدام از حافظه بنویسید، سپس در کنار هر موضوع کشور مجاز آن را مشخص کنید و در پایان فهرست آثار برگه‌ی دوم خود را بنویسید که دیگر نمی‌توانید به آن‌ها اشاره کنید

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

Sources, evidence and what independent research means#

StandardPearson Edexcel 9PN0: guidance on the independent research; at least two authentic sources in the assessed language

The specification defines independent research as research carried out without the help or instruction of others, including teachers, and then draws the line precisely. Teachers may give guidance on how to develop research skills, including methodology and analytical tools; may give guidance on the content of the research subjects as outlined in the specification; may comment on the availability of resources and time constraints; and may advise on and direct students to the assessment objectives. Teachers must explain what independence means, must confirm that the research meets all aspects of the subject, must ensure students do not intend to use their Paper 2 works, and must monitor that students choosing the same subject work independently. Teachers must not teach the content of the research subjects or provide the sources.

The evidence requirement is specific: the research must allow you to gather evidence independently from at least two authentic sources in the assessed language, and the specification lists what counts — newspaper and magazine articles, online written sources, journals, literary texts, films, television, radio, online audio-visual material and interviews. Two things follow. First, at least two means two is a floor and not a target; a research file built on two articles will be thin against a forty-mark question. Second, in the assessed language means Persian: an English-language book about Iran, however good, does not satisfy the requirement, though it may help you understand what you read in Persian.

The research must also let you contextualise and evaluate your findings independently, and that phrase points at the difference between collecting and researching. Collecting produces a folder of articles. Researching produces a set of claims you can defend, each attached to where it came from, each with a note about how reliable you judged it and why. Build the file that way from the start: for every source, record what it claims, who wrote it and for whom, and what would have to be true for it to be wrong. That last note is what turns a source into evidence, and it is what the AO4 grid means by evaluating.

Because the examination allows neither a dictionary nor any documentation, everything the research is worth must be in memory, and the form it is memorised in matters. Memorise in Persian, not in English: the answer is written in Persian and translating remembered material under time pressure is where accuracy marks are lost. Memorise specifics rather than summaries: a named institution, a dated change, a named debate with two named positions. And memorise the vocabulary of your subject as a field, because a research subject brings its own lexicon and having to paraphrase around a missing word costs you both time and precision in the paper's largest task.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: evaluating a source, in the form you will need it in the examination

You have found a Persian-language newspaper article about your research subject. It reports a change and quotes two officials. Build the source note you will memorise, in Persian, and account for each part.

Part one: the claim, in one sentence, in Persian
این مقاله می‌گوید که در سه سال گذشته شمار کارگاه‌های کوچک در این رشته کاهش یافته است. One sentence, in Persian, with the source as the subject — این مقاله می‌گوید — so that when you use it in the examination the attribution is already built in. A note that records only the fact, without the source, is a note you will accidentally assert as your own knowledge in an answer, which is exactly the failure the AO4 grid penalises.
Part two: who wrote it and for whom
نویسنده خبرنگار اقتصادی است و مقاله در روزنامه‌ای منتشر شده که مخاطب آن عمومی است. Recording the author's role and the publication's audience is what lets you say something evaluative later. A general-audience newspaper article and a specialist journal article are different kinds of evidence, and being able to say which you have is a mark of research rather than of reading.
Part three: your judgement of it, marked as yours
به نظر من این گزارش برای نشان دادن جهت تغییر مناسب است، اما برای سنجش اندازه‌ی آن کافی نیست، زیرا تنها به دو مقام رسمی استناد می‌کند. In my view this report is suitable for showing the direction of change but not for measuring its size, because it cites only two officials. This is the evaluation, and it is also, note, a ready-made sentence for the examination: a candidate who has thought this through in Persian can produce it under pressure.
Part four: what would show it wrong
اگر آماری رسمی نشان دهد که شمار این کارگاه‌ها ثابت مانده است، ادعای مقاله رد می‌شود. If official figures showed that the number had stayed constant, the article's claim would be refuted. Writing the defeater does two things: it forces you to be clear about what the source actually claims, and it hands you the third element of the mark, justify and defeat structure that the strongest Section C answers use. Four short parts per source, all in Persian, all memorable, all directly usable.

Result: این مقاله می‌گوید که در سه سال گذشته شمار کارگاه‌های کوچک در این رشته کاهش یافته است. نویسنده خبرنگار اقتصادی است و مقاله در روزنامه‌ای عمومی منتشر شده است. به نظر من این گزارش برای نشان دادن جهت تغییر مناسب است، اما برای سنجش اندازه‌ی آن کافی نیست، زیرا تنها به دو مقام رسمی استناد می‌کند. اگر آماری رسمی نشان دهد که شمار این کارگاه‌ها ثابت مانده است، ادعای مقاله رد می‌شود.

Typical mistakes

Researching in English and translating at the end. The requirement is authentic sources in the assessed language.
Asking a teacher for sources. Teachers are explicitly not permitted to provide them.
Collecting articles without evaluating them. Contextualising and evaluating independently is part of the requirement.
Memorising English summaries. You will translate them under time pressure and lose accuracy marks.

Active revision

برای هر یک از دو منبع فارسی خود یک برگه بنویسید که چهار چیز داشته باشد: ادعای اصلی، نویسنده و مخاطب، ارزیابی شما از اعتبار آن، و آنچه باید درست باشد تا این منبع نادرست از آب درآید

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

The eighty-five minutes, spent deliberately#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 1 Section C: recommended 1 hour 25 minutes for 40 marks, 300 to 350 words

The eighty-five minutes of Section C

Fig. 2Four stages, and the emphasised one is the stage candidates skip. Ten minutes of planning produces four paragraph jobs, a note of where each of the three aspects appears, and a defined job for the unseen text — which between them determine the AO4 and AO2 marks before a sentence is written. Fifty-five minutes for about three hundred and thirty words is roughly six words a minute, which is deliberately slow. Labels are English because the figure engine has no bidi handling.

Eighty-five minutes for three hundred and fifty words is a great deal of time, and the commonest mistake is to treat it as writing time. A defensible allocation is ten minutes reading and thinking, ten minutes planning, fifty-five minutes writing and ten minutes checking. That produces about six words a minute during the writing phase, which is slow enough to compose carefully rather than to transcribe a first draft — and since ten of the forty marks are accuracy and range, composing carefully is directly worth marks. Candidates who begin writing at minute five almost always finish early and score below their ability.

The first ten minutes have two jobs and both are analytical. Read the unseen text closely: what does it claim, what does it hedge, whose voices does it carry, and what does it not say? And interrogate the statement you are responding to: what exactly does it assert, what word in it can be read two ways, and what would have to be true for it to be false? Almost every Section C statement contains a term that rewards refining — تضمین, دگرگون, بیش از, تنها, دیگر — and finding it is what converts a vague prompt into a question you can answer in three hundred and fifty words.

The planning ten minutes should produce four paragraph jobs written in Persian nouns in the margin, plus a note of where the three aspects of your research subject will appear and where the unseen text will do its work. That last note is worth ten marks: the AO2 grid assesses your use of relevant information from the text to contribute to the ideas you present, so the text needs a defined job — usually establishing a phenomenon in paragraph two which your research then complicates in paragraph three. A plan that does not say where the text is used is a plan that will forget it.

The final ten minutes are a check, not a re-read, and the order matters because the first three items are fast. Country: is everything about the one permitted country? Coverage: have all three aspects been touched? Text: has the unseen text contributed rather than merely appeared? Then grammar, which takes the remaining time: verb agreement, را on specific objects only, a subjunctive after every trigger, ezafe chains complete, and every sentence you began also finished. Do not use this time to add material; an extra sentence at minute eighty-three is almost always the worst sentence in the answer.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: the first ten minutes, done properly on a real statement

The statement is «رسانه‌های آنلاین دسترسی به خبر را برای همه برابر کرده‌اند.» The unseen text describes rural areas where connection is intermittent. Work the first ten minutes, in Persian, and account for every move.

Minute one to three: what exactly does the statement assert?
Two words carry it. برابر, equal, is an absolute, and همه, everyone, is a universal quantifier. So the statement is much stronger than it sounds: it does not say access has widened, it says it has been made equal for everyone. That is a claim that a single counter-example weakens, and the unseen text is about to supply one. Note this in the margin as: ادعا مطلق است — برابر و همه.
Minute four to six: what does the text claim, and what does it hedge?
The text describes intermittent connection in rural areas. Note precisely what it claims: not that rural people have no access, but that access is uneven. That distinction is what you will use, and misreporting it would cost AO2 marks. Note also whose voice the text carries — a reporter, a resident, an official — because attributing correctly in your answer is part of what the AO4 grid rewards. In the margin: متن — دسترسی ناهموار، نه نبود دسترسی.
Minute seven to eight: find the position that is both true and defensible
The honest position is a split: the statement is true about direction and false about equality. In Persian: دسترسی گسترده‌تر شده است، اما برابر نشده است. That sentence is your paragraph one, and it took ninety seconds to find because you interrogated the statement first. A candidate who begins writing without this step will either agree with the statement wholesale or reject it wholesale, and both are weaker readings of it.
Minute nine to ten: place the three aspects and the text
Your research subject is the Theme 2 media subject and its third aspect — گسترش دسترسی به اطلاعات و انتقال اخبار — is the one the statement is about, so it carries paragraphs two and three. The first aspect on Western values and the second on ways of living can each be touched in a clause in paragraph four, which satisfies the coverage requirement without distorting the answer. And the unseen text's job is fixed: it supplies the counter-example in paragraph two. Written in the margin, in Persian nouns, that is the whole plan.

Result: ادعا مطلق است: «برابر» و «همه». متن دسترسی ناهموار را نشان می‌دهد، نه نبود دسترسی. موضع: دسترسی گسترده‌تر شده است، اما برابر نشده است. بند دو: متن ناخوانده و نمونه‌ی روستایی. بند سه: پژوهش من درباره‌ی انتقال خبر. بند چهار: دو جنبه‌ی دیگر در یک جمله، سپس داوری و شرط ابطال.

Typical mistakes

Starting to write at minute five and finishing at minute forty. The time is there because careful composition earns marks.
Reading the text and forgetting the statement. Both need interrogating in the first ten minutes.
Planning in English. You will translate the plan under pressure.
Adding a new point in the final minutes. It will be the weakest thing in the answer and it displaces the grammar check.

Active revision

یک بیانیه‌ی نمونه برای موضوع تحقیق خود بنویسید و تمرین را با زمان‌بندی کامل هشتاد و پنج دقیقه‌ای انجام دهید؛ سپس بشمارید که در هر مرحله چند دقیقه صرف کردید و کجا از برنامه دور شدید

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

The three grids, and how to feed each one#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 1 Section C: AO4 /20, AO2 /10, AO3 /10

The AO4 grid, knowledge and understanding of society and culture via research, is worth 20 of the 40 marks and it assesses two things together: the content of your answer in relation to the knowledge and understanding you have demonstrated from your research, and your ability to analyse critically by sustaining a line of argument and drawing conclusions. Sustaining is the operative word. A single argument developed across four paragraphs scores better than four good observations that do not build. In practice this means each paragraph should refer back: بند پیشین نشان داد که ... , the previous paragraph showed that; و همین نکته در جنبه‌ی دیگر نیز دیده می‌شود, and this same point is visible in another aspect too.

The AO2 grid, understand and respond to written language in writing, is worth 10 and assesses your understanding of the unseen text through your ability to use relevant information from it to contribute to the ideas, arguments and conclusions you present. The specification prints this grid beside the AO4 grid precisely because they are connected. So the text must be worked, not quoted. Signal it explicitly — متن ناخوانده نشان می‌دهد که, مطابق متن, نویسنده‌ی متن هشدار می‌دهد که — and then do something with it: agree and extend, disagree and say why, or use it as a case that your research complicates. A text that appears in one sentence and is never mentioned again has not contributed.

The AO3 grid, accuracy and range of language, is worth 10 and assesses your ability to use a range of grammatical structures and vocabulary accurately, producing articulate communication with a range of expression. Range is achievable by planning: across three hundred and fifty words, place at least one subjunctive after a governing expression, one conditional, one passive or impersonal, one relative clause, one comparative and a spread of connectives. Accuracy is achievable by slowing down and by the final check. Neither requires ornament — a correct complex sentence in ordinary vocabulary scores better than an ambitious one in vocabulary you half know.

Two habits feed all three grids at once and they are the best return available in this section. The first is the marked judgement with a defeater — the claim after به نظر من, the reason after زیرا, and the condition that would overturn it after اما اگر, closing with آن‌گاه باید در این داوری بازنگری کرد. It gives AO4 a conclusion, AO2 something to test the text against, and AO3 a subjunctive, a conditional and an impersonal, all in one sentence. The second is the explicit research signal: پژوهش من نشان داد که ... . It tells the AO4 grid where its marks are due, it distinguishes your material from the text's for the AO2 grid, and it costs four words. Use both, more than once, in every answer.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: a closing paragraph that feeds all three grids at once

Write the final paragraph of a Section C answer on the statement «رسانه‌های آنلاین دسترسی به خبر را برای همه برابر کرده‌اند», having established in earlier paragraphs that access has widened unevenly. Write in Persian and account for every move.

Open by referring back, which is what sustaining an argument looks like
دو بند پیشین نشان دادند که گسترش دسترسی واقعی است اما یکسان نیست. The two previous paragraphs showed that the widening of access is real but not uniform. Four words of reference back, and the AO4 grid can see a line of argument rather than a set of observations. This is the cheapest available way to demonstrate sustaining, and almost no candidate does it.
Touch the remaining aspects in one clause, to satisfy coverage
همین ناهمواری در دو جنبه‌ی دیگر این موضوع نیز دیده می‌شود: هم در آنچه از ارزش‌های بیرونی نمایش داده می‌شود و هم در شیوه‌ی زندگی روزمره. This same unevenness is visible in the other two aspects too. One sentence covers the requirement that all three aspects be addressed, without derailing an answer whose statement is about only one of them. Note the هم ... و هم correlative pair and the passive نمایش داده می‌شود.
Give the marked judgement with its reason
به نظر من گفته‌ی بالا جهت درست را نشان می‌دهد اما واژه‌ی «برابر» را نادرست به کار می‌برد، زیرا برابری چیزی بیش از در دسترس بودن است. In my view the statement points in the right direction but uses the word equal wrongly, because equality is more than availability. The judgement is marked, it is precise about which part of the statement it accepts, and its reason is a distinction rather than an assertion — three things the AO4 grid rewards.
Close with the defeater, which supplies range and conclusion together
اگر پژوهشی نشان دهد که در مناطق کم‌دسترس نیز مردم همان اندازه خبر دریافت می‌کنند، آن‌گاه باید در این داوری بازنگری کرد؛ تا آن زمان، متن ناخوانده و یافته‌های من هر دو خلاف آن را نشان می‌دهند. If research showed that people in low-access areas receive the same amount of news, this judgement would have to be revised; until then, the unseen text and my findings both indicate otherwise. One sentence containing a conditional, a subjunctive, an impersonal باید ... کرد, and an explicit reference to both the text and the research — which is AO3 range, AO2 use and AO4 conclusion, simultaneously.

Result: دو بند پیشین نشان دادند که گسترش دسترسی واقعی است اما یکسان نیست. همین ناهمواری در دو جنبه‌ی دیگر این موضوع نیز دیده می‌شود: هم در آنچه از ارزش‌های بیرونی نمایش داده می‌شود و هم در شیوه‌ی زندگی روزمره. به نظر من گفته‌ی بالا جهت درست را نشان می‌دهد اما واژه‌ی «برابر» را نادرست به کار می‌برد، زیرا برابری چیزی بیش از در دسترس بودن است. اگر پژوهشی نشان دهد که در مناطق کم‌دسترس نیز مردم همان اندازه خبر دریافت می‌کنند، آن‌گاه باید در این داوری بازنگری کرد؛ تا آن زمان، متن ناخوانده و یافته‌های من هر دو خلاف آن را نشان می‌دهند.

Typical mistakes

Four disconnected good points. The AO4 grid rewards a sustained line, not a collection.
Mentioning the unseen text once. It carries ten marks and needs a job in the argument.
Chasing range with unfamiliar vocabulary. Accuracy is a separate part of the same grid and it will find you out.
Writing a conclusion that repeats the introduction. A conclusion should follow from what the middle paragraphs showed.

Active revision

پاسخ نمونه‌ای بنویسید و سپس آن را سه بار بخوانید، هر بار برای یک سنجه: نخست خط استدلال را دنبال کنید، سپس هر جایی که متن ناخوانده به کار رفته علامت بزنید، و در پایان ساختارهای پیچیده را بشمارید

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

References & sources

Sources

Pearson Edexcel

Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification

Paper 1 Section C: the research question (بخش ج: پرسش پژوهشی)

5 sections~32 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

Paper 1 Section C: the research question (بخش ج: پرسش پژوهشی)

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: a full answer plan built from a statement and an unseen text

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: choosing a research subject in the right order

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: evaluating a source, in the form you will need it in the examination

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: the first ten minutes, done properly on a real statement

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: a closing paragraph that feeds all three grids at once

Sources

Paper 1 Section C: the research question (بخش ج: پرسش پژوهشی)

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: a full answer plan built from a statement and an unseen text

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: choosing a research subject in the right order

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: evaluating a source, in the form you will need it in the examination

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: the first ten minutes, done properly on a real statement

Key points

Paper 1 Section C: a closing paragraph that feeds all three grids at once

Sources