EuraStudy
This topic carries the whole of Edexcel's first theme, Tema 1: Mudanças na sociedade contemporânea, across both of its sub-themes — Mudanças na estrutura familiar, with its three aspects of changing attitudes to marriage and to personal relationships, the new kinds of family and the role of the extended family, and O mundo do trabalho, with its three aspects of working life and attitudes to work, unemployment and gender equality. It also carries Tema 1's research subject, A importância da educação após o ensino secundário em Portugal, whose aspects are the options in higher and technical education, internships and volunteering; that subject belongs here as well as in the individual-research-project topic because post-secondary education is the hinge between the two sub-themes, the thing that sits between a family and a labour market. The specification is emphatic that Temas 1, 3 and 4 are set in the context of Portugal only, so everything in this topic is about Portugal, and a student who reaches for a Brazilian or Angolan example here is writing content that the AO4 grid will not reward. The material is contemporary, contested and easy to write badly. The notes therefore hold to a method: describe what is documented, attribute every assessment, invent no statistics, and keep the weight on the Portuguese, because it is the Portuguese that is actually assessed.
5 sections~42 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3
basic level
At first-year standard the expectation is accurate description with a personal response: what kinds of household exist in Portugal today, what the words for them are, what work and unemployment mean for a young person, and what the student thinks — expressed with correct vocabulary, secure present and past tenses and accurate agreement.
higher level
The full A-Level expects analysis, attribution and restraint. What changed, in what direction, and how is that change assessed differently by different observers? Answers must distinguish a documented institution from a contested interpretation, hedge what cannot be evidenced from memory in an examination room, avoid inventing numbers, and hold a line of argument across a paragraph rather than listing observations.
Reading depth: In depth
Text size: Standard
How the sub-theme's three aspects connect
The text says: Nas últimas décadas, o modelo familiar português deixou de ser único. Ao lado do casamento tradicional surgiram a união de facto, as famílias monoparentais e as famílias recompostas, sem que qualquer delas se tenha tornado dominante. Para muitos sociólogos, o que mudou não foi a importância da família, mas a variedade das formas que ela pode assumir. The question reads: Segundo o texto, o que é que mudou na família portuguesa? Justifique a sua resposta. (4 marks)
The question has two halves — o que mudou, and justifique — and a four-mark open-response question in Section B almost always wants two points plus support rather than one long point. So the answer needs a statement of what changed and a statement of what did not, because the text explicitly contrasts them in its last sentence. Answering only with a list of family types would address half the question and cap the mark.
O que mudou não foi a importância da família, mas a variedade das formas que ela pode assumir. This is the text's own thesis and it is doing the work of the whole question. Note the structure não foi X, mas Y — a contrastive frame you can reuse in your own writing. Note also para muitos sociólogos, which attributes the claim rather than asserting it, and which you should carry into your answer if you want to represent the text accurately.
An answer that copies deixou de ser único … a variedade das formas que ela pode assumir word for word demonstrates that the candidate can find a sentence, not that they understood it. Section B open-response questions reward comprehension shown through reformulation. So change the grammar as well as the words: turn the noun variedade into an adjective phrase, turn the verb assumir into a different verb, replace deixou de ser único with a construction of your own. Reformulating also protects you, because a lifted sentence sometimes does not answer the question that was actually asked.
Start from the meaning rather than the words. What changed: there are now several coexisting family models rather than one. What did not change: the family still matters. A reformulation could run — Segundo o texto, o que se alterou foi a diversidade dos modelos familiares, e não o peso que a família continua a ter na sociedade. Alterou-se rather than mudou, diversidade rather than variedade, modelos familiares rather than formas que ela pode assumir, o peso que continua a ter rather than a importância. Every content word is different and the proposition is identical.
Justifique means point at the text, and the cheapest way to do that is to name the specific instances the text gives without copying the sentence they sit in: o texto refere a união de facto, as famílias monoparentais e as recompostas, e sublinha que nenhuma delas se tornou dominante. Proper nouns and technical terms cannot and need not be reformulated — nobody expects a synonym for união de facto. Finish with the attribution the text itself uses, para muitos sociólogos, which shows you noticed that the thesis is presented as a view held by somebody rather than as an established fact. That last touch is exactly the kind of reading the AO2 grid calls inferring meaning.
Result: Segundo o texto, o que se alterou foi a diversidade dos modelos familiares, e não o peso que a família continua a ter na sociedade portuguesa. O texto refere a união de facto, as famílias monoparentais e as recompostas, e sublinha que nenhuma delas se tornou dominante. Trata-se, aliás, de uma leitura que o próprio texto atribui a muitos sociólogos, e não de uma conclusão apresentada como indiscutível.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write 180 words in Portuguese describing three ways in which the Portuguese household has changed over the last two generations. Use no numbers at all. Every claim must be phrased comparatively — mais, menos, cada vez mais, tem vindo a — and every evaluative sentence must carry an attribution. Then underline every noun in your paragraph and check that each one is a term this sub-theme actually uses rather than an English word given a Portuguese ending.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Portuguese (9PG0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
The bare fact: a substantial share of employment in Portugal is in small firms and in services, and many young graduates take work below their level of qualification. Build a paragraph that would earn AO4 marks rather than merely reporting the fact.
Uma parte significativa do emprego em Portugal concentra-se em pequenas empresas e no setor dos serviços, sobretudo no turismo e na restauração. Concentrar-se em is the natural verb; the reflexive keeps it impersonal. Setor is the post-Acordo spelling; sector is what you will read in older texts. Note that uma parte significativa is a comparative hedge doing the job an invented percentage would do badly — it commits to a magnitude without pretending to a figure you cannot source in an exam room.
Daí resulta um fenómeno frequentemente designado por desajustamento entre a formação e o mercado de trabalho: muitos licenciados ocupam postos que não exigem a qualificação que possuem. Naming the phenomenon in Portuguese is worth marks twice — once for AO3, because designado por is a range structure, and once for AO4, because using the term a Portuguese commentator would use is itself evidence of research. Daí resulta is a consequence connective. Licenciado is a graduate holding a licenciatura, the first cycle degree.
As leituras deste facto divergem. Para uns, o problema está na oferta de emprego, que não acompanhou o aumento da escolaridade; para outros, está na própria orientação dos cursos, demasiado afastada das necessidades das empresas. Para uns … para outros is the cleanest way in Portuguese to set two readings side by side without endorsing either. Acompanhar here is to keep pace with. Afastada de is removed from. The sentence commits to nothing except that the disagreement exists, which is a true claim.
Parece-me mais convincente a primeira leitura, uma vez que a mesma tensão se verifica em cursos de áreas muito diferentes, o que sugere uma causa comum do lado da procura e não do lado da formação. Parece-me is impersonal and modest; note the enclisis, since the clause is affirmative and main. Uma vez que is a causal connective. The justification is an argument from pattern rather than from a statistic, which is the only kind of justification available without notes — and it is a perfectly good one, because the AO4 grid asks for developed and justified arguments, not for citations.
Seja qual for a explicação, o problema liga diretamente as duas metades deste tema: aquilo que se estuda depois do secundário e aquilo que o mercado de trabalho realmente oferece. Seja qual for is the future subjunctive of ser in a concessive idiom meaning whatever it may be, and it is a range structure that costs nothing to learn. Closing by tying the paragraph back to the theme's structure shows the examiner that you are answering a question about Tema 1 rather than reciting a page about the economy.
Result: Uma parte significativa do emprego em Portugal concentra-se em pequenas empresas e no setor dos serviços, sobretudo no turismo e na restauração. Daí resulta um fenómeno frequentemente designado por desajustamento entre a formação e o mercado de trabalho: muitos licenciados ocupam postos que não exigem a qualificação que possuem. As leituras deste facto divergem. Para uns, o problema está na oferta de emprego, que não acompanhou o aumento da escolaridade; para outros, está na própria orientação dos cursos, demasiado afastada das necessidades das empresas. Parece-me mais convincente a primeira leitura, uma vez que a mesma tensão se verifica em cursos de áreas muito diferentes, o que sugere uma causa comum do lado da procura. Seja qual for a explicação, o problema liga diretamente as duas metades deste tema.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write two paragraphs of 100 words each in Portuguese. The first describes working conditions for a young graduate in Portugal, using only documented structural features and no numbers. The second describes attitudes to work, using only attributed readings — at least two, in disagreement — and closing with your own justified preference. Then check that not a single sentence in paragraph one contains an evaluative adjective, and that every sentence in paragraph two carries either an attribution or a first-person justification.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Portuguese (9PG0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
The recording contains this passage, which you may replay: Depois de ter atingido um pico durante a crise, o desemprego jovem em Portugal recuou de forma significativa, embora se mantenha acima da média da União Europeia. O problema deslocou-se: hoje, mais do que a falta de trabalho, o que preocupa muitos jovens é a instabilidade dos contratos. The question asks: Como é que o orador descreve a evolução do desemprego jovem? (3 marks)
Paper 3 Section A lets each student stop, revisit and replay as they wish, so the first pass should be for shape and the second for detail. On the first pass you want only the answer to what is this about and does it go up or down. Here the shape is unmistakable: a peak, then a fall, then a qualification. Do not write anything on the first pass except those three words, because writing while listening is the commonest reason candidates miss the qualification at the end of a sentence.
Depois de ter atingido um pico. Depois de plus the perfect infinitive ter atingido is one of the structures Appendix 2 lists, and it locates the peak before the fall. A listener who hears only atingido um pico and writes that unemployment reached a peak has reversed the chronology and lost the whole answer. The construction is worth drilling aurally, because depois de ter is fast in connected speech and the ter can almost disappear.
Recuou de forma significativa is fell back significantly — recuar, not diminuir, and the choice of verb is slightly stronger. Embora se mantenha acima da média da União Europeia is the qualification: embora with the present subjunctive mantenha, so remains above the EU average. A three-mark question almost certainly wants three elements, and here they are — a peak, a significant fall, still above the European average. Note that no number was given, so no number belongs in the answer.
O problema deslocou-se. Deslocar-se is to shift or move; the speaker is saying the problem has changed shape rather than gone away. Mais do que a falta de trabalho, o que preocupa muitos jovens é a instabilidade dos contratos. This is a genuine part of como é que o orador descreve a evolução, because the evolution described is not only quantitative. If the mark scheme wanted only the three quantitative elements, including the shift costs nothing; if it credits the shift, omitting it costs a mark.
Section A answers are short. The trap is padding them with a rephrased version of the question, which wastes time you will want in Section B. Three clauses is enough. Keep the speaker's own hedge — acima da média — because it is part of the description rather than your addition, and keep the tense relations straight: atingiu and recuou in the perfeito, mantém-se in the present.
Result: O orador diz que o desemprego jovem atingiu um pico durante a crise e que depois recuou de forma significativa, mas acrescenta que continua acima da média da União Europeia. Refere ainda que o problema mudou de natureza: hoje preocupa mais a instabilidade dos contratos do que a falta de trabalho.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write 200 words in Portuguese on youth unemployment in Portugal in which the first half describes it as an aggregate phenomenon and the second half describes it as an experience. Use at least four of the trend constructions — tem vindo a, atingiu, recuou, mantém-se — and no numbers whatever. Finish with one sentence linking the aspect to family structure and one linking it to emigration, since both links are real and both are examinable elsewhere in the specification.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Portuguese (9PG0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
Imagine the Section C statement reads: A igualdade de género no mercado de trabalho português está garantida pela lei, mas não pela prática. Você concorda? Your research subject is Tema 1's, A importância da educação após o ensino secundário em Portugal, so this material reaches you through the education route. Show how the first 120 words of an answer should be built.
Concordo apenas em parte com esta afirmação. A distinção que ela faz entre a lei e a prática é útil, mas simplifica demasiado o que está em causa. Section C answers that spend a paragraph warming up lose AO4 marks to answers that take a position immediately. Apenas em parte is the most useful opening in the whole task, because it commits you to an argument with two sides, which is the shape the top band describes. Note em causa — what is at issue — a phrase worth having.
É verdade que a Constituição de 1976 consagra a igualdade perante a lei independentemente do sexo, e que a lei portuguesa impõe salário igual para trabalho igual. Consagrar is the verb Portuguese uses for a constitution establishing a principle, and it is exactly the right register. This sentence needs no hedge because nothing in it is contested; hedging a legal fact wastes words and weakens the paragraph.
A minha investigação sobre o ensino pós-secundário mostra, porém, que a questão começa antes do mercado de trabalho. Este is the bridge that makes the answer yours rather than generic, and Section C's AO4 grid marks knowledge and understanding of society and culture based on research. Porém is a mid-sentence contrastive worth using instead of a third mas. The claim itself must be one your own research supports — the pattern of which fields men and women enter, for instance — and the notes deliberately do not supply a substitute, because it has to come from you.
O texto refere precisamente esse ponto quando afirma que a diferença se instala cedo, muito antes da entrada no emprego. Section C's AO2 grid, worth ten marks, assesses how well you use information from the unseen text to contribute to your argument. That means naming the text as a source and letting it do work — not summarising it. O texto refere, o texto sublinha, o autor argumenta que: three formulae, all cheap, all visibly discharging the AO2 requirement.
Onde as leituras divergem é na explicação: uns atribuem a diferença às escolhas individuais, outros às condições em que essas escolhas são feitas. Ending the opening paragraph on the disagreement sets up the rest of the essay and demonstrates, in one sentence, that you know which parts of your material are facts and which are arguments. Atribuir a is to attribute to. The rest of the answer then has an obvious job: weigh those two explanations against your research and the text, and reach a conclusion. That is the structure the top AO4 band describes as convincing conclusions.
Result: Concordo apenas em parte com esta afirmação. A distinção que ela faz entre a lei e a prática é útil, mas simplifica demasiado o que está em causa. É verdade que a Constituição de 1976 consagra a igualdade perante a lei independentemente do sexo, e que a lei portuguesa impõe salário igual para trabalho igual. A minha investigação sobre o ensino pós-secundário mostra, porém, que a questão começa antes do mercado de trabalho. O texto refere precisamente esse ponto quando afirma que a diferença se instala cedo, muito antes da entrada no emprego. Onde as leituras divergem é na explicação: uns atribuem a diferença às escolhas individuais, outros às condições em que essas escolhas são feitas.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write 200 words in Portuguese on gender equality in the Portuguese workplace, arranged in exactly three paragraphs: what the law establishes, what is empirically observed, and what is disputed. The first paragraph must contain no hedges, the third must contain nothing but attributed positions, and the second must use only comparative and directional language. Then check that the register is consistent and that you have not slipped between o trabalhador and o e a trabalhadora within a single paragraph.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Portuguese (9PG0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
What exists after the twelfth year in Portugal
Render this into Portuguese. Not every school-leaver goes to university. Some choose a shorter professional course at a polytechnic, which lasts two years and includes a placement in a company. Others do voluntary work for a year before deciding. Whatever they choose, the entry system means that their final grade at school still matters a great deal.
Nem todos os alunos que terminam o secundário entram na universidade. Portuguese has no single word for school-leaver, so a relative clause does the work — os alunos que terminam o secundário — and inventing a compound noun would be worse. Nem todos is the standard negative quantifier and takes the verb in the plural. Entrar na universidade is the idiom for going on to university in the sense of gaining admission; ir para a universidade is possible but weaker, and vão à universidade would mean they visit it.
Alguns optam por um curso técnico superior profissional num instituto politécnico. This is the CTeSP, and using the actual Portuguese term rather than a translation of the English phrase is worth marks in a translation task and would be worth more in Section C, where it evidences research. Optar por is to choose, with the preposition; escolher would also serve. Num is em + um. Do not translate polytechnic as politécnica alone — the institution is an instituto politécnico.
Que tem a duração de dois anos e inclui um estágio numa empresa. Portuguese prefers ter a duração de or durar for how long something lasts; dura dois anos is equally good and shorter. Estágio is the exact word the research subject uses, and estágio numa empresa specifies a company placement. The relative que refers to curso, and no comma precedes it because the clause is defining.
Outros fazem voluntariado durante um ano antes de decidirem. Fazer voluntariado is the collocation; trabalhar voluntariamente is intelligible but not idiomatic. Voluntariado takes no article here. The decisive item is antes de decidirem: the subject of decidir is outros, different from nothing in the main clause but plural and specific, so the personal infinitive is inflected — decidirem, not decidir. That single ending is exactly the kind of segment a points-based scheme awards or refuses.
Seja o que for que escolham, o sistema de acesso faz com que a nota final do secundário continue a ter muito peso. Seja o que for is the future subjunctive of ser in the fixed concessive meaning whatever it may be; escolham is present subjunctive under it. Fazer com que takes the subjunctive too — continue, not continua. O sistema de acesso names the concurso nacional de acesso without spelling it out. Ter peso is the natural Portuguese for to matter or to carry weight, and muito peso renders a great deal far better than muito importante would.
Result: Nem todos os alunos que terminam o secundário entram na universidade. Alguns optam por um curso técnico superior profissional num instituto politécnico, que tem a duração de dois anos e inclui um estágio numa empresa. Outros fazem voluntariado durante um ano antes de decidirem. Seja o que for que escolham, o sistema de acesso faz com que a nota final do secundário continue a ter muito peso.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Build the memorisable core of this research subject in one page. For each of the three aspects write three specifics you could name in an examination room from memory — an institution, a term, a named programme type, a documented arrangement — and one sentence of argument connecting the aspect to the theme's question about importância. Then close the page, and write the whole thing again from memory in Portuguese. Whatever survives that second writing is what you will actually have in the exam.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Portuguese (9PG0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
References & sources