EuraStudy
In this Edexcel qualification the independent research is not a speaking task — there is no speaking paper — and it is not coursework. It is examined in Paper 1 Section C as a single written question, worth 40 marks, half of Paper 1 and 20 per cent of the whole A-Level, and it is by a wide margin the largest single task in the qualification. The student selects one research subject from the four printed in the specification, researches it independently on one country only, covers all three of its aspects, and then, in the examination and with no dictionary and no documentation of any kind, reads an unseen Turkish text on that subject and responds to a statement about it in approximately 300 to 350 words of Turkish over a recommended hour and twenty-five minutes. The answer is marked by three grids applied to the one piece of writing: knowledge and understanding of society and culture through research, AO4, out of 20; understand and respond to written language, AO2, out of 10; and accuracy and range of language, AO3, out of 10. This topic teaches how to choose, how to research, how to make findings survive an examination with no notes, and how to write the 350 words that satisfy all three grids at once.
5 sections~31 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2
basic level
At first-year standard the expectation is that a research subject has been chosen and its country fixed, that at least two authentic Turkish sources have been found for each aspect, and that the findings can be stated in Turkish without notes.
higher level
The full A-Level expects an answer that argues rather than reports, that uses the unseen text as evidence in the argument rather than summarising it, and that covers all three aspects while sustaining one line of thought.
Reading depth: In depth
Text size: Standard
Before choosing a subject, understand what the 40 marks are made of, because it changes what counts as good research.
This grid carries half the marks and it assesses two things together: the content of your answer in relation to the knowledge and understanding of culture and society you have demonstrated, and your ability to analyse critically by sustaining a line of argument and drawing conclusions. Both halves matter. Knowledge without argument bands in the middle; argument without researched knowledge has nothing to argue from. The grid also carries the country rule, so a bilingual answer loses here first.
This grid 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. Two words in that sentence do the work: use and contribute. An answer that summarises the text has not used it; an answer that ignores the text forfeits ten marks however good its research. The specification prints this grid side by side with AO4 precisely because each is meant to feed the other.
The same grid family as Paper 2's, measuring the variation of your structures and vocabulary and the frequency and impact of your errors. Ten marks is a quarter of the question and it is available to any candidate who writes varied, accurate Turkish, whatever their research found. It is also the part most improved by the last five minutes, which should be spent on verb person, possessive agreement inside nominalisations, and suffix harmony.
AO4 is worth twice AO2, which tells you that the emphasis is on your research rather than on the text. So research for arguments, not for facts. A list of institutions and dates is necessary but insufficient; what earns the top AO4 band is knowing what is disputed about your subject, who disputes it and on what evidence. When you read a Turkish source, the note worth making is not only what it says but what it is arguing against — because that is what you will need in the hall.
Result: The distribution — AO4 20, AO2 10, AO3 10 — read as a research instruction: research for arguments and disagreements rather than for facts, plan to use the unseen text rather than to summarise it, and reserve five minutes for the language.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write a one-page research contract with yourself: the subject, the country, the three aspects, at least two named Turkish sources for each, the date by which each will be read, and the confirmation that neither of your Paper 2 works bears on it. Then take it to your teacher for the confirmation the specification requires of them.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
The four research subjects side by side
You are drawn to Türkiye’de Turizm. Test it properly before committing a year to it.
The claim you will need to make is about magnitude and distribution, and the evidence is a published series with a name and a year. The ministry and TÜİK both publish; sector associations publish; provincial chambers of commerce publish. Test: can you find one such source, in Turkish, and read a page of it? If yes, the aspect is workable. If the answer is that you would use a general English-language encyclopaedia entry, the aspect is not yet workable and the subject is not yet chosen.
This aspect fails when it is answered in general terms, because in general terms both lists are obvious. It succeeds when it is answered about one named locality, where a specific argument between specific interests can be described. Test: can you find provincial newspaper reporting, or municipal documents, or a documentary, about one coastal or one Cappadocian district? If yes, this is where your best AO4 material will come from.
There is: the Turizmi Teşvik Kanunu of 1982, the designation of culture and tourism conservation and development regions under it, the ministry's own announcements, and the promotion agency established in 2019. Test: can you name the statute and find one ministry document? This aspect is the one most candidates neglect and therefore the one where a prepared candidate gains most, because it converts a general essay about tourism into an argument about policy.
If all three tests pass, the subject is chosen; write down the country, Turkey, and the three aspects, and check that neither Paper 2 work bears on it. If one test fails, run the same three tests on another subject before committing. The whole exercise takes three hours and it is the highest-return three hours in the entire A-Level, because 20 per cent of the qualification rests on the subject you pick in them.
Result: A three-test protocol applied to one subject: a named published series for the economic aspect, one named locality with accessible local sources for the human aspect, and the 1982 statute plus one ministry document for the policy aspect. Pass all three and commit; fail one and test another subject.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
For each of the four subjects, spend one hour looking for Turkish sources on each of its three aspects, and record what you found. Then choose on the evidence of that search rather than on preference, and write one paragraph justifying the choice against the three criteria in this section.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
You have read a Turkish newspaper report on your subject. Convert it into card material rather than into notes.
Kaynak: ulusal bir gazetenin haber-analiz yazısı, tarih belirtilmiş. Type, producer and date, in three words. This matters because in the answer you will write according to a report published in a national newspaper rather than according to a source, and the first is creditable evidence of research while the second is not. If a source has no date, record that too — an undated source is a weaker source and knowing so is itself a research skill.
İddia: uygulamanın yaygınlaştığı. Karşı çıktığı görüş: uygulamanın yalnızca birkaç ilde kaldığı. Two lines instead of one, and the second is what will let you handle an unseen statement. A candidate who has recorded only the claim can agree with it; a candidate who has recorded the disagreement can place any statement the examiner writes somewhere on a spectrum they already understand.
If the report gives a figure and names its origin — bakanlık verilerine göre — record both together and use both together. If it gives a figure with no origin, do not record the figure; record artış yönünde, in the direction of increase, and the fact that this source did not say where its number came from. That second observation is usable in the examination as a critical remark about evidence, which is worth more than the number would have been.
Ulusal gazete haber-analizi: uygulamanın yaygınlaştığını, bakanlık verilerine dayanarak savunuyor; buna karşılık yerel kaynaklar birkaç ille sınırlı kaldığını belirtiyor. One line, and it contains the source type, the claim, the evidence base, and the counter-position. Eight such lines per aspect is a complete research file that fits in your head, and each one is very nearly a sentence of the answer already.
Result: Card line in Turkish: Ulusal gazete haber-analizi: uygulamanın yaygınlaştığını, bakanlık verilerine dayanarak savunuyor; buna karşılık yerel kaynaklar birkaç ille sınırlı kaldığını belirtiyor.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Build the three eight-line cards in Turkish for your chosen subject. Then, without looking at them, write out all three from memory, and check what you lost. Repeat weekly until nothing is lost, and then keep going once a fortnight until the examination.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
Subject: Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları. Statement: Taşımalı eğitim başarılı bir çözümdür. Build the whole answer.
Başarı ölçütü belirtilmediği sürece bu ifade sınanamaz. Okullaşma oranı ölçüt alınırsa taşımalı eğitim başarılıdır; devamsızlık, yol süresi ve öğrencinin okula aidiyeti ölçüt alınırsa aynı sonuca varmak güçtür. Bu nedenle ifadeye kısmen katılıyorum ve aşağıda üç açıdan gerekçelendireceğim. Fifty-one words. It refuses the question as put, supplies two criteria with opposite verdicts, states a degree and announces three parts.
Taşımalı eğitim, köy okullarının kapanmasından sonra erişimi büyük ölçüde sağlamıştır ve bu, yadsınamaz bir kazanımdır. Metin de bu noktayı vurgulamaktadır. Ancak metnin dayandığı gözlem tek bir ile aittir; araştırmam sırasında incelediğim iki farklı ildeki yerel haberler, yol süresinin ve kış koşullarının devamsızlığı belirgin biçimde artırdığını gösteriyordu. The text is used twice — once as agreement, once as a limitation of its scope — which is exactly what the AO2 grid rewards.
Paragraph two moves to the private-and-state aspect and argues that transport policy and school-choice policy interact; paragraph three moves to provision for pupils with special educational needs and argues that a bussed system multiplies the distance to a rehberlik ve araştırma merkezi as well as to a school. Each paragraph carries one institution or statute, one named kind of place and one claim, and each ends on the claim rather than on the evidence.
Sonuç olarak, taşımalı eğitim bir erişim çözümüdür, bir eğitim çözümü değildir; başarısı hangi soruyu sorduğumuza bağlıdır. AO4: three aspects covered, an argument sustained, a conclusion that follows, and a qualified judgement — no single-country problem since the subject is Turkey only. AO2: the text used twice and qualified once, not summarised. AO3: conditionals, passives, nominalisations, technical vocabulary, and now ten minutes of the three checking passes. That is a 40-mark answer's full anatomy in 330 words.
Result: Opening: Başarı ölçütü belirtilmediği sürece bu ifade sınanamaz. Okullaşma oranı ölçüt alınırsa taşımalı eğitim başarılıdır; devamsızlık, yol süresi ve öğrencinin okula aidiyeti ölçüt alınırsa aynı sonuca varmak güçtür. Close: Taşımalı eğitim bir erişim çözümüdür, bir eğitim çözümü değildir; başarısı hangi soruyu sorduğumuza bağlıdır.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write six Section C answers to time across the year, on six different statements, and for each record the word count of every section, whether all three aspects appeared, how the unseen text was used, and what each of the three checking passes caught. By the sixth, the architecture should require no thought and the checking should be a reflex.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)
References & sources