Education — IGCSE Sociology (0495) questions by topic

Short-answer definitions dominate this set: cultural capital, IQ tests, vocationalism and private schooling all get tested with terms candidates must define precisely rather than gesture at, alongside items asking you to describe functions of education or explain how gender discrimination has narrowed in schools.

Command words such as explain, state, describe and to what extent recur, each wanting a distinct depth: describe wants named features, explain wants a reasoned link, and to what extent invites a weighed essay answer worth 35 marks. This page draws on 12 real questions from 2023 and 2024 papers, so practise defining terms tightly, then submit for instant marking to see whether examiners would credit your wording as a full two-mark definition or only a partial one.

What examiners look for

Examiners note that full marks for defining single-sex school came from naming schools for just one gender, either boys only or girls only.
Reports confirm that a local school or college example was creditworthy when defining terms.
Popular answers on functions of education covered secondary socialisation, transmitting skills and knowledge for work, social control and promoting national unity.
On reduced gender discrimination, examiners credited shared access to STEM subjects, positive discrimination such as girls using lab equipment first, new access laws, and better female representation in textbooks.
A recurring criticism is that answers on why private schools are criticised named the cost but did not go on to explain what the actual problem with that cost was.