Stimulus Analysis practice questions.

A candidate devotes half of a stimulus response to a careful account of what the passage says before beginning to argue. The consequence for the mark is that

• the answer will be penalised for accuracy, since the account of the passage may contain errors, and errors of that kind are penalised more heavily than any other
• half the answer earns little, because summary is not what the question rewards, and the argument is left with too little space to develop
• the answer cannot be marked at all, since responses must begin with an argument
• no consequence follows, since markers are instructed to disregard introductory material

Answer: half the answer earns little, because summary is not what the question rewards, and the argument is left with too little space to develop

Some reference to the passage is required, but a sentence or two placed where it is needed does the work. The cost is double: the summary earns almost nothing and it removes the space in which an objection could have been answered.

A candidate is given an unseen passage about a technology she knows nothing about. The best response to that situation is to

• treat the passage as a description of a case and reason from the features it actually states
• write about a related technology she does know, since the examiner is testing philosophy rather than technical knowledge
• explain in the introduction that she lacks the background needed to answer the question properly
• restrict the answer to general remarks about technology that would apply to any case

Answer: treat the passage as a description of a case and reason from the features it actually states

Passages are written to be self-contained: everything needed is on the page, which is why the philosophical question can be reached from the reported features alone. Substituting a familiar case abandons the stimulus, and generalities forfeit the marks for using it.

A passage reports that a school has begun using software that predicts which pupils will drop out. Which of the following is a conceptual rather than an empirical question about the case?

• How accurate have the software's predictions turned out to be across the last three years of its use in the school?
• What proportion of teachers say they consult the predictions before acting?
• Whether a prediction that changes a pupil's treatment can still be assessed as accurate
• How much the school pays each year for its licence to use the system

Answer: Whether a prediction that changes a pupil's treatment can still be assessed as accurate

Whether a prediction that changes a pupil's treatment can still be assessed as accurate cannot be settled by gathering more data, because it asks what accuracy could mean once the prediction has altered the course it predicted. The questions about track record, teacher use and cost are all empirical. Recognising which questions the data cannot answer is the first move in a stimulus response.

A Paper 1 Section A stimulus is a photograph of a crowded station concourse in which every face is turned to a screen. The move that begins a philosophical response is to

• state a question about attention and the self that the scene makes pressing
• describe the composition of the photograph and where the eye is drawn
• estimate how much of the day people in such places spend on screens
• say what the photographer intended a viewer to notice about the crowd

Answer: state a question about attention and the self that the scene makes pressing

An image stimulus is handled exactly like a passage: it is the occasion for a question, not the subject of a commentary. Description of the image, like retelling a passage, belongs in the lowest band.

A candidate's first note on a stimulus reads: 'This shows that technology is bad for us.' The reformulation that gives her something she can argue is

• How many hours a day do the people in the passage use their devices?
• Can a technology change what a person is able to want?
• Should the company described in the passage be regulated more strictly?
• Which technologies have been shown to do most harm to wellbeing?

Answer: Can a technology change what a person is able to want?

A first reaction names a verdict; a philosophical question names what would have to be settled before any verdict is available. The other three are answered by measurement or by policy, not by argument about concepts.

A stimulus describes a case about which a candidate holds a strong personal conviction. To reach the upper markbands her response must

• set the conviction aside and describe both sides without deciding
• state the conviction in the first sentence and keep to it throughout
• argue for the position and answer the strongest case against it
• report what two philosophers have said about cases of this kind

Answer: argue for the position and answer the strongest case against it

Conviction is not a fault; unargued conviction is. Balanced description without a judgement stops in the middle bands, and a position asserted and repeated is not defended at all.