How to answer a 12 mark "Discuss" question

It can feel overwhelming when you turn the page and see a 12 mark question to answer. How do you get those marks? When a question asks you to "discuss" it is looking for a comprehensive answer that has explored more than one side of an argument.

Markers will be looking for both a description or explanation of theories or studies (A01), followed by a critical analysis of these - this being their strengths, weaknesses or implications (A02). You should begin your answer by tackling A01 first, this sets up the basis for your evaluation. You may like to think about aiming for 6 marks for A01 and 6 marks for A02, or 4 makrs for A01 and 8 for A02. The research or theories you talk about for your A01 should clearly relate to the question. Once you have got your A01 down, you can then move on to the evaluation. In this part, it is important to start paragraphs with clear openeing sentences, to make it obvious to the examiner what you are critiqing - for example "This study supports the theory because.." or "This study undermines the theory because..". Here you should draw upon evaluative points such as the relability or validity of the research. For example, "This study supports the theory because it was  observational research in a natural setting, therefore it has high ecological validility meaning the behaviours observered are likely to be representative of behviour in real world settings".