Exam Connection

🎯 Exam Connection

Frequency: Modern medicine appears in 3–4 out of 5 recent AQA sittings (HIGH). This topic is examined on Paper 2, Section A (Medicine Through Time thematic study). It most commonly appears in the 16-mark change-and-continuity essay comparing modern medicine to earlier periods, in source utility questions about 20th-century developments, and in explain significance questions about DNA, the NHS, or specific discoveries.

Typical questions you will face:

• "How useful is Source A for an enquiry into the development of medicine in the 20th century?" (8 marks) — Use NOP: Nature (what type of source?), Origin (who created it, when?), Purpose (why was it made?). Then bring in own knowledge: Watson and Crick DNA discovery (1953), Human Genome Project (2003), antibiotic resistance (MRSA, WHO predicts 10 million deaths/year by 2050). Level 4 requires detailed NOP AND specific own knowledge that extends beyond the source.
• "Explain the significance of the discovery of DNA for medicine" (8 marks) — Cover short-term significance (redirected medicine towards molecular biology; genetic screening became possible) AND long-term significance (Human Genome Project 2003; gene therapy; personalised medicine). Show the mechanism: HOW did Watson and Crick's 1953 discovery lead to each consequence? Compare to germ theory (1861) as a similarly transformative theoretical shift.
• "How far did medicine change between c.1850 and the present?" (16 marks including SPaG) — Show BOTH change (germ theory 1861, penicillin 1928/1944, DNA 1953, NHS 1948, genome mapping 2003) AND continuity (individuals still drive discoveries; technology still enables new knowledge; government still determines access; health inequalities persist). Judge: has the rate of change been unprecedented, or do the same underlying factors persist? Key SPaG: antibiotic, resistance, genome, transplant, pharmaceutical, hereditary, deoxyribonucleic.

For Level 3+ on the source utility question: Analyse NOP systematically, then bring in specific own knowledge. "The source is useful because [NOP analysis]. However, its usefulness is limited because [bias/context/purpose limitation]. To fully understand 20th-century medicine, additional knowledge is needed: for example, Watson and Crick's DNA double helix discovery (1953) laid the theoretical foundation for genetic screening and the Human Genome Project; the WHO's estimate of 10 million annual deaths from antibiotic resistance by 2050 reveals a challenge the source does not address."

For Level 4 on the change-and-continuity essay: Show genuine change AND genuine continuity, then judge. "The pace of change has accelerated dramatically — advances that took centuries in the medieval period now occur in decades. However, the underlying factors driving progress have remained consistent: individuals making key discoveries (Watson and Crick, as Pasteur and Koch before them), technology enabling new knowledge (gene sequencing, as microscopes before them), and government determining access (the NHS, as the 1875 Act before it). What has changed is the speed and scale of these factors, not their fundamental nature — making the 20th century a continuation of established patterns, not a rupture from them."