IHETC School
French and philosophy — Upper secondary
These papers assess not knowledge but the ability to build a written argument and sustain it over several pages. It is the most transferable skill of upper secondary, and the least methodically trained.
What is at stake in this subject
These papers assess not knowledge but the ability to build a written argument and sustain it over several pages. It is the most transferable skill of upper secondary, and the least methodically trained.
- Text analysis and commentary
- Essay: framing a question and a plan
- Argument and examples
- Major schools and philosophical concepts
- Exam time management
What this page covers
- concepts covered
- 5
- subjects covered in upper secondary
- 4
- stages to validate one concept
- 4
Concepts, not a textbook contents page.
All included in the same subscription.
The last one is assessed work.
They have ideas and hand in a paper with no central question
The pupil juxtaposes valid remarks without organising them around a tension to resolve, and the paper is marked as a catalogue. Adding knowledge improves nothing: what is missing is the framing of the question, and that is trained separately from content.
What the tutor does with your child
The tutor has the central question and the plan formulated before any writing, and refuses to move on until the tension is explicit. It never supplies a ready-made plan: a plan received is not a plan learned.
- It changes angle the moment an explanation misses
- It leaves the answer to the pupil and stays alongside until they find it
- It has the result checked by a second route
- It goes back to the missing prerequisite, even one from an earlier year
- It keeps the concept open until the pupil restates it in their own words
Parents' questions
Can you improve in philosophy in one year?
Yes, more than in most subjects, because most marks hinge on method rather than erudition. A pupil who learns to frame a question and hold a plan gains several marks without having read one more author.