What is AO3?
AO3 is one of the three Assessment Objectives used by exam boards like AQA and Edexcel to assess your performance in A Level Politics. While AO1 focuses on knowledge and understanding, and AO2 assesses analysis, AO3 tests your ability to evaluate, compare, and make judgements.
In simple terms, AO3 is all about arguments and evaluations, showing that you can weigh up different viewpoints, reach reasoned conclusions, and justify your position.
The Official Definition
AO3 is defined by Edexcel as “evaluating aspects of politics and political information, including to construct arguments, make substantiated judgements and draw conclusions.”
This means examiners are looking for critical engagement, not just describing or explaining ideas, but showing insight into how valid, strong, or persuasive those ideas are. This is historically the assessment objective that students have struggled to achieve the highest marks in, but it can be easily rectified.
What AO3 Looks Like in Practice
1. Making Judgements
You’ll need to:
- Reach a clear conclusion or overall judgement on the question.
- Support that judgement with reasoned evidence.
- Show awareness that other viewpoints exist, but justify why yours is strongest.
Example:
While both direct and representative democracy can enhance participation, representative democracy remains more effective in balancing participation with stability, as it allows for expert decision-making and accountability.
As you can see, this short excerpt weighs up both sides of the argument, and comes to a very clear conclusion. It doesn’t just leave it there though, it goes further by explaining why, in this example, representative is better than direct democracy.
2. Evaluating Perspectives
For AQA students, you’ll be asked to ‘Analyse and evaluate’ a view. In the Edexcel course, you’ll either be asked to ‘Evaluate’ a view, or ‘To what extent’ there is agreement or disagreement within a particular political idea. Each of these prompts requires you to weigh up sides of an argument.
A strong AO3 paragraph:
- Presents a claim or view.
- Offers evidence or examples.
- Provides analysis (AO2).
- Then evaluates — saying how far the argument is convincing, or what its limitations are.
In this example paragraph, the writer gives useful information about referendums and their use to enhance democracy. You can see a very balanced argument that ultimately comes down against the extended use of referendums.
Some argue that referendums enhance democracy by giving citizens direct control over key issues. For instance, the 2016 EU Referendum engaged over 33 million voters at the ballot box. This is important as it means the people can have a direct say over issues of national or regional importance, giving greater legitimacy to the decision made. However, critics note that referendums can oversimplify complex issues and encourage populist outcomes. Issues like leaving the European Union or an independent Scotland cannot be solved simply, and thus a simple yes/no vote doesn’t give the people the full picture. Therefore, while referendums can increase participation, they may also weaken informed decision-making, limiting their democratic value overall.
3. Comparing Systems and Ideas (AQA only)
For comparative politics (e.g. US vs UK), AO3 also involves evaluating similarities and differences. Strong responses go beyond spotting differences, they judge significance. This means you can take evidence and arguments, sit back and actually appreciate which are the stronger and weaker arguments. For example:
While both the UK and US executives rely on political legitimacy, the US President’s separation of powers gives more independent authority than the UK Prime Minister, whose power depends heavily on parliamentary support. This means the President’s mandate is more personal, but less flexible.
Learn more about AO3
Study Dog has a range of resources available for A Level Politics students to understand the requirements of the different assessment objectives, including AO3. Our exam guidance course dives into how to write an A Level Politics essay, and our model answers help you see them in action.
