OxfordAQA IGCSE Urdu: Current and Future Study and Employment — Revision Notes

Condensed for the final weeks. For the full explanation, use the Theme 3 study guide.

Four topics, four vocabulary sets

Topic	Core vocabulary focus
Topic 1: My studies	Subject names, opinions on subjects, timetables, the school day
Topic 2: Life at school/college	Facilities, uniform, rules, comparing school experiences
Topic 3: Education post-16	Further/higher education routes, qualifications
Topic 4: Jobs, career choices and ambitions	Part-time jobs, professions, future intention language

Topics 1 and 2 overlap in setting, so keep their vocabulary sets distinct: subjects and opinions on them for Topic 1, facilities, rules and routine for Topic 2.

Why this theme is different from Themes 1 and 2

Theme 1 is present-focused and personal; Theme 2 is present-focused but outward-looking (issues, places). Theme 3 is the only theme built around the future — plans, ambitions, and things not yet true. Treat future-tense and “would like to” structures as essential vocabulary here, not optional extras layered onto present-tense description.

The structures that raise the grade

• Future tense — direct statements of intention: I will study…, I will continue…
• “Would like to” / conditional — more tentative aspiration: I would like to become…, if I passed my exams, I would…
• Comparatives — this subject is more useful than…, a stable career matters more to me than…
• Opinion + justification — my favourite subject is… because… — always paired, never a bare preference alone.
• Past tense for reflection — occasionally needed when a task asks you to look back at school experience before turning to future plans.

Moving between tenses in one response

Many Theme 3 tasks want a present-tense description (current studies) and a future-tense plan (post-16 route, career ambition) in the same piece of writing. Practise this tense-switching deliberately, since maintaining correct verb agreement while moving from present to future within one paragraph is exactly where marks are commonly lost.

Reading: two layers

Distinguish a stated fact (a specific subject or job named) from an expressed opinion or aspiration (why the candidate likes a subject, or what they hope to do). A passage naming three subjects and one ambition is really giving you four separate pieces of information, not one flat list — read for both the fact and the opinion attached to it.

Worked example

Task: Write about your studies and your plans for after you finish school.

Weak:    I study many subjects. I want a good job.
         (no opinion, no justification, one tense only)

Strong:  favourite subject + reason (present) -- my favourite
           subject is science because I find experiments interesting
         post-16 plan (future) -- after school, I will continue my
           studies at college
         career ambition + justification (would like to / because)
           -- I would like to become a doctor because I want to help
           people
         conditional reflection -- if I study hard, I will achieve
           my goal

A specific subject with a justified opinion, a concrete post-16 plan, and a justified career ambition is a reliable structure for the strongest Theme 3 responses.

Where this fits in the exam

Theme 3 is assessed across the same Paper 1 (Reading, Grammar and Meaning) and Paper 2 (Writing) that draw on all three themes, each 1 hour 45 minutes and worth 70 marks (50% of the GCSE). There is no dedicated Theme 3 paper, so this content must be exam-ready alongside Theme 1 and Theme 2, not revised as an isolated final block.

Exam traps

• Naming a subject or job with no opinion or reason attached — an easy lost opportunity for justification marks.
• Answering a future-plans task using only the present tense.
• Mixing the vocabulary of “my studies” (subjects, opinions) and “life at school” (facilities, routine) so that neither is precise.
• Losing verb agreement when switching from present-tense description to future-tense plans within the same response.
• Giving a career ambition with no justification, when justification is what separates a strong answer from a bare list.

Building active, not passive, vocabulary

Recognising future-tense and “would like to” forms when reading is not the same as producing them correctly and quickly in your own writing. For each topic, practise producing full sentences from memory rather than only matching vocabulary to translations, since the writing task requires active production under time pressure.

Self-test

1. Which two topics of Theme 3 share a setting, and how does their vocabulary differ?
2. Name two structures a Theme 3 task about career ambitions is likely to require.
3. What two “layers” should you read for in a Theme 3 comprehension passage?
4. Why is tense-switching a specific skill this theme develops?
5. On which papers is Theme 3 assessed, and how many marks is each worth?

Answers: 1. Topic 1, My studies (subjects, opinions on them), and Topic 2, Life at school/college (facilities, rules, routine) — both are set in school, but Topic 1 is about subject content and opinions while Topic 2 is about the physical and social environment. 2. Future tense and “would like to”/conditional structures, ideally paired with opinion-and-justification language. 3. Stated facts (what is named) and expressed opinions or aspirations (why, or what is hoped for). 4. Because many tasks require a present-tense description and a future-tense plan within the same response, and verb agreement must be maintained across both. 5. Paper 1 (Reading, Grammar and Meaning) and Paper 2 (Writing), each worth 70 marks (50% of the GCSE).