AQA GCSE Religious Studies Themes Paper 5 2025 Mark Scheme

Download the official AQA GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course) Section 5 Themes mark scheme for the June 2025 examination series (8061/5/MS). This examiner-approved PDF contains the complete official marking guidance used by AQA examiners for assessing the June 2025 Themes examination, including indicative content, level-of-response descriptors, accepted teachings, examiner commentary, and assessment-objective guidance.

The mark scheme provides detailed official answers and marking criteria for every question in the June 2025 GCSE Religious Studies Themes paper. Topics covered include gender discrimination, polygamy, same-sex relationships, family structures, sexual relationships before marriage, reconciliation, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, peace-making, holy war, pacifism, justice, retaliation, and religious responses to conflict and relationships in contemporary British society.

Students can use this official AQA mark scheme to understand exactly how marks are awarded in GCSE Religious Studies examinations, improve exam technique, strengthen evaluative writing, and develop accurate use of religious terminology, ethical reasoning, and scriptural references across multiple religious traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.

The document explains how AQA examiners assess AO1 knowledge and AO2 evaluation skills across multiple-choice questions, short-answer responses, source-based explanations, comparative religious-belief questions, and extended 12-mark evaluative essays with SPaG assessment. The mark scheme includes detailed examiner guidance for major evaluation questions discussing whether religious believers should wait until marriage before starting a sexual relationship and whether war should ever be described as holy.

Source material and references included in the mark scheme feature teachings from the Bible, Qur’an, Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Dhammapada, Torah, and other religious authorities. Students can study official arguments relating to same-sex relationships, sanctity of life, stewardship, ahimsa, jihad, Just War theory, pacifism, sexual ethics, and peace-making using authentic examiner-supported examples and quotations.

Teachers, tutors, homeschool educators, revision providers, and intervention programmes can use this official mark scheme for mock-exam marking, classroom walkthroughs, retrieval practice, essay-planning sessions, examiner-style feedback, and GCSE Religious Studies revision aligned directly with official AQA assessment methodology.

This official PDF contains 24 pages and follows the final Version 1.0 AQA release for the June 2025 GCSE Religious Studies Themes examination. Ideal for 2026 GCSE Religious Studies revision, self-marking, independent study, and improving exam performance using authentic examiner guidance.

This document is designed for Year 10 and Year 11 students studying AQA GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course), especially learners preparing for thematic studies in the 2026 exam series. It is particularly valuable for students improving understanding of ethical issues, comparative religious beliefs, evaluative writing, and examiner expectations for AO1 and AO2 responses.

It is also highly useful for GCSE Religious Studies teachers, private tutors, revision centres, homeschool educators, intervention programmes, and schools delivering the AQA Religious Studies specification. Teachers can use the mark scheme for examiner-style assessment, guided marking activities, classroom revision sessions, retrieval practice, and mock-exam feedback using official June 2025 AQA examiner guidance.