Cambridge AS & A Level Sociology 9699/12 is the May/June 2026 Paper 1 (Socialisation, Identity and Methods of Research), variant 2. It is an AS component worth 60 marks, it lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, and you answer four questions: all three in Section A and one essay from Section B. The biggest single answer is the 26-mark essay, a choice between traditional social identities and researcher values and bias. This guide goes through every question and shows what the official mark scheme gave marks for. The paper and its mark scheme are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of all four 9699 papers from this series, see A Level Sociology 9699 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

9699/12 at a glance

The rubric is: answer all questions in Section A, and either Question 4 or Question 5 in Section B.

Question	Section	Topic	Marks	How it is marked
1	A	Two types of qualitative research method	4	Points (2 × 2)
2(a)	A	Two reasons structured interviews are high in reliability	8	Points (2 × 4)
2(b)	A	A strength and a limitation of longitudinal studies	6	Points (2 × 3)
3(a)	A	Explain the view that education shapes age identity more than anything else	10	Levels
3(b)	A	One argument against that view	6	Levels
4	B (choice)	Essay: are traditional social identities the main influence on how people live today?	26	AO levels
5	B (choice)	Essay: do sociologists’ values bias research findings?	26	AO levels
		Total answered (Section A + Question 4 or 5)	60

Question-by-question walkthrough

Question 1: types of qualitative research method (4 marks)

You describe two methods, each for 1 mark (naming it) plus 1 mark (describing it). Creditable types included unstructured, semi-structured and group interviews, overt or covert participant and non-participant observation, open-ended questionnaires, qualitative analysis of personal and public documents, and semiological analysis of media or digital texts.

• You don’t have to say why the method is qualitative. An accurate description of the method was enough.
• “Interviews” or “questionnaires” on their own got nothing, and neither did a list of interview types that mixed structured and unstructured, because it didn’t show which ones are qualitative.
• Observation counts, and can count twice if you split it, for example overt and covert, or participant and non-participant.
• The description must match the method. Naming unstructured interviews and then describing a structured one earned only the naming mark. A general description of qualitative data, with no method named, earned nothing.

Question 2(a): why structured interviews are reliable (8 marks)

Two reasons, each worth 4 marks: 1 for the reason, 1 for explaining it, 1 for relevant sociological material, and 1 for explaining how that material supports the point. Reasons the mark scheme credited:

• Everyone is asked the same questions in the same order, so the interview is easy to replicate.
• Closed questions or fixed responses make the interview easy to repeat.
• Coded, closed questions produce quantitative data, which is easier to replicate and use to spot trends.
• They take less time, so they can be repeated more easily.
• Pre-set questions make them more objective and less open to bias, so different interviewers can repeat them.

Suitable material included ideas such as standardisation, objectivity, positivism, replicability and pre-coded questions, or a comparison with unstructured interviews. Three rules shaped the marks:

• Reliability itself can’t be your material, because it is in the question.
• “They can be repeated” is not a reason. It describes reliability. It can form part of your explanation, but the reason mark needs a feature of the method.
• The same idea can’t score twice. If “standardised” was already your reason or explanation, it can’t also be your material, and the material must be tied back to reliability for the fourth mark.

Question 2(b): longitudinal studies (6 marks)

One strength and one limitation, each worth 3 marks: identify it, explain why longitudinal studies have it, and explain why it is a strength or a limitation.

• Strengths credited: tracking changes in attitudes over time (avoiding the “snapshot” problem), comparing trends that might otherwise stay hidden, detecting change at group and individual level, finding the causes of change, relying less on people’s memories, and building trust with participants, which can produce more valid data.
• Limitations credited: sample attrition reducing representativeness, the Hawthorne effect from being studied repeatedly, cost, time, researchers getting too close to the group and losing objectivity, changes in the research team affecting reliability, and ethical concerns, such as people signed up as children feeling obliged to continue.

Two warnings from the mark scheme. Saying people might change their views is not a limitation, because tracking change is the purpose of the method. And a study that simply runs for a long time, such as a long participant observation of a gang, is not a longitudinal study, so points about it earned nothing. A strength or limitation that isn’t on the list (for example “in-depth”) needed a clear link to the longitudinal design.

Question 3(a): education and age identity (10 marks)

You explain the view that education is the most important influence on age identity. The mark scheme’s indicative points included:

• Young people are expected to stay in education until 16 or 18, so youth identity is bound up with schooling (Ariès on childhood being linked to compulsory education).
• Schools group children by age, creating age hierarchies between year groups and between pupils and teachers.
• Schools promote age boundaries and stereotypes about age groups that other agencies then reinforce.
• Pupils spend their days with peers of almost exactly the same age, so the peer group’s influence works through education.
• A cohort effect: a year group shares the same events, such as COVID-19 disruption.
• Teachers labelling pupils by year group, with a possible self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Older people returning to education, for example through the University of the Third Age.

Keep it on age. Peer group points needed a link to school. Points about schools teaching norms and values in general were not automatically about age identity. Class or gender identity needed a clear link to age. Writing about one age group, such as youth, was fine.

What moves an answer up: Level 3 (8–10) needs two clear, developed points, both supported by sociological material focused on the question. Level 2 (4–7) has one developed point and one underdeveloped one, with material for at least one. Level 1 (1–3) has an underdeveloped point plus material on the general topic rather than this question.

Question 3(b): one argument against (6 marks)

One argument that education is not the most important influence on age identity. Credited lines included:

• It is too simple, and too hard to measure, to single out one agency.
• In postmodern society age boundaries are weakening and age is “just a number”.
• The peer group may act independently of school.
• In some societies young people’s education is limited and they start work early.
• The University of the Third Age is mostly middle class, so its effect is limited.
• Another agency matters more: the family (parents model age identities), peers (same-age subcultures) or the media (Thornton on youth culture, Postman on childhood).

If you argue another agency matters more, explain why it shapes age identity more than education. Arguing the family matters more and then writing about gender identity earned only the first tick. So did arguing that education shapes gender or class identity, which doesn’t challenge the view at all.

Level 3 (5–6) needs one clear, developed argument supported by focused material. Level 2 (3–4) is clear but underdeveloped, and Level 1 (1–2) is an undeveloped or unclear point.

Question 4 (choice): traditional social identities (26 marks)

You evaluate whether traditional identities are still the main influence on how people live.

• For: traditional gender roles persist (functionalist or feminist views); class identities persist (Marxist views); ethnic identities tied to tradition, culture and religion; traditional expectations of children and older people; socialisation that is still largely traditional; and the point that only people with power, status and income can really choose their identity.
• Against: postmodern societies give people more freedom to shape identity; class identities fragmenting (embourgeoisement, the super rich, the precariat); changing masculinities and femininities; ethnic hybridity and code-switching; the “disappearance of childhood” and active ageing; globalisation and consumer culture widening choice; and the media’s growing influence compared with family or religion.
• Material named: Parsons, Oakley, Marxism, functionalism and feminism on one side; postmodernism, Sharpe, Connell, Bradley, Hall and Laslett on the other. Concepts include patriarchy, hegemonic masculinity, social control, hybridity and class fragmentation.

Range of points beats range of identities. The mark scheme said an essay focused only on traditional gender identities could still reach full marks if it made a range of different points.

Question 5 (choice): values and bias in research (26 marks)

You evaluate whether sociologists’ values bias their findings.

• For: the interpretivist view that values shape the choice of topic, how research is done and how results are read; values in an unequal society inevitably affecting researchers (Marxist and feminist arguments); the researcher’s values influencing respondents; how findings are presented; partisan or committed sociology (Becker, conscious partiality); and the impossibility of controlling variables in the social world.
• Against: the positivist hypothetico-deductive method as a route to objectivity; resisting subjective influences; Popper on falsification; realism, which accepts some bias but argues it can be minimised; Weber’s view that values guide the choice of topic but research itself can be objective; and publication and peer review exposing bias.
• Material named: Gouldner, Weber, Kuhn, Kaplan, Becker and Oakley for the view; Durkheim, Comte, Popper and Weber against. Concepts include value-freedom, objectivity, value-laden research, researcher imposition and social facts.

Stay on the researcher’s values. General points about bias in research were not to be over-credited. The mark scheme also accepted a different framing, such as saying positivists agree values cause bias and that is why they try to exclude them, if it was accurate.

How the 26-mark essays are marked

Each essay gets three separate marks, using best fit:

• AO1 Knowledge and understanding (8): from assertive or common-sense points (1–2) up to a range of detailed points with good use of concepts and theory or evidence (7–8).
• AO2 Interpretation and application (8): from limited or inaccurate use of material (1–2) up to a range of material that is accurately interpreted, well developed and consistently applied to the question (7–8).
• AO3 Analysis and evaluation (10): five bands. Incidental or assertive evaluation sits at 1–2; an attempt at more than one side at 3–4; juxtaposed arguments that aren’t focused on the question at 5–6; explicit evaluation that isn’t sustained, or that leans on describing the other side, at 7–8; and clear, explicit, sustained evaluation at 9–10.

Where the marks are on 9699/12

Split by how each part is marked:

Type of question	Questions	Marks
Point-marked short answers	1, 2(a), 2(b)	18
Levelled “explain the view” and “argument against”	3(a), 3(b)	16
Essay: AO1 knowledge and understanding	4 or 5	8
Essay: AO2 interpretation and application	4 or 5	8
Essay: AO3 analysis and evaluation	4 or 5	10
Total		60

• Research methods carry up to 44 marks if you choose Question 5: Questions 1 and 2 (18) plus the essay. Choosing Question 4 puts 42 marks on identity instead.
• Evaluation is 10 of the 60 marks, all inside the essay, plus Question 3(b), where arguing against the view is the whole task.

How to self-mark 9699/12 with the mark scheme

1. Learn the layout. A slash or “or” separates alternative ways of making the same point; semicolons, bullets or a (1) separate different points. Content in brackets is for the examiner and isn’t required.
2. Mark Question 1 as four ticks. Two methods named, two matching descriptions. Strike out any unqualified “interviews” or “questionnaires”.
3. Mark Question 2(a) in four steps per reason: reason, explanation, material, explanation of material. No material means no fourth mark, and nothing can be credited twice.
4. Mark Question 2(b) in three steps per side, and check your limitation isn’t “people change their views”.
5. Level Questions 3(a) and 3(b) as a whole. Count your developed points (two for 3(a), one for 3(b)) and check every point is about age identity.
6. Give your essay three marks, one per AO, then add them. For AO3, ask whether your evaluation is explicit and sustained or just placed side by side.
7. Log each lost mark as missing knowledge, missing material or missing evaluation, and practise that skill next.

Sit 9699/12 as a timed mock

The paper allows 90 minutes for 60 marks, about one and a half minutes per mark. A workable plan:

Block	Marks	Time
Read the paper and choose your essay	–	3 minutes
Question 1	4	5 minutes
Question 2(a)	8	10 minutes
Question 2(b)	6	8 minutes
Question 3(a)	10	13 minutes
Question 3(b)	6	8 minutes
Essay (Question 4 or 5), including a short plan	26	40 minutes
Check	–	3 minutes
Total	60	90 minutes

Plan the essay before you write: list two or three points on each side with a study or concept for each, and decide your judgement.

Other May/June 2026 9699 papers

• 9699 Paper 22 (The Family)
• 9699 Paper 32 (Education)
• 9699 Paper 42 (Globalisation, Media and Religion)

Practise and download

• Download 9699/12 and its mark scheme on the Learning Portal →
• All 9699 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free A Level Sociology quiz

Need help with a 9699 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an A Level Sociology tutor →

Frequently asked questions

What topics were on 9699 Paper 12 May/June 2026? +

Section A covered types of qualitative research method, why structured interviews are reliable, a strength and limitation of longitudinal studies, and the view that education is the most important influence on age identity. The Section B essays were on traditional social identities and on whether sociologists' values bias research findings.

How many marks is 9699/12 and how long is it? +

It is out of 60 marks and lasts 1 hour 30 minutes. You answer all three Section A questions (34 marks) and one 26-mark essay from Section B.

Why did 'because they can be repeated' get no mark in Question 2(a)? +

The mark scheme treated it as a definition of reliability rather than a reason. You needed a feature of structured interviews, such as the same questions in the same order, and then an explanation of why that makes them easy to repeat.

Can I write about peer groups in Question 3(a)? +

Only if you link them to education. The mark scheme said peers discussed in detail with no link back to school should not be over-credited, and points about class or gender identity needed a clear link to age.

How is the 26-mark essay on 9699/12 marked? +

Each assessment objective gets its own mark: up to 8 for knowledge and understanding (AO1), 8 for interpretation and application (AO2) and 10 for analysis and evaluation (AO3). The top AO3 band needs evaluation that is clear, explicit and sustained.

Where can I download 9699/12 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge AS & A Level Sociology 9699 past papers page.

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