The Student Room Group

A2 Edexcel History Unit 3 12th June 2012 (Discussion)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 40
Original post by AFineMess
Is anyone doing the USA option?
If so, what do you think the chances are for Prohibition or women coming up? Because I don't know if it's just me, but I find that stuff REALLY tough to write a lot on, because theres only so much detail you can go into with those kind of topics! :s-smilie:


I was talking with my teacher today and we both said that we have a feeling that something related to Prohibition might come up! I suppose that as long as I could link it to the wider American society you know the division between urban and rural over alcohol being a representation of wider social issues? I think I could do really well BUT women on the other hand :s-smilie: was not even considering a question like that tbh but I suppose that would be about not everyone sharing the boom or something similar so maybe not too bad!
I'm also French Revolution and need an A. I need a high A for an A overall, and a mid-D for a B :mad:
Reply 42
Pleasepleaseplease can anyone offer advice on how to structure the sources question pleeeeeeease
Reply 43
I'm doing the cold war too! And I don't know how I'm going get everything drilled into my head. I dunno, it's not hard once I go over it but still so much to remember! And the foreign names and stuff make it harder for me lol
Also I'm scared I won't answer the questions properly, especially the Qb which I've only practiced once a week or so ago. I did get a B on it, few marks off an A but obviously that was with notes/help. Aaah!

How are you all revising for this?
Reply 44
Original post by chaseafterme.
For section A, if I focused on Unit 1, 2 and 3 [seeds of conflict, how cold war developed, why did cold war emerge...focusing on yrs 1944-53] (looking at the edexcel textbook) the most...I could defo answer a q on the start of the Cold War? So, I won't have to worry about how the cold war came an end in the 1980s and why? Because I don't feel as confident about the end as I missed a lot of the lessons.

And then for section B, focus on units 4, 5, 6, 7...so the thaw, nuclear weps, sino soviet and détente?

Basically what I'm asking is, could I leave out revision on the end of the cold war and be okay? :eek:

You could but it may not be wise to do so. See if you see an arms race/nuclear weapons question it may span to the end of the cold war - instead of just the section that is given to it, in the book, as it is pretty important in the end with the arms reduction summits that were held etc.
Original post by Tpos
You could but it may not be wise to do so. See if you see an arms race/nuclear weapons question it may span to the end of the cold war - instead of just the section that is given to it, in the book, as it is pretty important in the end with the arms reduction summits that were held etc.


True. I find that a thorough understanding of all events in the Cold War helps your arguments for any question. When I did a practice question on the detente, I found that information from the start AND the end of the Cold War was useful to help me flesh out one of my arguments...

I'm 'neglecting' revision on the start of the Cold War but I still made notes. I'll be reading through it, perhaps just not going to memorize it :smile:.
Reply 46
Original post by charmiv
I hope a question on Tudor Machinery doesn't come up or i'll cry haha. Yeah last years paper there was one on anglo-spanish relations with Mary was a bit confusing. I love factions/religion so I hope it comes up too but I think its highly unlikely because one of the section A essays last year was do to with factions in the last eight years of King Henry's rule :frown:
With the controversy i'm preparing for both just that in the worst case scenario that we may get difficult sources on rebellions so do the Elizabeth and Parliament one and vice versa. What about you? I was thinking of focusing more on rebellions now, but i'm not too sure!


Haha yeah, same. I hate the government stuff! And yeah, we did practise exam plans in lessons and we got the Mary question and were really confused by it at first, it's so narrow! I don't think i would have been able to write a whole essay on it! And oh, that sucks a lot! We've only done the rebellions so that's what i'm going to do! I quite like rebellions, you can't really get a horrible question on them :smile:
Reply 47
Ah I get what you mean, when we had our mock our teacher only gave us that question, I only got 19/30 because it was so narrow and I couldn't think of much on the spot :/ and yeah I get what you mean :smile: rebellions are quite nice, hopefully the sources are good! What grade you aiming for?
Reply 48
I'm doing From Kaiser to Fuhrer and wondered if anyone else doing the same topic had any suggestions/tips on how to approach and/or structure the questions?!
Reply 49
Would someone PLEASE read through a cold war essay of mine and give me feedback? Or could someone send me an essay of theres to read through. I'm really struggling on the part B questions. Thanks
I'm not actually sure what the title of my unit is (:colondollar:) embarassing I know, but it's all about Britain in the years 1925-1960, the controversies being on appeasement and whether the years after ww2 were a social success or an economic disaster - is anybody else doing this at all? I haven't seen an discussion about it as yet :frown:

Also, my school is refusing to tell us what we got in our courseworks, and seeing that you all know is making me really sad :frown:
Apparently Edexcel has told teachers that they're not allowed to tell students, and my teacher refuses to tell us because they've said the entire class has gotten a B or above, and that it isn't a cause for concern for any of us in terms of our predicted grades, and they don't want it to affect the way we approach revising for the exam, plus the fact that it may change and this could make somebody really sad, but it's killing me that everybody else seems to know :frown:

Original post by Captain Hindsight
if your doing edexcel i'm pretty sure the coursework is out of 80 UMS as it's worth 40% of the A2


I'm sure we were told that the coursework was 50% of the A2 and 25% of the overall A level?? I really hope it is, not 40% :s-smilie:

Original post by BASEjump
Also, how exactly do you structure your answer to section B? One teachers says that you must do an introduction the other says "F*$k it, go straight into the argument"...and sadly, yes, that's an actual quote lol.
The main thing is to cross reference, right?
Honestly, I'm so desperate that any tips would do lol


Our teacher has told us that we must provide our overall judgement in our introduction, go on a small journey with our middle paragraphs, and arrive at the same, perhaps only slightly altered, judgement. She has told us definitely not to do the typical GCSE thing of saying one thing in your introduction and something completely different in your conclusion because that will make you look like you don't really know what you're talking about and are saying things for the sake of saying them, rather than because they are actually well backed up historical statements.
As for the controversies, we've been told that the sources should be like the backbone of the argument, but all compared with each other, definitely not a source per paragraph thing that's so easy to do. It should be the sources surrounded by own knowledge and historians to embellesh it :smile: So yes, the main thing to remember to do is cross-reference it :smile:
Reply 51
I need help comparing sources, any ideas?
Original post by Olihh
I'm doing From Kaiser to Fuhrer and wondered if anyone else doing the same topic had any suggestions/tips on how to approach and/or structure the questions?!


im doing it aswel and its frustrating!! my teachers calculated that it will be imperial so we got no idea about the nazi stuff which is kinda scary.. about the structure u structure the first part like u did in unit 1 and the second part like u did in unit 2 .. for part B its good to mention historians and cross reference .. :smile:
Reply 53
I'm also doing the cold war, will most likely go for the end game as the controversy given it's a lot easier to structure:
"People Power in EE"
"Personalities e.g. Raegan and Gorbachev and minor figures if needed"
"Economic factors"
"Moral bankruptcy"

basic structure for a controversy

introduction
Provide a contextual sentence
Factors you're going to talk about in relation to the sources i.e. which factor is shown in which source
Your argument- make sure it's explicitly linked to the question

paragraphs
lead with a quote from source and topic from question
x-ref from another source
back up with OK- evidence, detail and ensure it is relevant
LTQ refer back to argument and argue why
evaluate the source interpretation

conclusion
clear judgement with references back to sources
factors addressed to support the argument

you must evaluate throughout to gain top marks and make sure your source analysis is up to scratch as it is a source led paper
Original post by lilGem
I'm also doing the cold war, will most likely go for the end game as the controversy given it's a lot easier to structure:
"People Power in EE"
"Personalities e.g. Raegan and Gorbachev and minor figures if needed"
"Economic factors"
"Moral bankruptcy"

basic structure for a controversy

introduction
Provide a contextual sentence
Factors you're going to talk about in relation to the sources i.e. which factor is shown in which source
Your argument- make sure it's explicitly linked to the question

paragraphs
lead with a quote from source and topic from question
x-ref from another source
back up with OK- evidence, detail and ensure it is relevant
LTQ refer back to argument and argue why
evaluate the source interpretation

conclusion
clear judgement with references back to sources
factors addressed to support the argument

you must evaluate throughout to gain top marks and make sure your source analysis is up to scratch as it is a source led paper


Thank you :smile:. However, I didn't think there was much to talk about in terms of moral bankruptcy. Maybe it's just me though! Does it go like, 'Communism is an ideal that was heading for economic and moral bankruptcy, etc'?
Reply 55
is any1 doing option E word in crisis? im sooo ****ting this exam i need a c init and i absolutly dnt know much fml
I'm another Kaiser to Fuhrer. I'm really dreading it being Second Reich so if anyone has any decent notes...:colondollar:

I'd love it to be early Weimar or the Final Solution! But generally I'm aaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I need 71% overall at A2 for a A, but I'm sure my coursework was awful, so I'm hoping I'll manage the same as last year in unit 1 with a full ums again!
Reply 57
Original post by partickler
Thank you :smile:. However, I didn't think there was much to talk about in terms of moral bankruptcy. Maybe it's just me though! Does it go like, 'Communism is an ideal that was heading for economic and moral bankruptcy, etc'?


It's not really needed to be talked about- you could talk about it in reference to economic factors of the USSR

e.g. nomenklatura where the elite were living the "high life" so tp speak whilst there were deteriorating living standards. The cost of maintaining that could not carry on due to the significant arms race spending.
Also the abuse of human rights- USSR ignoring the agreement of Helsinki accords (1975), Charter 77 and dissidents speaking out agaisnt the corrupt leadership of EE countries.
"Empire by rape" ultimately the Soviet bloc was maintained by force- militarily imposed without the consent of people

evaluation of "Moral bankruptcy"
lack of legitimacy in EE undermined Soviet communism and brought about it's collapse
population were disillusioned with hollow promises and harsh realities of life under Marxist- Leninism
It focuses on a structural factor as to why they were unable to sustain CW policies
Widens the debate beyond political leaders by focusing on LT factors

In short if it's possible you can mention it in passing- you will only really need to talk about key personalities, economic factors and EE and bring in moral bankruptcy as a means of supporting an argument.

Hope that helps :smile:
Reply 58
Original post by NornIronKitKat
I'm another Kaiser to Fuhrer. I'm really dreading it being Second Reich so if anyone has any decent notes...:colondollar:

I'd love it to be early Weimar or the Final Solution! But generally I'm aaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I need 71% overall at A2 for a A, but I'm sure my coursework was awful, so I'm hoping I'll manage the same as last year in unit 1 with a full ums again!


I was told that a question on the Kaiser could potentially come up so I'm also dreading it!

I'd love a question about the Nazi consolidation of power or even Nazi popularity. I don't know anything about my coursework mark either so I'm going for it in the exam and hoping for the best!
Original post by fishfan01
I'm not actually sure what the title of my unit is (:colondollar:) embarassing I know, but it's all about Britain in the years 1925-1960, the controversies being on appeasement and whether the years after ww2 were a social success or an economic disaster - is anybody else doing this at all? I haven't seen an discussion about it as yet :frown:

Also, my school is refusing to tell us what we got in our courseworks, and seeing that you all know is making me really sad :frown:
Apparently Edexcel has told teachers that they're not allowed to tell students, and my teacher refuses to tell us because they've said the entire class has gotten a B or above, and that it isn't a cause for concern for any of us in terms of our predicted grades, and they don't want it to affect the way we approach revising for the exam, plus the fact that it may change and this could make somebody really sad, but it's killing me that everybody else seems to know :frown:


I'm sure we were told that the coursework was 50% of the A2 and 25% of the overall A level?? I really hope it is, not 40% :s-smilie:


Our teacher has told us that we must provide our overall judgement in our introduction, go on a small journey with our middle paragraphs, and arrive at the same, perhaps only slightly altered, judgement. She has told us definitely not to do the typical GCSE thing of saying one thing in your introduction and something completely different in your conclusion because that will make you look like you don't really know what you're talking about and are saying things for the sake of saying them, rather than because they are actually well backed up historical statements.
As for the controversies, we've been told that the sources should be like the backbone of the argument, but all compared with each other, definitely not a source per paragraph thing that's so easy to do. It should be the sources surrounded by own knowledge and historians to embellesh it :smile: So yes, the main thing to remember to do is cross-reference it :smile:



Hi :smile:
i'm doing the same unit as you and have no idea how to do a 30 mark question and the highest I seem to be able to achieve is a C and that's not what i'm after. How's your revision going? and what kind of technique do you use for the 30 marker?

Also I know this is pushing it a little but do you reckon you could email me some of your past essays? so I could possibly have a look? In return I could email you my compiled notes document - which has every possible branch of the topic laid out in a tabe form with all the notes I have (including historians) bullet pointed underneath.
Is that okay?

Quick Reply