History Aptitude Test

Who's taking it, and what are you doing to prepare for it?

I've done the 2004 and 2005 practice tests, and by self-scoring based on the guidlines they put out, I'm doing pretty well.

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Reply 1

Spike4848

I'm taking it, preparation: Rememorising my AS courses on the French Revolution and 19th century British politics, and also about the First Crusades (origins of)

Did a test a week ago, teacher marked it, said it was excelent, which was nice :P

Reply 2

lazzyfuzzylou

Going through the past papers on the website, revising last year's topics (Nazis and Wolsey). My school are fairly clueless as no-one's ever done the HAT before there.

Reply 3

Pikey

I did it last year and found that the only real preparation you can do is practice papers. Quite difficult to remember what came up but I vaguely recall a bit on the communist revolution in China (I think - if not it was something similar), and 12th century Iceland. Obviously these areas won't come up again but i'm just highlighting that its unlikely you'll have studied the periods they choose, and even if you have general knowledge on the period/area will be off little use.

Practice your essay writing skills, you'll be tested on that and your ability to infer from the sources they give you. Also remember that you have quite a bit of time, I finished early and had been rushing through mine to get as much down as possible. I suggest you take your time and think carefully about what you write. If its concise and well-written its likely to impress, i'm sure.

And, last of all, you better hope your school puts you in a quiet spot, not right outside the football pitch at break time! :frown:

Reply 4

Nabsee

I'm on my gap year, so I've been going over my A2 syllabus from last year, (I should probably go over my AS topics too :s-smilie:

). I've been doing practise papers and then going over them with another friend - mostly we both seem to get the content right, but fall down on wording our answers, so I'll try a few timed essays.

Reply 5

general_store

I'm also sitting it. Should we have got some sort of confirmation of entry because i've heard nothing. Preparation wise, i'm just going over the notes from AS course and A2 this year, and i went through last year's paper with my teacher. Am planning to do a question 1C at some point too. Timing seems kind of tight actually, slightly concerned about that, but we shall see.

Reply 6

playingcards

Starting my preparation today. The marking is so tight; difference in answers worth 1 or 5 marks absolutely marginal, so it's going to be luck of the draw on the day I guess - and making sure I answer the question to the letter. I haven't received confirmation either, so I hope there's a paper waiting for me.

Will probably revise the stuff I enjoy from lessons: Fascist Italy, Tsarist Russia and my coursework topic on the Spanish Civil War. They're all fairly generic so I should be able to adapt them as required. I might hedge my bets on some really obscure topic (the history of the Norwegian leather industry perhaps) and hope to catch the eye in the essay this way. I think the second part will suit me quite well; I'm quite good at going off on tangents (i.e. making s*** up).

Good luck everyone.

Reply 7

randomness

Aaaargh I don't know what to revise for it! I mean if I want to revise Fascist Italy, what do I revise? They're obviously interested in change, what causes change, how it comes about , what happens after it etc but i'm finding it quite difficult to think of what to revise for them. So far I've done Unification of Italy, causes of the rise of fascism and am thinking of causes of the french revolution. Is it just me or have you guys found that in some years the essay questions are quite easy to go about them and structure etc whereas in others they're more abstract? I know they're not interested in depth of knowledge but obviously you need to recall some sort of knowledge from your course no? What do you guys think? What other sorts of questions would you have in mind?
Good luck

Reply 8

viz

Yeah, I've found that with some past papers it's been really easy to come up with a topic to use for question 1c) to, and with some I've really struggled to think of any. It's pretty impossible to predict what'll come up, so I'm just trying to brush up on all my AS stuff and hope something will apply!

Reply 9

minionlindz

viz

I've found that too. If you read the mark schemes though, they're really not interested in detailed knowledge of a period of history; it's much more important to fully grasp the points made in the text they give you. So I guess you'll be able to blag it if they come up with something that you have no idea what to link it to.

That's what I'm hoping anyway... :p:

By the way, good uni choices Viz :biggrin:

Reply 10

viz

minionlindz

By the way, good uni choices Viz :biggrin:

Haha, snap! :smile:

What colleges are you going for at Oxford and Durham?

Reply 11

minionlindz

viz

Haha, snap! :smile:

What colleges are you going for at Oxford and Durham?

Oxford: Mansfield
Durham: University/Castle
(probably should've gone for a more sensible college at Durham but Durham is like my 4th fave, so I won't be devastated if I don't get in!

What about you for Durham?

Reply 12

viz

minionlindz

What about you for Durham?

Hatfield. I know it's supposed to be a bit of a posh college, but I'll cope. You always have to take college stereotypes with a pinch of salt. I just really liked the look of it, and it's right opposite the History dept!

The Castle's lovely - you've got nothing to lose applying there because of the admissions system.

Good luck with it all, hope the HAT goes well! :smile:

Reply 13

minionlindz

viz

You always have to take college stereotypes with a pinch of salt.

^ agreed

Hatfield was my second choice actually! I was um-ing and ah-ing about the two. Didn't look at Lincoln for Oxford though.. in fact, I'm not sure if they even do History & English.. not that it matters now anyway!

Thanks for the luck, I get the feeling I'll be needing it though! Same back to you of course :smile:

Reply 14

randomness

Hey! How did you all find the HAT today? Aaargh I spent way too much time on 1 a and b which meant that it pushed my c to a limit so that i didnt have time to finish 2 off. Hmm I'll be surprised if i get an interview...so depressing.

Reply 15

Nabsee

I don't think I wrote a very good part c - I had some decent ideas about the Henrician Reformation, but my structure got skewed because I started to get nervous about the time.

Part a took me longer than I thought it would! Question 2 wasn't too bad, I thought, but I kept feeling like I was missing crucial points but had to move on.

Reply 16

lizzie may

I spent too long an A and B as well...meant that my C question was an illegible, incoherent mess. The second part was ok I thought, I actually found the source really interesting.
Ran out of time though...

what is HAT

It was reasonable. Far easier than the specimen they have on the website! Challenging, but not impossible. My C was probably a bit of a mess, but I really enjoyed the other questions. The second source was really interesting?

Reply 19

rkd

I think I overwrote on 1b and underwrote 1c and 2 - but I'm happy with it, and I managed to link what I know about Imperial Japan to 1c (more interesting than Nazis!) so I reckon it should at least get me an interview. Finished about ten minutes early, too. How much preparation did all you guys do?