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HELP!!!! How do write an A level history essay?

I know this is late very close to the exam but I actually have no idea how to write an essay, o even plan one. Someone pls give me some solid advice to take int the exams. Because I need an A minimum if I want to get into uni.

Reply 1

squiddy135

Original post by therealbeckstar

The thing with the essays is to make sure you cover all the marking criteria: knowledge, judgement, structure/communication, and analysis, each is marked out of 5 so they’re equally important, though it’s important to note that they all depend on knowledge so that has to be wide-ranging and specific if you want an A at least.

Try to do an introduction, introducing your judgement, the criteria behind it and the other factors, with the criteria that support them, and why your chosen factor is most important. One thing my teachers talk about a lot which is really useful is structuring lots of sentences as “whilst/although x…, y” basically acknowledging the strength/arguments for counter points but making it clear why you think your chosen factor is the main one. Your introduction is really important as it sets the tone and the marker will read it and decide what level they think the essay will be at, so it’s easier to get a good mark if you start strong and stray a bit in the middle than if you start a bit wobbly, since you’ll then be having to drag your mark up from a lower starting point.

Have three main body paragraphs, each on one factor. Start with the factor in the question, as if you run out of time and don’t have time to write a paragraph on the factor in the question, you’ll hardly get any marks for what you’ve done, but you can still get plenty if you write about the named factor. If you have time, try to come up with the other factors by thinking “what criteria does the factor in the question provide, what doesn’t it provide, and what does provide those criteria”.

In your conclusion, re-summarise your argument and make it really clear, mostly arguing with criteria and “although/whilst x, y” sentences to hammer in your point.

In terms of planning, if you mean planning for revision, as practice, I’d make a table of your three factors, write the criteria and all relevant knowledge for each factor, basically everything you’d want if you could take it into an exam, then summarise your judgement on each factor at the bottom and rank them out of 10. I like to make the rankings add up to 10 to get a sense of how they fit together to get the event.
In an exam, obviously you don’t have time for that, so I just write down what factors I’ll use, the main criteria for each and if I can think of any big counters e.g. if something was arguably caused by another factor, just use arrows to show this, and again rank out of 10.

I hope this is helpful and actually makes sense, please let me know if it doesn’t or you have any more questions. Good luck!