AQA History New Spec- Anyone studying...

Russian:
-Stalins Rise To Power
-NEP, Industrialisation etc...
-Terror and Purges cant remember what else...

British:
-Canning,Castlereagh, Palmerstone
-Corn Laws

Because im really struggling. I find it hard to retain all the information and then we get questioned on it as a starter, but its made me hate the lessons as i know i can never recall anything off the top of my head. The Textbook i use is Britain 1783-1918 by Derrick Murphy, but i dont find it helpful or easy to understand. For the Russian i have the new AQA textbook which is better but i dont know if you can get one for british.
What do you use? Do you know of any good history websites on these topics?
Anyone else feel the same :frown: