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

French Revolution. I need an A.

I hope this does not derail the thread, but does anyone know how I can work out the number of UMS marks I need for an A? Am I correct in thinking that Unit 3 carries the most weighting?

So far: 97 UMS in Unit 1
70 UMS in Unit 2 (though it may go up as I have resat it)
86 UMS in Unit 4 (coursework).

I would appreciate it if anyone could help me out.

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

French Revolution. I need an A.

I hope this does not derail the thread, but does anyone know how I can work out the number of UMS marks I need for an A? Am I correct in thinking that Unit 3 carries the most weighting?

So far: 97 UMS in Unit 1
70 UMS in Unit 2 (though it may go up as I have resat it)
86 UMS in Unit 4 (coursework).

I would appreciate it if anyone could help me out.

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

If you mean you got 86% rather than 86 UMS in unit 4, you'd need 85/120 UMS in Unit 3 (someone correct me if I'm wrong!)

Hey all, I'll be sitting for EDEXCEL Unit 3 this June too, on the Cold War!

I need an A to meet my university offer as well, so it is nerve-wrecking! I sent in my Unit 4 coursework a few weeks ago but I have no idea how that went. So I really don't know how much space for mistakes I have with my written exam. But for A2, to achieve an A grade, I need 154/200 UMS.

I'm quite comfortable with revision so far. Will be doing lots and lots of exam practices from now on. What does everyone know about 'historian quotes'? EDEXCEL states it is not entirely necessary, but what are you all told at school?

I've been told by teachers that quotes aren't very necessary as long as you know what the important historians views are of issues then that's okay, I'm doing Germany so cant help you on historians here !!

Hey, I'm doing the Cold War too.
I've been told that the schools of history aren't that important and that only some questions require it, i.e. the ones about the origins of the cold war. Wrong, right?
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

Yeah actually you're right, schools of thought is mainly for the sources question.

In terms of introduction: I'd say it's vital - as vital as a conclusion. If only to just make it neat and tidy.

Cross referencing is really important too - but also adding in your own knowledge. I generally try to take points from the sources (although sometimes, especially when there's only two sources, as with the exemplar paper, you only have one source per point) and then "embellish" this with my own knowledge and add facts/figures/more info.

Of course, often, especially when arguing against the question, I find that I have to add points that aren't mentioned in the sources. Sometimes I find it's good to at least link these points to the sources in some way, e.g "although source X says bla bla bla, it ignores the fact that bla bla bla".

Having said that I'm no expert on the subject so any advice would be extremely welcome

So the introduction would be like the one you do for section A - a summary of the points you're about to mention. Would you answer the question in the introduction or conclusion?

In terms of own knowledge, I think you're right in saying that you need to add a new point but obviously one that relates to the question. In one of my mocks I only gave more dates and statistics about an event mentioned in one of the sources and my teacher said I didn't use enough own knowledge... I think you should mainly do that when the source is clearly biased or limited in some way. Also, own knowledge is only 16 marks compared to 24 for source work so it's important to not get too carried away. lol

Anyway, that's what I think , I'm no expert either.

For my Sources question, I follow this format for my introduction. It's something I concluded on my own by analyzing some high level essays, so it's not OFFICIAL or anything!

- establish topic
- establish controversy
- refer to sources and their arguments generally
- hypothesis of judgement

Below is an example of an introduction I wrote for a practice essay following the above format:

"After years of oscillating confrontation and co-existence between the two nuclear superpowers, USA and the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 ended the battle of terror that sustained the Cold War. However, the factors that ended the Cold War and their significance have been contested by historians from all sides. Sources 4, 5 and 6 argues for the contribution of different factors to the end of the Cold War, namely the economic and political instability of the Soviet Union, Reagan’s aggressive policies and Gorbachev’s reform ‘failures’. These causes played significant roles in the outcome of the conflict, but Mikhail Gorbachev’s revolutionary leadership was arguably the most important reason for the end of the Cold War."

For those studying the Cold War, which controversy will you guys choose to focus on? The start or the end of the Cold War? I've chosen to answer 'end of Cold War' questions, because I actually feel pretty convicted that Mikhail Gorbachev is awesome! Love his line, "We will rob you of your enemy". Do you guys think though, that it was his reform FAILURE or reform SUCCESS?

If you mean you got 86% rather than 86 UMS in unit 4, you'd need 85/120 UMS in Unit 3 (someone correct me if I'm wrong!)