OCR A2 Level History: Russia and its Rulers 1855-1964 - General Discussion Thread

Just wanted to create a thread for people doing this exam on 12th June. Thought we could bounce ideas and revision techniques and general stuff relating to the course.
:smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

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Reply 1

jennavievexx

I have no idea how to start revising for this :frown:

any tips?

Reply 2

Purple Giraffe

Good idea.

I given up hope of getting an A in this subject. I just constantly get Bs and it's demoralising after putting loads of work in.

I'll be watching for any revision tips anyone has to offer!

Reply 3

That Bearded Man

Russian History :smile:

Reply 4

diamond-1

anybody think they know whats going to cum ?

Reply 5

procrastination...

Yeah I'm struggling with the revision, I found making huge mind maps last year and then stuck them on my bedroom wall so I could look at them and stuff. I'm dreading the exam and I definitely don't feel ready!

Reply 6

dansol

Original post by procrastination...

Just wanted to create a thread for people doing this exam on 15th June. Thought we could bounce ideas and revision techniques and general stuff relating to the course.
:smile:

Isn't the exam on the 12th of June?

Reply 7

procrastination...

Original post by dansol

Isn't the exam on the 12th of June?

Ooops, yes it is. I keep making that mistake, for some reason I've got it in my head that it's on the 15th. :P

Reply 8

NikkiB12

Second time im sitting this exam!
Found it harder the first time but revising second time round is actually better as my teacher explained to split the question into themes.
e.g. today we did an autocracy question and whether it continued from the tsars to communists and split it into themes like ideology, repression, censorship and propaganda and coming to an overall judgement at the end of each paragraph and then a conclusion at the end. TIP - make sure you set your argument in the intro as well.

major tip which i only found out was not to go into detail about what reforms were e.g. social reforms economic just mention them as examples as the examiner already knows what they are.

As long as you are synthesising the whole way through as well as analysing and evaluating all should be good!!

Reply 9

peelin

Anyone have a long list of statistics and/or quotes? Definitely the most tedious bit to learn. I've been compiling population stats, industrial output, state murders etc. but still feeling a bit thin. Also, historians can never seem to agree which makes it even more irritating to get a comprehensive list.

Reply 10

Ccoe16

The only ones I tend to use are when describing Stalin, he was sometimes known as the 'Engineer of human souls' due to his lack of care for human lives.
Does anyone have an idea what's going to come up in June?!
Getting worried now! :s-smilie:

Reply 11

Ccoe16

Also tips for revising, i've been making mind maps with past exam questions in with the themes i'd use and how i'd contrast the leaders with each other!
Stops me writing chronologically and more thematically!

Reply 12

peelin

There's always a nature of government question, other than that it's not really something you can predict.

Reply 13

procrastination...

I've been making gigantic mindmaps (stuck 4 A3 sheets of paper together!!) and stuck them on my wall. The plan is to do one for every section of the ocr textbook so I've got a lot of content sorted. I find revising the content the worst part, I find it boring for starters which makes it even harder to revise. I plan on making a big document of facts/figures/quotes for the different section so I've got all of the information in one place.
Might try to do essay plans for the past questions, a lot of people in my class have done things like that and it might come in useful for the exam as something similar might come up so I could manipulate my plans to fit the question in the exam.
Still feel like I haven't found my favourite way to revise for History though, I just hope that it works.
Hope this helps you guys, let me know what techniques you use!

Reply 14

Zic0094

Hi Im just revising over past questions and I was wondering if a question asks about the working class of Russia, such as 'how far did the working class of Russia suffer more from the communists than the tsars' would u just talk about the urban working class? I've noticed some past questions specify urban working class but others dont and I wasn't sure whether u would talk about the peasants as well in this question? Or just the urban proletariat :smile:

hope everyone is getting on ok with revision

Reply 15

Immi :)

Original post by Zic0094

hope everyone is getting on ok with revision

The working classes does really mean just urban workers, only talk about peasants if specified or says stuff like "people of russia"....i think at least!

Reply 16

Luccy.

Original post by Immi :)

The working classes does really mean just urban workers, only talk about peasants if specified or says stuff like "people of russia"....i think at least!

Yeah the only time you could mention the peasants is around the Civil War and the NEP/First five year plan when masses of peasants moved to the cities to become the proletariat. They really were just peasants in the factories though no training etc and that's when it's acceptable.

Also revision for this is boring and I can't wait until it's over. gah.

Reply 17

Immi :)

Can anyone give me any advice on how best to answer a question on social and economic conditions/ reforms? I'm probably making it hard for myself but really struggling!

Thanks

Reply 18

Flopsidoodle

Economics- successes and groups lives improved paragraph?
economics- failures and groups repressed.

Then repeat with social!

Look for continuity and change with both economics and social, eg paranoia to be a super power and better than the west?

Not sure :/

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 19

barneybewick

can anybody help me on how to structure a question on war and the development of government? fairly sure i shouldn't be going through each war chronologically but am struggling to find a way to do it well!

Thanks