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How to get A/A* in GCSE History?

I am taking GCSE History at the moment and I was wondering how to get a really good grade, revision and exam tips are very welcome. :smile:

I am studying Germany 1918-1939 and Medicine Through Time.

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Reply 1

Fusionflare

It's quite simple really. You do the work and everything your teacher tells you to do, instead of wasting time on the internet asking what you already know.

Reply 2

Guru Jason

Dates, and statistics. Always remember these when making a points. Quotes also do well. Especially Germany 1918-39. Did this at GCSE and Alevel, (well Anglo-German Relations anyway ).

Reply 3

EmilPhoque

Learn all key dates and impressive facts. Learn the way in which you answer the question, concentrating on your own personal opinion.
I also found it helpful to do a whole booklet on every key event and write the effects of them. Germany is a pretty easy exam as long as you answer what the question asks.

I got full marks in that paper so if you need any help understanding anything (events etc), let me know.

Reply 4

Armani786

I'm doing GCSE history too.... what exam board are you with?
We got told that if we learn all the key facts then the exam will be easy. know how to answer each question and get the full marks needed. I think if you make cue cards there helpful for each topic. :smile:

Reply 5

BC95

Hi there, to get an A* at GCSE history I stuck the the PEE (point, evidence, explain) system religiously. The point and the explain are the simple parts, the evidence is about learning dates and facts. Personally to memorise facts I used mnemonics.

Reply 6

sneakbo2

What I'm gonna do for the unit 1 is learn 3 key features for every event, that way you can answer the 2 mark and 6 mark questions, and 3 key features of one event is enough for a paragraph in the 12 mark answers to get full marks, I think this should work

Reply 7

mr96

I made a timeline and learnt basically every singe date!
Also learn how to answer each type of question (I managed to get from an E to A* by doing this).

Reply 8

JakiaC

The thing about Life In Germany is you can know all the stuff and not get an A*, been their done that...you MUST do exam practice. All the papers you can get your hands on- thats the difference between an A* and a B

Reply 9

Xmarksthesh0t

I got an A in this part of the history gcse, all I did was remember the dates like mad, every single one :smile:

obliviously learnt the rest in class but the dates gave me a start on which I could expand :smile:

Reply 10

venenecinema

I got an A* and created a huge timeline of events along with my other research.

Reply 11

samuelsupress

buy a revison book,read it done.

Reply 12

TheGoonerGirl

Original post by daemonium

I am taking GCSE History at the moment and I was wondering how to get a really good grade, revision and exam tips are very welcome. :smile:

I am studying Germany 1918-1939 and Medicine Through Time.

We are studying exactly the same topics! I nearly got an A on a practice test on Nazi Germany, was just off by one mark from achieving the grade. I just had to mention one tiny thing that would have taken just a few seconds to write out and I would have gotten that A grade!

Criteria. I looked at the criteria and made revision notes on cards in the areas I wasn't particularly confident in. E.g. Hitler's rise to power and the political parties that were fighting to gain control over Germany at the time.

Not to mention, my fancy handwriting is annoying because it forces me write so slowly or no one can read it. I'd suggest also learning how to write faster if you want to finish the exams in time because it's extremely difficult having to write a lengthy answer and explanation in such a short amount of time.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

Maxmeisterrr

I'm doing Germany too however I'm doing America also. Anyway remember keywords, names and what they like like Goebbels, Roehm, Hess etc.

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Reply 14

Dylann

I did Life in Germany last June and got a D. Resat this January and got an A. I got 88 UMS marks and 89 UMS was an A*. My teacher showed me that I got 48.4 marks (never knew you could get half-marks, I'm pretty sure you can't!) and 49 was an A*.

I didn't revise at all for the Germany resit until 3 days before the exam (yes, 3 days) I basically sat down each night and copied word for word this revision text which I downloaded (If you reply to this I'll upload it somewhere cause I can't find it online!).

Obviously that's not a generally good way of revising unless you keep reading through thoroughly which I kinda did. I revised around 4 hours each night. I'm generally quite good at writing naturally so that wasn't a problem. I know that they've introduced SPaG which could get you a few extra marks!

Note that it isn't essential to practice exam questions, but I would get familiar with the timings for each question and the general structure (how many paragraphs) for each question.

Remember Life in Germany and Medicine through time are only 2 out of the 4 SHP units (Schools history project). One is a controlled assessment which is ridiculously easy, the questions you are given are so so so broad. The other unit (which I'm currently studying, law protest and order) is more source-based and is different to the style of the other exams.

If you want to get an A/A*, just think, "I'm going to get an A/A*"

Reply 15

Chlorophile

Exam technique.

You can know every single fact you need to know, yet still completely fail your exam. You need to know how to structure perfect answers, so practice them (and to time, since there's a lot of time pressure in the exam). Also, make sure you understand the causation and sequence of events as well as just the facts, since you're going to need to apply knowledge in unknown situations (especially in paper 2).

Reply 16

yorkshire.lad

you dont do any work, if you are worrying about GCSE wait until A-levels haha.. i walked into my history exams/controlled assessments having gone through a revision guide literally an hour before and still came out with an A*

Reply 17

JackTheNerd

For Germany I bought a book, that was really good, not sure if you have it already but I highly highly advise that you buy it, it's made by the exam board so there isn't too much or too little information. A lot of Germany is knowing what you're talking about, understanding the event, but being able to specifically say why that caused something to happen, or had ' ' effect. Here it is

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-GCSE-History-Schools-Project/dp/1846904447/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363476603&sr=8-8

Another book I got was focusing on Exam skills, actually teaching you what to write, the skills you need, to interpret sources and develop a greater understanding of events. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-GCSE-History-Schools-Project/dp/1846904447/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363476603&sr=8-8

The sources ones are pretty hard imo, I'm in year 12 doing AS history and I'm still slacking on sources analysis. I didn't do as well compared to my Germany exam. Germany's pretty simple, if you know your stuff you'll get an A*. Obviously with the help of practice past papers.