Getting an A* in history at a level

Just out of interest what topic did you do for your A2 exam. i'm doing A2 edexcel History and my A2 EXAM IS ON FRANCE 1786-1830 there's 4 topics on : Causes of the French revolution, Reign of Terror,Napoleon and Borboun restoration and Historiography A and B. I'm in process of making my revision notes but in terms of essays i hate writing answers for all the essays so would essay grids do? also did you sue mnemonics and stuff

I did a different exam board but I got an A* in History last year. I was Edexcel.
The way I revised history was I read through the book, or just used summary sheets provided to me by my teacher. I hated writing notes. Rather than writing essays (which would take so much time) I just looked at past exam questions and prepared essay plans.
This way I knew what vague themes I could use depending on what question came up (obviously if allowed by the sources given). I'd really pay attention to essay structure, as that can make or break your essay, regardless of whether you all the facts.
So to summarise; I read/highlighted summary sheets/the book. I made essay plans on questions that have come up, and possible questions we had to do for homework. I made sure I knew the essay structure for each question, and how to answer the question.
Any more questions, just ask/pm me.

Oh that is helpful haha!
Yeah I find that too, I'm doing a bit of wider reading around the subject and watching a few documentaries and I do find the topic interesting but I have the same issue with essays, it just doesn't translate.

And I need it for Cambridge, Jesus College

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Yes, along with all this friends, fact checking is surprisingly easy!

It is very difficult - I find it tricky to make strong, convincing links.

Wow What are you planning to study? My boyfriend went to Cambridge too, and he said all the offers are ridiculously high this year!


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30 mark question, is purely own knowledge as there are no sources. Make sure you introduce your argument in the introduction, like make sure you present your argument, and list down your paragraph themes in the introduction. Define the key words, put the question into context. Also if you know the answer you're going to give, give it here, such as X was the main reason that war broke out in 1939.

Paragraph 1 - the theme in the question, use that as your first paragraph and argue the point from that theme.
Paragraph 2 - if your main argument, or answer to the question is different from the theme given in the question prompt, then this is where you'd put that theme.
Paragraph 3/4/5 - use these paragraphs to answer the rest of the question using the rest of your themes. I was told to always have 4 themes atleast, but you can still make a good argument with 3.

To conclude, reiterate your points, and state the final answer to your question.

Remember to link back to the question before and after each paragraph. So reason x is why the war started in 1939. and to finish something like, these reasons therefore show how reason x caused the our break of war in 1939.

For the 40 marker, I'm a bit more rusty on this. Just remember to get all your themes from your sources. Don't introduce any themes, only use those brought up by the sources given. Remember PEE, state your point, use the source to give evidence, and then explain it as required, in the 40 mark question use own knowledge.
Also try and cross link the sources, so for example you make a PEE from source A, and then you say source B supports source A where it states this...and make another point.
The stuff about linking to the question and introduction/conclusion should be used across all essays, regardless.

I can't really think of much else, so yeah hopefully this helps! It's been a while since I've written a history essay

Wow! Thank you so much! I had no idea about this stuff!! This will hopefully improve my grade

Please double check it with the mark scheme though, bare in mind I've not written an essay in a while, but I think it's largely right!

I'm hoping to study history, and yeah I've heard of a few private school offers being like A*A*A, luckily my offer is only A*AA

I'm doing the Britain 1918-1964 paper too and predicted an a* for a level. But, am currently doing my nut in with the coursework!

I am also doing AQA and I am predicted an A*.
My course is the making of modern Britain 1951-2008

My exam is going to be two 45 mark essay questions, is that the same with yours?

Causes of Tudor rebellion, pretty boring but plenty to bang on about. Must've written 'debate' about a thousand times..

I'm doing the making of modern Britain too eughhh

I was finding it okay but now come revision time it's SO dull having to go all the way back to the 50s and start looking at it all again.

Do you prefer breadth or depth questions?

I really liked this course tbh, very simple concepts to understand, and lots of areas for debate plus there are loads of documentaries on YouTube if you get bored of reading notes.

I don't know why everyone is calling them breadth questions in our class we call them "synoptic" questions. Our teacher is really weird though, and we haven't actually done any synoptic practice questions or anything, so I have no idea whether I prefer them or not. I think I'd prefer the depth ones though, seems like it would be much easier to talk about one specific era tbh.

There's areas for debate alright

Teehee, if I start calling them synoptic questions then I think I'd get bullied in the class We've just started doing them. It's quite good revision actually but our teacher's urged us to begin practicing them by including everything so we get a feel for the range of evidence we can include and OH my, does that take planning

how much revision are you doing for it? and do you just make notes from a textbook or something else?

Oh that is helpful haha!
Yeah I find that too, I'm doing a bit of wider reading around the subject and watching a few documentaries and I do find the topic interesting but I have the same issue with essays, it just doesn't translate.

And I need it for Cambridge, Jesus College