The Student Room Group

Please help me with British Political History! Really depressed.

Ok, thanks for looking. Where do I start? I'm currently really depressed and don't know what to do. The rest of my AS subjects are fine even the other topics I'm studying in AS history, but the British Political History Unit is so confusing. From september I have hardly learnt or remembered anything. I've never done anything like it in the past. Find it too challenging to memorise all the content that I am thought. And feel as if Im coming towards a dead end with just a few months left till my exam. I've just been reading notes/ text books absolutely baffled.

I am willing to put out a lot of hours to this! And focus really hard on it, but don't know how to start. Can anyone help? Any advice would be highly appreciated. Like for example: what can i do in the next 1-2 months that'd take me from an E to at least a C. How can i memorise everything and become good at doing history, british political history in particular? Also any books recommended to me would be highly appreciated. PLEASE help out, seriously stressed.
many thanks
which exam board? and which particular era of British History?
Reply 2
Hey
Are you with Edexel? If so I struggled with the same unit last year, gettings Es in my essays right up until May.
If your willing to put in the hours then thats really all it takes. I ended up with an A. There are two key things to history as level, remembering facts & figures and essay technique.

It really depends on the person how you remember things. I read the textbook and make notes, then flash cards to test myself with. Mindmaps and timelines are also good.

With essay technique have a look at the Examiner's Report on the Edexcel site and make notes on what they say is included in a good essay - ask your teacher to check this. Then practise practise practise! Each essay you do ask your teacher what key things could be improved - rewriting them helps alot. I found that just making the essay plans were really good for memorising facts as it included recalling them and applying.

Lastly, remember that whatever facts you learn now you probably wont remember come June. So keep going over it, and revise intensely in June itself.

Rather alot to read but I hope this helps! Its such a dull unit 😝
Reply 3
Original post by EmilyG123
Hey
Are you with Edexel? If so I struggled with the same unit last year, gettings Es in my essays right up until May.
If your willing to put in the hours then thats really all it takes. I ended up with an A. There are two key things to history as level, remembering facts & figures and essay technique.

It really depends on the person how you remember things. I read the textbook and make notes, then flash cards to test myself with. Mindmaps and timelines are also good.

With essay technique have a look at the Examiner's Report on the Edexcel site and make notes on what they say is included in a good essay - ask your teacher to check this. Then practise practise practise! Each essay you do ask your teacher what key things could be improved - rewriting them helps alot. I found that just making the essay plans were really good for memorising facts as it included recalling them and applying.

Lastly, remember that whatever facts you learn now you probably wont remember come June. So keep going over it, and revise intensely in June itself.

Rather alot to read but I hope this helps! Its such a dull unit 😝


Thanks so much for your help! Congrats on getting an A! Going to dedicate alot of hours per week to study this topic from now. Hopefully I'll do good. Just that theres so much content & not sure which bits I should try and remember off by heart etc.. Thanks again
Reply 4
Original post by AndrewGrace
which exam board? and which particular era of British History?


Hi , thanks for looking. It's the Edexcel exam board and it's the years 19-45-1990 I believe. Any advice/help on how to literally start from very little knowledge to get decent grades would be incredibly helpful! Thanks!
Original post by tommy458
Hi , thanks for looking. It's the Edexcel exam board and it's the years 19-45-1990 I believe. Any advice/help on how to literally start from very little knowledge to get decent grades would be incredibly helpful! Thanks!


I haven't studied this period but the advice goes for any course:

First of all, go on the exam board's website and download the course specification so you know exactly what you need to be learning

Get the basic course textbook and use that as a base for your learning and knowledge

As a starting point i would recommend making notes in a standard note format (this will be modified when you come to revise)

When you feel yourself getting to grips with the course content, you should then be looking at doing as many exam questions as possible and looking to constantly improve your exam technique (I will look through any essays you complete, if you wish)

As you get to grips with the basic knowledge, you need to supplement this with advanced knowledge and historiography (quotes/opinions from historians), which need incorporating into your essays

Each time you finish a particular sub-topic (on the specification), you need to begin converting your notes into revision materials; the best ones are probably mind-maps, revision cards or revision tables. (Note revision needs to be active, simple passive note reading isn't going to cut it unfortunately)
Reply 6
Original post by tommy458
Thanks so much for your help! Congrats on getting an A! Going to dedicate alot of hours per week to study this topic from now. Hopefully I'll do good. Just that theres so much content & not sure which bits I should try and remember off by heart etc.. Thanks again


No problem! Thanks:smile: You can always just cover your worst area briefly as it probably won't come up and even if it does you can just choose the other question (as there is always a choice)

Good luck!
Reply 7
Original post by AndrewGrace
I haven't studied this period but the advice goes for any course:

First of all, go on the exam board's website and download the course specification so you know exactly what you need to be learning

Get the basic course textbook and use that as a base for your learning and knowledge

As a starting point i would recommend making notes in a standard note format (this will be modified when you come to revise)

When you feel yourself getting to grips with the course content, you should then be looking at doing as many exam questions as possible and looking to constantly improve your exam technique (I will look through any essays you complete, if you wish)

As you get to grips with the basic knowledge, you need to supplement this with advanced knowledge and historiography (quotes/opinions from historians), which need incorporating into your essays

Each time you finish a particular sub-topic (on the specification), you need to begin converting your notes into revision materials; the best ones are probably mind-maps, revision cards or revision tables. (Note revision needs to be active, simple passive note reading isn't going to cut it unfortunately)



Wow! Thanks so much. Can't explain how much you just helped me. Needed some sort of guidance to kick it off. Highly appreciate it! Will definitely send you an essay sometimen thanks again!
Reply 8
I often use simple lists when starting out. Two lists that might be useful here are (a) a list of all the key people, and (b) a list of all the main events with dates. Those are very simple starting points for your outline understanding. Some events occur over time eg wars so you can make sub lists. Now as you read your sources you can add in the details.
Mind maps are amazing too. Even just the act of making them up forces us to organise our information and that alone makes it memorable. Good luck. I firmly believe that in virtually any subject huge progress can be made in just a few weeks with constant application and effort.
Absolutely ^ as the point above me states, one excellent thing i would recommend is to construct a timeline of all the key events throughout the period

Quick Reply

Latest