AQA A2 HISTORY: The Triumph of Elizabeth, 1547-1603 Offical Thread. 2nd June 2014.

Susan Doran believed it "burnt out" on its own due to the length of Elizabeth's reign rather than due to Elizabeth's actions of neutralising it

Yes but the reasons it burnt out were also due to Elizabeth's conciliatory policy which allowed Catholicism to 'wither on the vine.' Doran was relatively positive regarding the virtues of the Elizabethan Settlement, so you can use her as a historian supporting its inclusive nature in the broad success Elizabeth had achieved in defeating Catholicism by the end of the reign.


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I really hope there's a question on religion over the three reigns and one about Elizabeth's reign and whether or not it was a success or something like that... i'm screwed if there are questions on anything to do with government and a dodgy fp policy :/

I really hope there's a question on religion over the three reigns and one about Elizabeth's reign and whether or not it was a success or something like that... i'm screwed if there are questions on anything to do with government and a dodgy fp policy :/

this came up last year so it probably won't be religion again! hopefully it'll be religion for Elizabeth though as that hasn't come up for a while!

yeahh, something on puritans being a threat or how successful were they or something would be quite nice or if her settlement was a success... I really hope it's not a horrible paper :/

yeah puritans would be sooo good, like wouldn't be as difficult to write an essay on that and there hasn't been a direct question on that whereas there has been one on the catholic threat. Hope there isn't a horrible foreign policy one

What do you mean by the conciliatory policy?

Okay so even though I started revision pretty late I'm pretty confident with Edward and Mary's reign & Elizabeth's settlement and Foreign Policy.

Is there anything I should definitely put my focus on?

Could anyone give an idea as to what you should ideally include in order to reach high level 4/ level 5 and the differences between them? The mark scheme is so vague - what's the difference between a highly analytical level 4 answer and a highly analytical level 5 answer? Last minute exam nerves have truly set in so any advice would be greatly appreciated

I agree it's difficult to tell the difference in the mark scheme itself.

However, the way examiners mark is essentially as follows:

1. Place it into a band (L3/L5 eg)
2. Determine whether upper or lower end of that band
3. Assign mark/45

So basically between L4 and L5 they are looking at the overall quality of the essay. Good structure, focus on the q, detailed evidence, good use of English etc are all essential.

I think a good conclusion is really the key distinction between a high L4 and low-middle L5. This isn't GCSE RS so you need to do more than say 'I agree/disagree' and reiterate your arguments; instead, offer judgement explicitly in relation to the question. For instance, if a q like 'Elizabeth failed domestically and in foreign policy 1558-71', perhaps argue that she succeeded internally but failed abroad, or however you've taken the essay overall. Don't have 4 paragraphs supporting the statement and then disagree with it at the end!

Hope this is useful, just my thoughts. And relax before Monday, just go over your stuff and I'm sure you will be fine.


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i'm wondering if they'll do a 'how serious a threat were the puritans to Elizabeth?' like they did with the Catholic question a couple year backs. As much as I don't like fp I'd take it over government or the later years any day!

Thank you so much, that's so helpful!

So, if the first thing examiners do is place you in a band it must be important to immediately display qualities relevant to a certain band.

Does that mean the deciding factor between Level 3 and 4 for example is synopticity? Sorry if this seems like a redundant question after your really informative answer, I'm just worried that no matter how good certain elements are (e.g. analysis) I will fail to meet certain requirements of Level 4/5, automatically restricting my grade.

Sorry if this is confusing! Again, any help would be greatly appreciated

Can anyone summarise the following Foreign Policy events for me? Some of my notes are lacking detail.

-1562 intervention in France
...