History a-level!!!

I am currently studying A-levels, and history is very interesting but very difficult, such a big jump from GCSES! So far ive been recieveing D's in my practice essays, I improve by a mark eachtime, however I want to atleast aim for a C this time even though it is practice questions
Anyone have any advice to help?
Will be much appreciated.

I am currently studying A-levels, and history is very interesting but very difficult, such a big jump from GCSES! So far ive been recieveing D's in my practice essays, I improve by a mark eachtime, however I want to atleast aim for a C this time even though it is practice questions
Anyone have any advice to help?
Will be much appreciated.

I was getting D's and E's in my essays at the start of year 12 and I ended up with an A. As long as you listen to teacher's advice you will improve. And obviously do as much extra reading around the topic as you can.

Yeah I'm the same, got mostly C's throughout the year then an A was my actual result. One thing I will say is make sure you revise the knowledge throughout the year, I got there in the end but it caused me a lot of stress trying to cram everything in for history in the revision period.


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Wow you did great!

I did rubbish in practise questions, basically sat and did nothing in my lessons all year. Got an A at AS though, bizarrely. Still think hey mixed my paper up with someone else's... But don't rely on practise essays to tell you what you'll get from the exam, and remember to revise so you don't feel as nervous as I did during the exam!

Just like you, I am also doing As history. The most important things I have learnt is to keep practicing; engrave the structure into your mind, but to also have sophisticated yet detailed knowledge. One thing Which I am also a culprit of is that I tend to over complicate the work more than I actually need to so I guess simplicity is the best method. other than that, I want to wish you the very best of luck in History.


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are you doing russia in revolution and talking about the 30 mark questions? I am doing that too and in my first question I got 13 and the same in my second. In my third one I got 22. I think its really important to focus on the question and link your knowledge to the question at any time you can. To get in the high bands you need a sustained analysis, which means that you should reach a judgement in the intro and again in the conclusion, it allows the marker to realise your essay really does make you think about all the possibilities and you really have a clear judgement/opinion on the questions. Also if the question is a 'How far?' Question then I would speak about the most important event to the least. It shows you have a judgement on how effective each event was.

I was taught that there wasnt really any structure but if you were given a question like.. 'How far do you agree that the Tsar Nicholas II, was the main reason for the 1917 February Revolution?' Then you should really have a different paragraph for each point, you should talk about the effect the Tsar had first then maybe the effect of Rasputin and Tsarina, military performance, political opression and the defiance of the army. Make sure you plan.

Remember practice makes perfect, its only the start of A-levels. I hope I have helped a little bit. What other topics are you doing in History?

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Yep I'm doing Russia in revolution, yeah we have been doing 30 mark questions, in the 1st one I got 14, 2nd one I got 15 and 3rd one I got 16. And great advice, thanks.
The other topics I'm going to do are Stalins Russia and the role of women in Britain like the suffragists and suffragettes. Wbu?
And thanks you have helped, you can be my history study buddy since we doing similar topics! Haha and I'll try and share some resources with you when I can

Oo great! I am also doing Stalin's Russia, but we are not starting that until we have finished Russia in Revolution. You are going the right way to improving atleast you are not going down! Im not doing the same source exam topic as you unfortunately, i am doing Britain and the Nationalist challenge in India, its quite interesting. I recommend the student support books for russia in revolution as its quite colourful!

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Yeah us too, we are nearly finishing Russia's in revolution and thanks, i hope i keep on improving them.&Oooh that topic does sound interesting and haha I take it that you are a visual learner?
Here's a good website for Russia in revolution, it tests you on each topic: http://www.hodderplus.co.uk/myrevisionnotes/a-level-history/russia-in-revolution/index.asp

Ooo thanks for the link I faved it for future reference! Im not really a visual learner but colour is more effective than plain black and white haha. What are you doing in russia now? We just finished 1917 revolution, teacher said we should be done by christmas.

And yeah the indian one is ok, do you prefer source questions? How are you doing on the 20 and 40 mark questions for unit 2? (Not the russian unit).

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Lol its ok and haha yeah true. And we are currently on the civil war, we should too finish by Christmas, only got a few topics left. And we haven't started source questions or unit 2 yet, but I think I do prefer source questions, well in GCSEs I did, lol.
What about you?
What exam board are you doing and what other A-levels you taking?

Ahh, we have two teachers so are doing a unit with each teacher. I am finding source questions much easier at the moment, and im doing edexcel, the same as you! My other A levels are maths psychology and biology, bit random but history is one of my faves

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