Alevel history - whats it like really

Do you do edexcel?

I'm in Y12 and got an A at GCSE level and predicted a B for my AS.

It's hard, really hard.

Your 'breadth' unit is both in depth and breadth, unlike GCSE so there is A LOT to remember it's literally just called breadth because it's studying a longer period of time. Your 'depth' unit is in a huge amount of detail and you could be looking at a 30 year time period as well.

Luckily both your two units usually go together - so I'm doing Fascist Italy and Germany 1918-89, the fascism in 20th century Europe route for my AS!

It is really interesting though but there is a lot of writing, research, presenting and reading. Just for two exams I have 3 textbooks, 2 additional books and 5 extra reading books. The exam is also quite difficult with the way it works, however the depth unit is more like the GCSE exam. Your breadth unit is examined in a 2hr and 15min exam and you have to write 3 20 mark essays.

I am loving the depth we're going into, the essays and the fact we get to do presentations - AND MY CLASS HAS LIKE 5 OTHER PEOPLE IN!

It's taken like 8 weeks to 'bridge' the gap between GCSE and A-level, unlike my other subjects where it would be overcome in a week or even a day.

oh right ive been a bit put off it to be honest now... thankyou thou for helping me

I did A level OCR History for Tudor rebellions and Russia in turmoil, the course is pretty easy. For Tudor rebellions you just have to learn the rebellions and the factors in the rebellions and talk about sources and provenance. In Russia in turmoil you answer two essay questions on importance of a factor or how an individuals actions led to something etc, you just have to write about points link them, and use some key words and descriptions for high marks. It requires a lot to remember and lots of essay plans to learn.

It is similar to GCSE in some ways for analysing sources but the essay writing is a lot different.

no AQA, WBU?

#reasonswhyiamonlydoingtheas

I've got 45 markers in politics next year though, *throws up*

I used to think I liked essays. After my grades I didn't.

I like history. Some aspects are boring but It's worth it to learn more about the past and how things worked then. I'm better at science though but picked History because I enjoyed it. If it's something you like then you should do it as you would get better grades but for some reason It didn't work that way for me (general consensus in my subject is that they need to change the way they're teaching as they've marked our essays wrong internally and so when we had our exams they were underperformed). To be clear I got a grade C, but am capable of A grades.

Yeah but they're so long they hurt your hand.

why?

Edexcel!

I'm quite happy about that because they're just a much better exam board with much better markers lol.

there are 25 mark questions...

Hey
For me, A level history led on quite nicely from GCSE, there wasn't a huge jump in anything other than workload. Be prepared to do a lot of work- but sometimes the work can be really interesting as you're getting really deeply into a subject and find that you can really debate and analyse historical themes. The amount you learn is really amazing, but it doesn't come without lots of hard work. Also, if your school offers a topic that you're not really interested in, I wouldn't recommend it- I did history to AS, got an A, but then dropped it because I had no interest whatsoever in either of the A2 topics and I'd found the first few weeks painfully boring.
Basically, if the topics your school covers interest you: do it!! If not, it's an awful lot of work for something you won't really enjoy.

I had a 70 marker for my AS

The learning about it makes up for the essays in my opinion.

I wish I had've done politics, i'm going to do it and economics at uni next year if i get in. Also some people I know who do geography have 60 mark questions.

lol i dislike edexcel after..well we all know what

They should supply us with plasters at the end of the exam, I get 'pen blisters'

Last thing, if you're not doing that great in your GCSE essays - it doesn't mean you'll do badly with your A-level ones!

I was averaging 11 or 12 out of 16 for GCSEs yet my first couple of essays have been getting around 17/20!

I feel ya (even tho I did OCR Maths!)

Whats maths like??

A-level maths?