A-level history

Can anyone give me some advice on A-level history? As I'm taking it at GCSE, I got an A* in the coursework, I get A's in the mocks and I can also retain the necessary information quite well. I'm just not entirely sure as to how hard it will be and whether or not an A at GCSE would necessarily equate to an A at A-level.
Any help would be appreciated

I had an A* in GCSE History. A at AS and currently in A2, with a prediction of A (had an A in the mock exam).

It is a step up from GCSE, for definite. Though I'm doing WJEC which I've not found many others doing, plus you will be doing the new spec which I have heard is harder as there is more content to cover in the time than when I did it.

Typically it seems you go to A Level and teachers tell you that some of the techniques you learnt at GCSE are wrong to do at A Level. I found this difficult mostly for writing the essay questions, because the layout was different than what I'd done well with at GCSE, in fact my A level teacher told me that at GCSE history they "ruin you". In regards to the coursework it is also harder but I've not found it that bad, and not much different to my GCSE coursework, there's just more to getting the marks and more time that needs to be spent on it.

Do you know what exam board you do?

I do history A Level (year 12), and if you're on the same board as us (AQA I think), it is a MASSIVE step up

For GCSE, if you did OCR or similar, the biggest question was about 9 marks or so at the end of the paper. Lots of little questions. Analysing a cartoon, etc etc.

For A Level, there's two questions per paper 25 marks each. A source analysis question (two written sources are given, and the question is something like "using your knowledge of the time period and the sources, which is more useful to a historian studying the US's involvement in Asia from 1949-1960) and then a choice of two questions that will be something like "to what extent did Henry VII achieve his objectives from 1485-1509"
The MASSIVE step up here, really is the essay writing skills. At GCSE, imo, you can learn a simple structure and with good contextual knowledge get full marks. However at A Level there is SO MUCH emphasis placed on analytical skills which really are difficult to get to grips with. But don't let this put you off it is still interesting and with essay practice you will get there in the end

However, an A at GCSE will not necessarily equate to an A at A-Level. It could, definitely, but don't just assume because you did it at GCSE you're sorted for A Level; as long as you do all the work, read around the subject etc etc, there is no reason you can't do just as well. (But don't let your GCSE grades make you complacent!)

Any questions just ask

As others have said, it's a big step from GCSE to A Level, but I've personally found that's because the analysis is more demanding than GCSE and those GCSE skills are practically useless (my teacher said they were useful for the source analysis on our Nazi Germany paper, but that was certainly not true; we analysed the sources totally differently!). I did/am doing AQA, and I got an A last year in AS after an A* on the same exam board for GCSE, and I'm predicted (and got in my mock) an A* at A2 Level. I've found that AS is much harder than A2, but that's unlikely the case with the new A Level.

However - if you like History, you're willing to read around a bit and you're okay with sitting down and just learning bits of it (more Historians than dates, believe it or not) then I'd say it's a very enjoyable and worthwhile A Level. I feel like I've got a lot out of it, and I'll be sad to leave it behind (though not totally - Historical Linguistics ftw) for my degree. I would advocate History any day - but please don't expect to get by on little to no work and don't expect it to naturally flow from an A at GCSE to an A at A Level. After all, in my first essays for AS I was getting Ds, and I came out with 100% in one of the papers. It's about steady perserverance.

When you say that that's unlikely to be the case with the new A-level, is that because AS will be easier and A2 harder or is it that AS will remain as difficult but they are just going to make A2 harder?

I said that because I assumed you'd be doing a linear A-Level, meaning you wouldn't have AS exams... It's hard to keep up though, so History might not be changing yet? I'm not sure - if it still has an AS, I suspect it'll be the same as it is now; the reason A2 is easier is because once coursework is done you have only half the amount to learn for exams compared to AS History.

Uhhh, I 'believe' that we do edexel but I'm not entirely sure.
What sort if things do they give you in the sources? Is it like GCSE where they'll provide a picture or written text about something significant in that period and ask for how it's useful or is it different?

In your opinion how much extra work should you put in at A-level?

Thanks for your reply btw