OCR History A (New): Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16 & 17 Century Y312

I'm doing this too. I've got the Access to History textbook by Farmer. How am I revising? It's only been like 2 weeks I usually revise things like History by plainly writing out my notes, doing past/potential questions, and making cards.

hi, thanks for replying
lol I meant studing the material not revising soz
I also have the same book are you only using that? I feel like it might not have enough info?? I like the summary diagrams after each section though
also what past papers would you do since this is the first year for this course? there are some at the end of the book but im saving them for later

Our teacher told us we don't need anything more than the book... She said that it's more than enough and it's not about knowing loads of stuff but using examples well and arguing well
So if the book was all I needed im so ready!
If it wasn't then I'm in trouble...

Hi, today I sat the popular culture and witchcraze exam - and I hope it went ok - but all I can is that you are going to need more than the Farmer textbook. Firstly, it is a Hodder Edition, so it isn't specifically for OCR (it can also be used by AQA students) and secondly the examples that are provided are very limited. If you are hoping to get an A you really do need a broad range of books to scout through and find specific examples.
Here is an unofficial reading list I used:
- Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts (Barstow)
- Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (Briggs)
- The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Levack)
- The Witch Reader (Oldridge)
- OCR A Level History B: Different Interpretations of Witch Hunting in Early Modern Europe c.1560-c.1660 (Pickering)
- Witchcraft and Magic in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe (Scarre and Callow)
- The Witch Hunts (Thurston)
- The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries
Using such books will help you to develop a decent bank of evidence, which can be used well when relevant to the argument or theme. I cannot stress enough that you do need a fair amount of impact evidence to demonstrate the relevance and significance of causes, in order to discuss consequences, similarity and differences effectively. Make sure you know exactly what the examiners are looking for and your analysis is consistent. Good luck, you'll do great

(By the way, the questions that came up today were:
1- Evaluate the interpretations in the two passages and explain which you think is a more convincing explanation of the Essex Witch-Hunts in the Seventeenth Century. --> this question focused on geography, nature and frequency
2- Religious attitudes were the main reason for the persecutions of witches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
3- Assess the reasons for the differences in persecutions in different regions (I am sorry I cannot remember the exact wording, this was the question I didn't answer)
4- Large scale witch trials and persecutions of witches were key in characterising the responses of the authorities to witchcraft in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.)

Good luck, oh and if you would like me to send you over my notes as I (hopefully) won't be needing them anymore then by all means give me a shout

Hey guys,

I took the same exam today and I hope I did well! I was pleased to see the Hopkins witch hunt come up as the interpretation question, and the other two thematic essays were quite nice too (hopefully!). I chose questions 2 and 3 (refer to the post 2 above), as I didn't like the look of question 4.

How did the exam go for you guys?

Oh yeah, I felt that the thematic essay questions could've been more diverse rather than just focusing on witch persecutions :/

Yeah I'm feeling pretty confident It does say in the spec that we're not required to know things in 'great detail' soo.. fingers crossed :P What's your approach to the interpretations section?

I really liked the first 2 essay questions - quite easy to talk about. I hope I included enough 'evaluation' and 'analysis' (whatever they actually mean) whilst I was regurgitating my examples :P The talked about Religious changes, changes in the judicial system and the intellectual 'pretext' for the first question, and for the second I mentioned the degree of judicial control, religious zeal, and socioeconomic factors (I would have included scepticism in more detail, but I kinda incorporated it into religious zeal).

I liked the interpretation question, as Farmer's was, in my opinion, substantially more convincing. There wasn't really a lot of room for debate.

How about you?

Dudeeeeeee I wrote pretty much the same stuff as you! I think I wrote too much lol, hopefully i analysed and evaluated enough too...

I agree, Farmer's interpretation was much better than the other one, I felt.

I just felt like the second guy referred to the idea of moral panic in the 16th century causing hunts in the 17th century, and didn't really touch on anything to do with the Civil War. It was quite hard to pick up on areas where Farmer neglected, I felt, considering he listed basically every factor I had in my head :P