GCSE AQA History 9-1

Hi all,
I am currently a year 11 history student, struggling majorly in revising effectively, and attaining a good grade (B/6 +) in GCSE History. I am currently studying Conflict & tension in The Cold War 1945-1972, Russia 1894-1945, Britain: Health & the People c.1000- present day, and Elizabethan England, on the new spec (9-1) on the exam board AQA.
The best grade i have gotten this year was a 4, which is just scraping a pass (C-). My target grade is an 8 (A*) and in my current predicament, I am finding this incredibly daunting, and unachievable. I am a visual learner and can get easily distracted and tend to procrastinate when revising for subjects i don't like (aka HISTORY)
If anyone has any tips on how to revise effectively, apply my knowledge to exam questions etc and achieve the best i possibly can, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Ellie

Reply 1

lenalong02

7

Original post by Ejmwilson02

Hi all,
I am currently a year 11 history student, struggling majorly in revising effectively, and attaining a good grade (B/6 +) in GCSE History. I am currently studying Conflict & tension in The Cold War 1945-1972, Russia 1894-1945, Britain: Health & the People c.1000- present day, and Elizabethan England, on the new spec (9-1) on the exam board AQA.
The best grade i have gotten this year was a 4, which is just scraping a pass (C-). My target grade is an 8 (A*) and in my current predicament, I am finding this incredibly daunting, and unachievable. I am a visual learner and can get easily distracted and tend to procrastinate when revising for subjects i don't like (aka HISTORY)
If anyone has any tips on how to revise effectively, apply my knowledge to exam questions etc and achieve the best i possibly can, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Ellie

Hi,
I'm on AQA too, studying different topics. Personally to revise I always write up my history lesson on revision cards relatively soon after the lesson so it's fresh in my mind. I then get others to test me on my cards. As far as answering exam questions go, my teacher constantly has us answering exam questions in class, and has given us a plan of how to answer the different questions, so maybe your teacher has a similar resource? Practise truly does make perfect, so maybe doing specimen papers and getting your teacher to mark them could be beneficial?

Reply 2

s.cross

5

For the longer studies like health and the people, consider the change due to different factors. For example how new technology affected development of medicine and begin with medieval up to present day. Do the same with things like religion, role of the individual, war and conflict etc. Hope this helps (p.s I’m hoping for an 8 but currently sitting at a 6ish)

Reply 3

FlaccidStem

4

I am studying Medicine, Weimar and Nazi Germany, Anglo-Saxon and Norman England and The American West for Edexcel GCSE history.

I am finding it extremely difficult too, for both knowledge and exam technique. You are definitely not alone.

If there are some good revision guides for your course, buy them

You absolutely MUST read and refer to mark schemes. They will help you focus on what you need to do to gain full marks, despite that they are extremely difficult to understand, as it csn be very subjective.

Focus on what each question requires of you in terms of knowledge. You then use your content to eliminate information that you won’t need to learn.

Ultimately, it is certainly not feasible to learn everything from the textbook. I wish I could know everything from my revision guides too, but you mustn’t let the stress, perfectionism, or anxiety overwhelm you and implode your brain.

Contact me if you need any help for any other GCSE subjects, or just want to chat about GCSE history.

Reply 4

MimiElf

9

Original post by Ejmwilson02

Hi all,
I am currently a year 11 history student, struggling majorly in revising effectively, and attaining a good grade (B/6 +) in GCSE History. I am currently studying Conflict & tension in The Cold War 1945-1972, Russia 1894-1945, Britain: Health & the People c.1000- present day, and Elizabethan England, on the new spec (9-1) on the exam board AQA.
The best grade i have gotten this year was a 4, which is just scraping a pass (C-). My target grade is an 8 (A*) and in my current predicament, I am finding this incredibly daunting, and unachievable. I am a visual learner and can get easily distracted and tend to procrastinate when revising for subjects i don't like (aka HISTORY)
If anyone has any tips on how to revise effectively, apply my knowledge to exam questions etc and achieve the best i possibly can, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Ellie

Hey Ellie,

If you're a visual learner, you may find Seneca Learning helpful. They have some of the modules you said you do, and it's lots of images and videos to help you learn the information, as well as testing etc. I've found it's helped my massively :smile:

Reply 5

galaxy1008

11

Original post by Ejmwilson02

Hi all,
I am currently a year 11 history student, struggling majorly in revising effectively, and attaining a good grade (B/6 +) in GCSE History. I am currently studying Conflict & tension in The Cold War 1945-1972, Russia 1894-1945, Britain: Health & the People c.1000- present day, and Elizabethan England, on the new spec (9-1) on the exam board AQA.
The best grade i have gotten this year was a 4, which is just scraping a pass (C-). My target grade is an 8 (A*) and in my current predicament, I am finding this incredibly daunting, and unachievable. I am a visual learner and can get easily distracted and tend to procrastinate when revising for subjects i don't like (aka HISTORY)
If anyone has any tips on how to revise effectively, apply my knowledge to exam questions etc and achieve the best i possibly can, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Ellie

I think the best way to revise, especially as it gets closer to the exams, is to do practice questions. For example for Russia, Q6 will always be a 12 mark question that asks you two compare the effects of two factors on a particular event. So get used to those types of questions. Obviously you need to know the content first - if you easily get distracted, I would advise watching YouTube videos. There is a lot on pretty much every topic and it keeps reivison from getting super boring.

Reply 6

allybusybee

2

Hi! I’m also doing AQA History. I’m studying Germany Democracy and Dictatorship, Conflict and Tension (lead up to WW1), Power and the People and Elizabethan England. I’m predicted an 8 and am working on an 8 most of the time, otherwise 7. I don’t like History either, by here are a few things that help me personally.

For the chronological studies like the first two I mentioned, understand the timeline of events. This helps so much with being able to make LINKS which factor into why things happen e.g. X did this to Y because of the event Z. This helps the examiner distinguish you as a high ability student. I use mindmaps to summarise but also link events. Do lots of exam questions to understand how to apply knowledge. Use AQA mark schemes but our teacher has taught us to have a writing style that is a lot more developed, so try to go further than the mark schemes to ensure a good grade.
Seneca Learning has some topics up, which is good to skim through for an initial understanding. Don’t base your revision on it though.

For longer studies, make sure you understand the different factors of an event like someone mentioned earlier. Mindmaps, flashcards, anything that can actively help you remember. For Elizabethan England, make sure you NAIL the Hardwick Hall question. Know that building inside out; if you can get your teacher to mark a 16 mark on it via email or something, because you can’t afford to lose significant marks on that.

Recite these events to yourself or someone like they’re something that happened yesterday. Tell yourself in the mirror. I like recording any event that I particularly find hard to remember as an audio clip and listening to myself whenever - when I’m eating, brushing my teeth, car journeys. Get creative. Once you know the events it’s honestly easy to attain high marks!

Reply 7

Ejmwilson02

OP

4

Hi thanks for replying! The history department at my school is actually pretty weak- almost no resources, endless amounts of supply teachers etcDue to this, i also have no resources for hardwick hall, and am completely freaking out about this!! Do you know where I can find any online? Thanks again, Ellie

Reply 8

gcses2018

8

Can anyone send me notes on Power and the people, Elizabethan England, Germany and Cold war from 1945-72 please . I would be very mutch grateful as I have not revised histroy and I am suddenly panicking and need some notes for revision.

Reply 9

allybusybee

2

Original post by Ejmwilson02

Hi thanks for replying! The history department at my school is actually pretty weak- almost no resources, endless amounts of supply teachers etcDue to this, i also have no resources for hardwick hall, and am completely freaking out about this!! Do you know where I can find any online? Thanks again, Ellie

Search Hardwick Hall on YouTube - there is a girl who covers it completely on there. Also, if you search Hardwick Hall Tour or something like that on google, there’s a website that lets you tour the whole building whilst giving you info!

Reply 10

allybusybee

2

Original post by gcses2018

Can anyone send me notes on Power and the people, Elizabethan England, Germany and Cold war from 1945-72 please . I would be very mutch grateful as I have not revised histroy and I am suddenly panicking and need some notes for revision.

I have summary sheets on Power if you want them! They look like this:

(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 11

gcses2018

8

Original post by allybusybee

I have summary sheets on Power if you want them! They look like this:

Yes, please! That would be very grateful. If you could email them to me please on [email protected]

Reply 12

RochelleL

4

that would be amazing!!! could you email them to me please at [email protected]

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 13

RochelleL

4

Original post by allybusybee

I have summary sheets on Power if you want them! They look like this:

would it be possible for you to send this to me?? thanks

Reply 14

a.farah123

2

Original post by allybusybee

I have summary sheets on Power if you want them! They look like this:

These look so good
could you send them to me

Reply 15

bangtansan

6

Original post by allybusybee

I have summary sheets on Power if you want them! They look like this:

could you please send them to me too? @[email protected]

Reply 16

jamesgillian123

18

im doing elizabeth, vietnam, weimar germany, and health and the people. i think elizabethan is the most hardest for me because theres a lot of politics, i knew what the questions were going to be on my mock but i still got a 3 lol