Higher History 2019-2020

Does anyone have an example as to “how democratic was Britain by 1914?”

Does anyone have an example as to “how democratic was Britain by 1914?”

Is there any point trying to get evaluation marks?

Well, my class is doing Britain 1851-1951 and Russia 1881-1921, then for the actual Scottish Paper with the sources, we are doing The Impact of the Great War 1914-1928. We have studied all the issues from the Great War topic, 3 essays from Russia (assessment of the security of the Tsarist state, which could come up either as an assessment or isolated factor essay, and the February revolution) and 2 essays from the British topic (reasons for giving women the vote and the other one is about the Liberals).

Overall, I really enjoy the course and I am finding it alright with the exception that the source questions are so repetitive, as if we are being tested on whether we can remember to add "this is useful because..." rather than the actual knowledge... On the other hand, the essays are really easy for me to write, as the structure is the same for all of them just with different knowledge that needs to be applied.

Revision methods for history?
I use flashcards A LOT for the Scottish Paper for History xD Both at Nat5 and now at Higher. I am not sure I would recommend it to everyone, as last year I did close to a hundred cards with loads of information on them (I got an A at Nat5 and at my Higher Prelim) and I think it might not work as well for other people. (this year it is less than a hundred cards but still a lot). Basically I'd have the card with a sub-issue written on it and knowledge points on the other side, get a piece of paper and try and write down and explain all the knowledge points from the other side of the card. Then I sort the cards into three piles depending on how well I've recalled the knowledge on them (definitely know, ehhh, need to revise). Of course, this is just for the knowledge needed. To actually get a feel for the questions themselves, I think the best way to revise for them is to just do past paper questions. You could also try and change the factors or type of question to suit the areas where you know improvement is needed, be it an issue or a sub-issue.

For the essays, I basically pre-prepare them so that I have an actual essay written but then I try and learn the structure with the factors rather than the essay itself. Once I have learnt the factor structure, I would try and actually write the essay under timed conditions cause you roughly have like 45 minutes per essay on the actual exam.

Hope this is helpful xD

Hi, it’s just to see if anyone has sat the higher history prelim from the SQA this year and also does the Britain and Ireland topic in the British section and can remember any of the essay questions? Thank u in advance

I had my prelim today and I think I should be pretty worried. In the British/World paper, we only had the option of women and the vote for the British essays as we haven't done any of the democracy or Labour essays yet, and the isolated factor was suffragettes specifically which wasn't ideal as I left suffragists out of the essay completely. For the USA essays we had the choice of changing attitudes towards immigration, obstacles to civil rights or development of civil rights, and I chose changing attitudes. I got quite lucky as the main argument (racism and prejudice) was the isolated factor which meant I didn't have to be as critical/evaluative, but I know there were some things missing.

As for the Scottish paper, we do the Migration & Empire topic and it wasn't fun. The four sources were all modern day sources, and I only managed 3 out of the 4 questions as they didn't give me extra time like they were supposed to.

I've emailed my teacher explaining why paper 2 is unfinished so hopefully there will be something done for the rest of my prelims to ensure assessment arrangements are there.

Any ideas on how to learn a nearly 3,000 word assignment?

When do you have to learn it for?

Also you usually have a 250 word plan that you must bring with you when you write the assignment and then it gets sent off to the SQA with the assignment itself, so that should help you.

Since most assignments follow the usual essay structure for the two topics, I'd suggest learning the paragraphs and their points individually first, and then trying to write it from memory a couple of times to see where your memory fails - whatever you can't remember you stick on your plan, such as any statistics, facts, phrases that will prompt you to think about your factor's analysis and limitations. Also your quotations must go on your plan, including the author and the book. However, in your assignment you don't need to state the book/website you got the quotation from if you have this information on your plan.

Also... 3000 words? I admire you for being able to write what i am sure is a sophisticated piece of work, however are you going to have time to actually get the information down on paper?? You only get an hour and a half to write your assignment - mine was 2000 words and I finished 20 minutes earlier so I had time to look over it. If you think you can write all of it in 90 minutes - go for it, but if you aren't sure, I'd suggest shortening it and keeping the essentials (two or three sentences for each: knowledge, analysis and limitations)