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Taking History and Geography GCSEs

Ooooo, if I had a time machine how hard would I have to hit yr8 me for choosing history and geography at GCSE.
Big little issue with some context. History GCSE, my school is the only school to take WJEC exam board in the whole of the south maybe all of England; to make things worse it covers 10 years of USA, 90 years of Germany, 500 bc- present day medicine and 50 years of Elizabethan Powers. GCSE Geography with AQA is nicer, only 3 papers and I know partially what to do.

The little big issue I have with this is the amount of work I get set on a weekly basis to achieve, In both I’ve been predicted 7s but if I work harder 8s. History is demanding just generally and every week I have to write and plan and exam question because failing to plan is planning to fail, and extra revision on top of that. Now I’ve bred good and done all the revision material that I need for history and geography but my school is sucky. They say it doesn’t count as revision if you don’t produce something out of it, now you should start to see an issue. So in history I start doing questions and last month I finished all the questions I could do this also coming from papers, all timed no doubt. And I’m still being asked to do more.

Geography is demanding knowledge wise, I can do all the exam technique but there is so much core content to learn and memorise besides the extra details I need to know. I ah e all the revision materials but every week I’m being asked for more materials to prove I’ve been revising and like history I don’t have anything else to do because I’ve don’t all the papers I can get ahold of, the flash cards, writing in blocks to summaries it. But more is still needed.

I’ve brought this up with my mentor and she says I just have to power through it, not to complain and take advantage of the resources provided but I don’t know how to if I have nothing more to do, and no more can be provided.

I don’t know how many kiddos this helps to decided whether or not to take history or geography, or both but honestly good look. Enjoy the little stress rant. And to conclude I’ve never been so confused.
Original post by Jadedbbin
Ooooo, if I had a time machine how hard would I have to hit yr8 me for choosing history and geography at GCSE.
Big little issue with some context. History GCSE, my school is the only school to take WJEC exam board in the whole of the south maybe all of England; to make things worse it covers 10 years of USA, 90 years of Germany, 500 bc- present day medicine and 50 years of Elizabethan Powers. GCSE Geography with AQA is nicer, only 3 papers and I know partially what to do.

The little big issue I have with this is the amount of work I get set on a weekly basis to achieve, In both I’ve been predicted 7s but if I work harder 8s. History is demanding just generally and every week I have to write and plan and exam question because failing to plan is planning to fail, and extra revision on top of that. Now I’ve bred good and done all the revision material that I need for history and geography but my school is sucky. They say it doesn’t count as revision if you don’t produce something out of it, now you should start to see an issue. So in history I start doing questions and last month I finished all the questions I could do this also coming from papers, all timed no doubt. And I’m still being asked to do more.

Geography is demanding knowledge wise, I can do all the exam technique but there is so much core content to learn and memorise besides the extra details I need to know. I ah e all the revision materials but every week I’m being asked for more materials to prove I’ve been revising and like history I don’t have anything else to do because I’ve don’t all the papers I can get ahold of, the flash cards, writing in blocks to summaries it. But more is still needed.

I’ve brought this up with my mentor and she says I just have to power through it, not to complain and take advantage of the resources provided but I don’t know how to if I have nothing more to do, and no more can be provided.

I don’t know how many kiddos this helps to decided whether or not to take history or geography, or both but honestly good look. Enjoy the little stress rant. And to conclude I’ve never been so confused.

So after reading all that you dont want any advice and its just an irritating rant about how hard done by you are that isnt even very clear.

You can do plenty of pre reading and making notes. The revision notes help you keep down learning material to a minimum, then you can focus on exams. Mind maps and timelines also help.

Just learn the material- make notes- practice exam questions. If you run out of wjec then look at other exam boards, an essay question is an essay question. The topic areas are common and not exclusive to wjec/ eduqas.

If you think you have a lot of material now then dont do A level.
I took both geography and history at GCSE (same exam boards as well). I did kind of regret taking geography but that was because I only chose it as I didn't want to do subjects that I dislike and struggle with like art and sport. So if you chose both history and geography for the same reason as me then just remember that the other options were worse. :biggrin:

It's annoying, I know, but just get on with the work your school sets you. They wouldn't set it if they didn't think it was beneficial. Make sure you can prove you've done the revision by making notes, flashcards and/or mind maps. This won't necessarily take any extra time as you can go over the facts as you write them down.

For history, I did all the same topics as you apart from I did crime and punishment instead of medicine. I found it helpful to, on top of the homework I got, make flashcards for each topic and also, just keep reading the textbook and making notes. I did find history GCSE quite demanding but I got a grade 9 so it was worth it. For geography, try doing questions out of the textbook or revision guide (surely you haven't done every question?) or ask your teacher or mentor to make up exam-style questions for you.
Reply 3
Avatar for Raja12
Raja12
16
Original post by Jadedbbin
Ooooo, if I had a time machine how hard would I have to hit yr8 me for choosing history and geography at GCSE.
Big little issue with some context. History GCSE, my school is the only school to take WJEC exam board in the whole of the south maybe all of England; to make things worse it covers 10 years of USA, 90 years of Germany, 500 bc- present day medicine and 50 years of Elizabethan Powers. GCSE Geography with AQA is nicer, only 3 papers and I know partially what to do.

The little big issue I have with this is the amount of work I get set on a weekly basis to achieve, In both I’ve been predicted 7s but if I work harder 8s. History is demanding just generally and every week I have to write and plan and exam question because failing to plan is planning to fail, and extra revision on top of that. Now I’ve bred good and done all the revision material that I need for history and geography but my school is sucky. They say it doesn’t count as revision if you don’t produce something out of it, now you should start to see an issue. So in history I start doing questions and last month I finished all the questions I could do this also coming from papers, all timed no doubt. And I’m still being asked to do more.

Geography is demanding knowledge wise, I can do all the exam technique but there is so much core content to learn and memorise besides the extra details I need to know. I ah e all the revision materials but every week I’m being asked for more materials to prove I’ve been revising and like history I don’t have anything else to do because I’ve don’t all the papers I can get ahold of, the flash cards, writing in blocks to summaries it. But more is still needed.

I’ve brought this up with my mentor and she says I just have to power through it, not to complain and take advantage of the resources provided but I don’t know how to if I have nothing more to do, and no more can be provided.

I don’t know how many kiddos this helps to decided whether or not to take history or geography, or both but honestly good look. Enjoy the little stress rant. And to conclude I’ve never been so confused.

I did this too omg. I had both history and geography exams in the same week, it was a nightmare. I ended up wit 8 in geo and 7 in history :smile:

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