How hard is IB history without GCSE?

oh to answer your question

1.i found it relatively easy as long as you have a good enough memory to remember the facts (dates aren't too important). but there's a lot more to remember at IB level i'd say than GCSE so an interest in what your reading is necessary as it'll help you remember what you're learning

2. a bit of both. short answer questions just key facts, for the long answer questions you gotta know it in depth cos they'll probably ask you to form an opinion of why something happened.

3. i find reading the history textbook they give you in lesson is adequate enough (at GCSE). though i don't think much will change at IB level (it hasn't for my friend - she's getting on fine with just the textbook they gave her)

4. I found it interesting

5. if you put in the effort i don't see why not ( if you're actually interested in the history it wouldn't be too hard to be reading up on it regularly to help you retain the information). good english skills will help in the essay questions.

completely aggree it depends on u and the teacher you end up with really , if you do somehow end up with some messed up teacher you gotta put the effort to keep up or else and ummm its KInda A LOT of info but you learn to kinda cope with it because you have no choice . plus u will know for a fact that u can never be fully assured that you know everything because theres a looot but try to read as much as possible i guess

I did GCSE History and found it really interesting and pretty easy, as it was just about Hitler and Germany, which seems to be all you do in secondary school history until A level/ IB. I got an A* and took History at Standard IB Level. It's not necessarily hard, such as Maths you either get it or you don't sort of thing, you just have to remember the key facts. So if you're good at remembering things it's a pretty easy subject.

The good thing about history is you can teach it to yourself as long as you have it all there in front of you. I'm not sure whether it's hard to get a good grade, I've been predicted a 6 but it just depends if you are willing to put in the work and revise as with every subject. There's certain things you need to do to get the higher grades that you didn't need at GCSE, such as counter arguments, which is challenging the question you're asked and historiography which is different historian’s viewpoints; you then challenge the viewpoints and say why they are reliable or not reliable etc. So it's completely different to GCSE, so you should be ok. You get taught all the relevant things in class and how to challenge viewpoints etc.

We have done Hitler as part of the IB like at GCSE, but it's in so much more detail that it's practically learning it from scratch anyway and Hitler’s only a small part of it. I haven’t particularly found it interesting mainly due to not having a very good teacher in L6, but I’ve found it easier now I’ve had to revise over the Summer and Christmas holidays for mock exams. But the main reason I haven’t found it interesting is because it’s not my chosen subject, but if you have an interest in it as you’ve said, you’ll be fine.

A friend told me not to do history because it was downright boring and useless and hard...and never in her life will she set foot on history (we're in GCSE level now). But many other people at school (YR12/13) AND on TSR tell me how interesting it is - which is why I want to do history.

It's good they start on scratch...but I am scared about the depth we have to learn and also...how fast will they go? I'm scared that they might just whiz through many things and I have to end up doing a lot of self-learning myself. REALLY hope for a good teacher, that's soooo important!

Also many people also told me that history sometimes also requires understanding,, and sometimes it's all common sense. Like wars always start because of these events and blah blah...

One more thing I'm worried about...for example when you learn about a person, for example, Hitler...sometimes would you get confused with his actions to another important person? And how do you teach someone history? Like...it would pretty dumb talking about Henry the 6th before knowing about Henry the 1st or whatever...

PS. I repped you

Hahaa, cheers. Firstly don’t listen to what anyone else says, as it all depends on what you want to do. My friend wants to study History at university so that’s her favourite but with me it’s probably my least favourite. I would advise you to before you pick your subjects, to look at the possible course you want to study at university if you want to go. I've applied to do Biology and didn't take Chemistry and some universities downright won't accept me without Chemistry or another science. Because of this I wish I'd maybe taken Psychology instead of History as it's more science based.

The depth isn't too bad, it's more than GCSE but if it only SL it shouldn't be too hard for you. It's annoying having to self-learn but sometimes it's better because it sticks in better. How fast you go will depend on the teacher really, so it does all depend on the teacher. Luckily this year I have a really good teacher so it's not too bad. But if you’re considering HL, then HL only have 2 extra lessons a week to learn a different era of History so they will go quicker, but that’s because in HL you’re expected to be able to keep up. I think HL at my school are doing American history.

There is quite a lot of common sense, such as the viewpoints I mentioned, with Russian history during the time of Lenin, historians in Russia at that time will obviously be positive about the regime but Western historians are influenced by the Cold War and so are negative etc. etc. You just need to know key things like that and it's not too hard.

We usually did a bit of background about the dictator, such as how Stalin was brought up (this lets you see how his upbringing effected his dictatorship) and also about the Russian dictatorship before Lenin started the revolution, as it's easier to understand, as you can see how certain people were able to take power due to the bad situation in the country at the time. How history is taught will also depend on the teacher as my teacher does the worksheets himself.

At SL you do 3 single party states and we've done Lenin, Stalin and Hitler. It can be easy to mix up Lenin and Stalin, as Stalin comes straight after Lenin and it's the same sort of policies with it all being Communism but you just have to learn it in order really. But there’s several single party states to choose from so it’ll just depend on which your school chooses, you could ask your school now what you’ll be studying so you’ll know if you’re interested or not.

This year we're doing the Cold War and the Arabs and Israelis. In the exam there are two papers. One is essays, you’ll have to do an essay on single party states and the Cold War (you get to pick from a choice of essay questions and you can almost get away with knowing only one dictator really well for single party states.) There’s also source work which is common sense, this one is on Arabs and Israelis. You’re given say a cartoon from a newspaper and you have to say why it’s accurate or biased etc. Such as, if it's from a British newspaper about Stalin’s policies, it’s going to be biased as Britain didn’t agree with Communism, but it's also accurate as it lets us see how the British felt about it.

Sorry to write loads, but I wish I was better advised with my subjects

Thanks so much once again I am planning to go into law or english, both which strongly recommends history. So unfortunately, I have to do it at HL. I cannot do it at SL because there is no space and I do not want to take math, chinese OR biology at HL. At HL I am doing english, history and economics.

I am awared how difficult my subjects are and I have to put a lot of time and effort in it, but I am willing to do that. The thing is, I am very scared about the speed that they will go at History HL. Many people that take history are all the smart kids who got A* in GCSE and I am scared that I will be disadvantaged. The teacher will know that most people are very good and might go at a faster speed.

But surely history is very interesting? My dad said to treat it like a story being told! Except I don't think that at IB level they will be teaching you as if it's a story...

Why are you regretting your subjects?

I always wanted to know more about wars and what happened in the past and all that, so I chose IB History. The thing is...I have not done GCSE History and scared that I might be disadvantaged in some way.

1. How hard is it?
2. Do you have to memorize key points, or LOADS OF DETAILS?
3. Can you teach yourself IB History with a good textbook? (its just reading?)
4. Is it interesting/boring?
5. Is it really hard to get a good grade? (6/7?)

Thanks.
I will rep all good answers!

Higher History is a 2 and a half hour exam, probably the biggest gap between a standard, the possible exception being higher maths. The good thing about higher history, is, if your teacher has half a brain, the standard topics they teach, will partly overlap with your higher making it easier.

I'm a higher history IB student, if you want to know anything about it, eg syllabus, past papers, revision notes, help or advice just pm me.

Basically though, it's my favourite subject, and i'm applying to read it at Uni.

The thing is, I have never done it for my GCSE and I am scared that I will be disadvantaged. Although I know they start from scratch, I am worried about the speed that it will go. Afraid I might not develop the writing skills I need for history.

Do you have to write a lot in the exam? How many essays?? Etc...Is it like speed writing or what?