Big jump from A-level History to a History degree?

As the title suggests I was wondering how big a big jump in difficulty is there from A-level to Uni?
Naturally as you progress its designed to be more challenging....but I didn't find it hard to go from GCSE to AS ect.
At A-level I found you can get away with memorising essay plans for a couple of questions and still perform very very strongly...
How much harder did you find your uni course?
thanks xxx

Reply 1

Oh Hi

15

Original post by **Heart & Soul**

As the title suggests I was wondering how big a big jump in difficulty is there from A-level to Uni?
Naturally as you progress its designed to be more challenging....but I didn't find it hard to go from GCSE to AS ect.
At A-level I found you can get away with memorising essay plans for a couple of questions and still perform very very strongly...
How much harder did you find your uni course?
thanks xxx

I think this may actually depend a little on the individual and the exam board taken at A-Level. I took OCR history and the coursework element of that was almost identical to how I approach my university essays in terms of research/planning etc.

From my personal experience the jump wasn't too large as in the first year of a history degree they're essentially trying to hone everyones writing abilities and historical analysis skills to a certain standard before second and third year. Whilst this is just my experience I imagine it applies to most universities.

The only thing I did find was that whereas at A-Level you can 'question-spot' for exams (i.e. memorise a couple of brilliant essays and bank on them coming up) this was not the case for my university exams - honestly had no idea and therefore had to revise across the board. In this way I think University history encourages a somewhat more holistic knowledge of a given period than A-Level; you NEED to understand the broader context of the period in order to get good marks.

Hope this helped!

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

returnmigrant

21

University level History is more about what's called Historiography - why we study the past and how we do that - than A level History which tends to be more 'fact based'. It exposes you to lots of new ideas about why individual historians have the opinions they do and the different 'movements' or 'schools' or history - ie. why was there a left-wing focus within academic history in the 1960s, etc etc.

A very good book to get started on before you start your course, one that introduces you to some of these ideas and is written in an easy to read style that is perfect for new undergrads, is : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Studying-History-Palgrave-Study-Skills/dp/1403987343 It is a great 'beginners' book, and you'll find it useful for reference throughout your degree, and its also got helpful chapters on writing Uni level essays/exam revision etc. Highly recommended.

Reply 3

jelly1000

21

Original post by **Heart & Soul**

As the title suggests I was wondering how big a big jump in difficulty is there from A-level to Uni?
Naturally as you progress its designed to be more challenging....but I didn't find it hard to go from GCSE to AS ect.
At A-level I found you can get away with memorising essay plans for a couple of questions and still perform very very strongly...
How much harder did you find your uni course?
thanks xxx

I did AQA at A-Level and as with Oh Hi I found the essays to be very similar in style to the coursework I did at A2. Absolutley nothing like any exam essays though- you are expected to do your own reading and have your own line of argument which you back up with evidence from the reading you've done. If you can get the hang of the A2 coursework uni first year isn't massively harder.