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GCSE History - what to expect?
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alexdunn07
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So I'm in year 9 and I start my year 10 timetable on Monday and history is one of my options. I was wondering if people who have done it could give me some general info about it e.g how hard it is, what topics you study, about the exams and stories about your personal experience with GCSE history etc.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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username1454260
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Hey I'm in year 10 and I've done about 3/4 of the course. My syllabus is OCR and I studied crime and punishment over time, and now I'm studying Germany 1918-45
I can't tell you much about the exams (because I haven't done one yet!) but you'll soon get used to how to answer the questions. There are 5 mark questions which is "briefly explain.... (e.g. the role of tithings)" (the easiest), 7 and 8 mark questions which could be based on comparing two time periods by "how far do you agree with this statement" (spend about 12 minutes on these questions) and I think there is a source based question which is like 16 marks. You answer the 7 and 8 mark questions using the P.E.E.D structure. It gets much easier the more you do the exam practice questions.
I personally find history lessons really interesting, but do be aware there is a lot of content to get through. I really liked crime and punishment because I found it straight forward (we started with romans, then early middle ages, later middle ages, early modern, industrial and modern day). This looked at types of punishments, types of trials, protests, types of crimes and so on.
Overall, history is quite difficult but only due to the amount of content
Also, for my OCR syllabus coursework is 25% of the total grade.
Good luck on monday, I'm sure you'll find it as good as I have
I can't tell you much about the exams (because I haven't done one yet!) but you'll soon get used to how to answer the questions. There are 5 mark questions which is "briefly explain.... (e.g. the role of tithings)" (the easiest), 7 and 8 mark questions which could be based on comparing two time periods by "how far do you agree with this statement" (spend about 12 minutes on these questions) and I think there is a source based question which is like 16 marks. You answer the 7 and 8 mark questions using the P.E.E.D structure. It gets much easier the more you do the exam practice questions.
I personally find history lessons really interesting, but do be aware there is a lot of content to get through. I really liked crime and punishment because I found it straight forward (we started with romans, then early middle ages, later middle ages, early modern, industrial and modern day). This looked at types of punishments, types of trials, protests, types of crimes and so on.
Overall, history is quite difficult but only due to the amount of content
Also, for my OCR syllabus coursework is 25% of the total grade.
Good luck on monday, I'm sure you'll find it as good as I have
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MarthaR
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I have loved GCSE History and just finished my GCSEs.
I did Medicine Through Time, American West, The Swinging Sixties and Surgery and they were all really cool topics. Once you've got the structure (we use PeEL) it's impossible to stop using it. If you have a decent, fun teacher then you should look forward to lessons. I did a 3 year course, starting at the end of year 8 but think the 2 year course is better because you have less time to forget things.
The only real bummer is the exams. They're so long and you can't stop writing for the whole thing. Also, it's really hard to judge how you've done after the exam unlike sciences which have a specific answer.
You'll really enjoy it!
I did Medicine Through Time, American West, The Swinging Sixties and Surgery and they were all really cool topics. Once you've got the structure (we use PeEL) it's impossible to stop using it. If you have a decent, fun teacher then you should look forward to lessons. I did a 3 year course, starting at the end of year 8 but think the 2 year course is better because you have less time to forget things.
The only real bummer is the exams. They're so long and you can't stop writing for the whole thing. Also, it's really hard to judge how you've done after the exam unlike sciences which have a specific answer.
You'll really enjoy it!
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