History at Cambridge

Hi there, I am the Admissions Tutor at Christ's College but also a director of studies in History so will do my best to answer. The course is designed to start off broad to give you a good overview of a number of different periods, places and types of history before allowing you to specialize as you go through.

In the first two years, you will study five survey papers from a list of 23 available which go from Ancient Greece right up to almost the present day. You have to study two papers on British History(one political, one economic and social) out of 10 which run from the Anglo-Saxons to New Labour. You also have to study one European paper from a choice of seven. For your other two papers you can do more British or European papers but also choose from two American papers, one paper on Empires, one of world history after 1914 and two political theory papers. These are all examined at the end of the second year. You also do a coursework paper, called Themes & Sources, which looks at some big themes across a broader period of time (princely courts, money, the city, the body, religious conversion are a few examples) for which you write an essay which is handed in half way through the second year.

In the third year you can do a dissertation but you will do more specialised papers which engage closely with primary sources and are based on the research interests of members of the faculty. You also do a general Historical Argument and Practice paper that allows you to bring all you have learned over the three years to bear on a particular theme of History of a way of writing History.

Generally speaking, I think it's a great course that really teaches you all the skills you need to be a Historian but also gives you great skills that employers will find useful.

At nearly all colleges you get two subject interviews in History. One will be based around the essays that you are asked to submit beforehand and the other will be largely based around a source or piece of historical writing that you will be given shortly before the interview and asked about in the interview. Both interviews may also involve questions arising from your PS and SAQ.

All colleges are strong in History, it's a big subject in the University and every college has good historians among their fellowship. When choosing, just pick the one you like best! Good luck!

Thank you very much! You've helped a lot. I am very excited to study History, maybe at Cambridge.

You are welcome, best of luck!

Could you please tell me, whether the problem with uploading a photo to SAQ is already solved? Or when can we expect it? Thank you!