How do you get an A* in history?

So I am doing history for GCSE; I am in year 11 and i have had various mock exams over the past years but I just have not been able to achieve an A* in any of them. I think I have had about 5 or 6 mocks and I was graded A for all of them but I never got the A*. I write for pretty much the entire exam, always providing a ton of information and explaining every point to go with it but I'm just not sure what you need to do to get an A*. In my opinion I believe an A is attainable for anyone, providing they follow the appropriate structure in their answer for that question, and you don't need high intelligence levels to do that, but It just feels like the A* is a stretch too far and I won't be able to achieve it.

Reply 1

gapyear2018

18

Original post by Samii123

So I am doing history for GCSE; I am in year 11 and i have had various mock exams over the past years but I just have not been able to achieve an A* in any of them. I think I have had about 5 or 6 mocks and I was graded A for all of them but I never got the A*. I write for pretty much the entire exam, always providing a ton of information and explaining every point to go with it but I'm just not sure what you need to do to get an A*. In my opinion I believe an A is attainable for anyone, providing they follow the appropriate structure in their answer for that question, and you don't need high intelligence levels to do that, but It just feels like the A* is a stretch too far and I won't be able to achieve it.

What exam board are you on?

Reply 2

mathscot

2

Just learn how they exactly want you to answer the questions. It's very hard to jump through hoops if you don't know what they are. Which exam board are you with? I got an A* by learning the content and a structure for every type of question which matched the mark scheme so it was super easy for the examiner to give me marks

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Reply 3

Imperion

17

Original post by mathscot

Just learn how they exactly want you to answer the questions. It's very hard to jump through hoops if you don't know what they are. Which exam board are you with? I got an A* by learning the content and a structure for every type of question which matched the mark scheme so it was super easy for the examiner to give me marks

Posted from TSR Mobile

Pretty much this.

Reply 4

emily380

14

I got an A* in the WJEC Germany paper this year. Basically, I started learning the content early on before the exam, so I had a solid base of knowledge on each aspect of the course. Then when it came closer to the exam, I focused just on technique. If you finding that you are writing for the whole exam and getting an A, perhaps you need to stop and plan for a couple of minutes, and make sure that you are going to provide an answer with exactly the right structure and points. It you use the right technique, and put in accurate and detailed knowledge which is relevant, the examiner will be swayed towards those higher marks. Good luck :smile:

practise every type of question they could ask you on each topic (there actually aren't that many variations as the questions are quite similar and usually just changed around the event). look at past markschemes to see what the examiner wants. to timed practises so you don't run out of time in the exam. When revising a topic consider what questions could be asked about it and how you would answer it even if you don't actually write it.Oh and make sure you learn the content really thoroughly so you understand it in depth. throw some statistics in that you have learnt as these always impress the examiner :h:

hope this helps and good luck :smile:

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(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Samii123

OP

15

Original post by mathscot

Just learn how they exactly want you to answer the questions. It's very hard to jump through hoops if you don't know what they are. Which exam board are you with? I got an A* by learning the content and a structure for every type of question which matched the mark scheme so it was super easy for the examiner to give me marks

Posted from TSR Mobile

OCR and on most papers the grade boundary for an A* is around 90%. I do know the structure for the type of questions that they give you so maybe I just need to revise more because i have practically done no work outside of lessons for history so maybe it's just the content that I am struggling with.

Reply 7

Samii123

OP

15

Original post by emily380

I got an A* in the WJEC Germany paper this year. Basically, I started learning the content early on before the exam, so I had a solid base of knowledge on each aspect of the course. Then when it came closer to the exam, I focused just on technique. If you finding that you are writing for the whole exam and getting an A, perhaps you need to stop and plan for a couple of minutes, and make sure that you are going to provide an answer with exactly the right structure and points. It you use the right technique, and put in accurate and detailed knowledge which is relevant, the examiner will be swayed towards those higher marks. Good luck :smile:

Thank you, some good points there, I'll make sure I take those on board and I think that I mainly need more depth and knowledge in my answers.

How do you get an A* in history?

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