Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

How to get an A* in A Level History?

Any tips? I'm doing Religious Conflict and the Church in England (1529-1570) and USA: The Making of a Superpower (1865-1875). I've just started Year 12.

Reply 1

999tigger

Original post by cricinfo

Any tips? I'm doing Religious Conflict and the Church in England (1529-1570) and USA: The Making of a Superpower (1865-1875). I've just started Year 12.

Not only do you have to be proficient at answering exam questions. You also need to be wider read so you know your subjects better and have more relevant information to hand. Pracrice and compare v the mark scheme. Keep looking at what you missed.

Reply 2

cricinfo

Original post by 999tigger

OK - could you recommend any wider reading for these particular topics, or did you do something else?

Reply 3

Student-95

Learn the content so you have sufficient information to support your arguments and practice essay writing to make sure you're not too narrative etc. History is quite easy as long as put the work in.

Reply 4

username2644103

Make sure you're organised, I organised my folders into the specification topics. Also don't learn content solely from the book provided, as sometimes they do not include everything you need to know. A really good textbook to get is 'My Revision Notes', which is a more concise version of the textbook I was given, a link to the one I have is here https://www.bookdepository.com/My-Revision-Notes-AQA-level-History-Tudors-England-1485-1603-Roger-K-Turvey/9781471876103 but I'm sure they'll have one for your course too! (If you're unfamiliar with book depository it's a fantastic website for getting cheap, unused books. Most are discounted and its free shipping worldwide- a great place for textbooks!).
Another tip is to thoroughly plan essays. Most in my class don't but I do, and I've (not to toot my own horn!) received top marks consistently throughout the year in essays. I use them mainly to gather all the information I wish to include.

Reply 5

harry.h

My guess would be to show knowledge of key moments why they happened, what effect they had on the issue, and who they affected/outcome. But thats the basics - to really excel you need to delve into some wider context to illustrate your understanding and potentially (without seeing the marking criteria) incorporate a question(s) of your own to show your grappling with the subjects.

Reply 6

CrucialTruth

I got an A* in History on the Edexcel exam board; what I say may not be entirely applicable, but with regards to writing essays, a few tips really helped me, so I hope they can be of use to you as well. The first is to learn as much contextual knowledge (textbook facts) as possible. For example, if there are economic production figures in your American module textbook, it's helpful to learn a few of them as it really impresses the examiners if you can recall this sort of thing. The second part is to improve your essay technique - you want each paragraph to be; point, evidence, analysis, link to question, then repeat. In your introduction break down the essay question into, 'factors' or what we called, 'criteria' on the Edexcel board - things that will form the topics of your paragraphs. IE in America, a factor for economic success could be abundant natural resources, little economic regulations, and so on. Sorry to blow my own trumpet at the beginning but these things really helped me to achieve the grades I did at A Level :smile:

so I hope they will help you too

Reply 7

goldyfish

Original post by CrucialTruth

so I hope they will help you too

Hello

I am an A2 student and I am taking the Edexcel History exam this summer. I never really get what the exam board means by 'criteria', sometimes I can find it in one essay but sometimes I find it heard to establish criteria in another. My teacher told me that criteria is not the different factors but what we use to judge the importance of the different factors, but then sometimes the question is phrased in a way that I find it hard to find the criteria. I was wondering whether you have got any tips of finding criteria for a question?

Many thanks!!