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History A-Level

Would I manage to get a high grade in History A-Level having not taken it at GCSE?
Essay subjects have always been a strength for me, but I’m afraid the content-learning will largely set me back.

I could do:
English literature
Geography
History

I have heard that the mark scheme is vastly different for A-Level, and those who start it in sixth form do just was well.
I have also heard that history is an extremely hard A-Level to do well in, and I don’t wish to make things harder for myself.

I decided that I would initially take four A-Levels (adding Economics to the list) and drop either History or Economics a few weeks in.
But this is also pretty scary- and I want a clear image of how college will look for me right now, to be honest.

Reply 1

ClementH

For context: I want to do a Law LLB at University.

Reply 2

Tse78

What GCSEs do you do now especially essay ones and how are you doing with them? I do a level history it’s quite a lot of content so if you’re good at memorising content you should be fine. You might’ve missed out on some of the question answering skills at gcse but they’re slightly different at a level anyway so it should be ok. Also, the essay structure is usually easy to grasp as long as your teacher teaches it well. History essays are much more structured and formulaic then English essays (so I find history essays easier) so you should be ok. If you want to do law history is definitely a good option because it gives you analytical skills etc. That unis are looking for but I’m sure other essay based subjects would be fine. I would warn that a level history is a lot of hard work and I’m struggling a little with the amount of content and organising it all but that’s partly because my teachers made it kinda confusing. Also, all A Levels are a step up from gcse and difficult so choose the ones you think you’ll enjoy the most. I did 4 a levels at the start of the year and dropped one literally in two weeks because I realised it would be too much workload but it was good to be sure I definitely didn’t want to do it so I’m sure it’ll be fine if you want to do that.