A level history urgent

Hi,
I'm in Y13 and desperately need to know for AQA history... How balanced is 'balanced'?

I'm currently on a C+ (Christmas mocks) and need an A. Content is fine, its essay structure that's ruining my grades.

Is a balanced essay meaning complete 50/50 and then a running judgement, or just acknowleding the other side?

Now, I'm writing fully 50/50 so:
My judgement is for the argument. Here's why xyz. Here it's not for because abc. abc is wrong, xyz is correct, here's why my judgement is for.
And then repeating that for 3 paragraphs. One paragraph ends up being a page/page and a half long.

But, that essentially means I need 6 points. I need xyz x3 and abc x3 and I need each set of xyz/abc to be roughly linked.

That's fine when I have notes to fall back on, but in the exam I'm worried I'll stress. I missed a whole Cold War question in my mock which pushed me from a B to C and I can't have that in the real thing. I need to be on A in both, or at least B in Cold War and A* in Tudors that will balance out.

So, then is it worth doing a structure that's more of a classic PEEL paragraph but doing 2/1 or 2/2 in terms of split on the argument.
e.g.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point against. Here's why not. This is important. But not as important as 1 and 2, statement is still correct.

I feel like that is really confusing and maybe i need to clarify it for someone but I desperately need help

Reply 1

Muttley79

Original post by kitty_e_06

Hi,
I'm in Y13 and desperately need to know for AQA history... How balanced is 'balanced'?
I'm currently on a C+ (Christmas mocks) and need an A. Content is fine, its essay structure that's ruining my grades.
Is a balanced essay meaning complete 50/50 and then a running judgement, or just acknowleding the other side?
Now, I'm writing fully 50/50 so:
My judgement is for the argument. Here's why xyz. Here it's not for because abc. abc is wrong, xyz is correct, here's why my judgement is for.
And then repeating that for 3 paragraphs. One paragraph ends up being a page/page and a half long.
But, that essentially means I need 6 points. I need xyz x3 and abc x3 and I need each set of xyz/abc to be roughly linked.
That's fine when I have notes to fall back on, but in the exam I'm worried I'll stress. I missed a whole Cold War question in my mock which pushed me from a B to C and I can't have that in the real thing. I need to be on A in both, or at least B in Cold War and A* in Tudors that will balance out.
So, then is it worth doing a structure that's more of a classic PEEL paragraph but doing 2/1 or 2/2 in terms of split on the argument.
e.g.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point against. Here's why not. This is important. But not as important as 1 and 2, statement is still correct.
I feel like that is really confusing and maybe i need to clarify it for someone but I desperately need help

What advice has your teacher given you?

Reply 2

kitty_e_06

Original post by Muttley79

What advice has your teacher given you?

Nothing concrete. She leans towards going directly 50/50 but basically says “there’s no set way to do it”. I see that being right but unless I have a clear formula I’ll just write down everything that I know to the point that I’m losing marks

Reply 3

Muttley79

Original post by kitty_e_06

Have you read the Examiners reports?

Reply 4

isabelaquadross

Original post by kitty_e_06

Hi,
I'm in Y13 and desperately need to know for AQA history... How balanced is 'balanced'?
I'm currently on a C+ (Christmas mocks) and need an A. Content is fine, its essay structure that's ruining my grades.
Is a balanced essay meaning complete 50/50 and then a running judgement, or just acknowleding the other side?
Now, I'm writing fully 50/50 so:
My judgement is for the argument. Here's why xyz. Here it's not for because abc. abc is wrong, xyz is correct, here's why my judgement is for.
And then repeating that for 3 paragraphs. One paragraph ends up being a page/page and a half long.
But, that essentially means I need 6 points. I need xyz x3 and abc x3 and I need each set of xyz/abc to be roughly linked.
That's fine when I have notes to fall back on, but in the exam I'm worried I'll stress. I missed a whole Cold War question in my mock which pushed me from a B to C and I can't have that in the real thing. I need to be on A in both, or at least B in Cold War and A* in Tudors that will balance out.
So, then is it worth doing a structure that's more of a classic PEEL paragraph but doing 2/1 or 2/2 in terms of split on the argument.
e.g.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point against. Here's why not. This is important. But not as important as 1 and 2, statement is still correct.
I feel like that is really confusing and maybe i need to clarify it for someone but I desperately need help

hi so I do history ib HL and we also have to evaluate different perspectives. what I do is make a point and state one view that supports the point I just made. Then, I'd introduce one view that counters it or that gives importance to another aspect of the event. After introducing the counter I go into exemplifying why I believe the initial argument I made is more valid by giving actual data that supports it.

Reply 5

McKerrow_History

Can you give me a couple of typical questions? It looks to me that you're being too rigid by going 50/50. Some questions simply don't lend themselves to a complete split.

Reply 6

average_human

Original post by kitty_e_06

Hi,
I'm in Y13 and desperately need to know for AQA history... How balanced is 'balanced'?
I'm currently on a C+ (Christmas mocks) and need an A. Content is fine, its essay structure that's ruining my grades.
Is a balanced essay meaning complete 50/50 and then a running judgement, or just acknowleding the other side?
Now, I'm writing fully 50/50 so:
My judgement is for the argument. Here's why xyz. Here it's not for because abc. abc is wrong, xyz is correct, here's why my judgement is for.
And then repeating that for 3 paragraphs. One paragraph ends up being a page/page and a half long.
But, that essentially means I need 6 points. I need xyz x3 and abc x3 and I need each set of xyz/abc to be roughly linked.
That's fine when I have notes to fall back on, but in the exam I'm worried I'll stress. I missed a whole Cold War question in my mock which pushed me from a B to C and I can't have that in the real thing. I need to be on A in both, or at least B in Cold War and A* in Tudors that will balance out.
So, then is it worth doing a structure that's more of a classic PEEL paragraph but doing 2/1 or 2/2 in terms of split on the argument.
e.g.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point for. Here's why. This is important because. Statement is correct.
Point against. Here's why not. This is important. But not as important as 1 and 2, statement is still correct.
I feel like that is really confusing and maybe i need to clarify it for someone but I desperately need help

I did a level last year - our teacher always told us it doesn't have to be 50/50 (especially if you don't have enough evidence lol) but you need to at least include different arguments in your essay

•

for something like who was more responsible for the cuban missile crisis for example, I feel like that would be quite easy to do a 50/50 question on, but then other essays could be less balanced

•

another thing you can do is refer back to your judgement throughout - so if you do a paragraph where you don't really agree with the argument, you could put a sentence in at the end of the paragraph like 'overall although X is significant, Y is still the most important factor for...'