A-Level History Study Group 2024-25

aww don't worry - I'd still love to know what everyone is doing!
Witchcraft sounds cool - last year I did antisemitism in 16/17th century france for my coursework

We have to do Witchcraft at my 6th Form. If I could choose I would do something on the Industrial Revolution.

Hi! I’m in Year 12 studying AQA A-level History. I am doing The Tudors 1485-1603 (one of my favourite periods!), Internationals and Global Conflict 1890-1941, and my coursework (which I’ll start in Y13) will be Civil Rights in America.
My favourite thing about history is writing the essays. I love being able to apply my knowledge to questions, and actually be able to talk about what I think like an actual historian would!

hi, im in y12 doing AQA history as well, im also doing tudors and international relations. im struggling with tudors atm, do you have any tips to help?

I don’t know if I’m the best person to get advice from, since like you I’ve already started, but what u would recommend for Tudors is that a big part of the exam is about continuity and change. Maybe make mindmaps showing how all the different monarch’s reformed their economies, foreign policy etc- this might be hard because you’ve only just started, but for Henry VII, think about what ways he acts differently or similarly to previous monarch (you don’t need this in detail, but a few facts and stats would be useful), and how successful this was or was not for him.
I wouldn’t also just say essay plans/writing and further reading really helps, the more you immerse yourself in the topics, the easier it will be to understand and write about them.
I hope this helps!

hi, im in y12 doing AQA history as well, im also doing tudors and international relations. im struggling with tudors atm, do you have any tips to help?

@kayleigh_t.27 any words of wisdom for Tudors and IR? if youve got a few spare moments 🙂

Can somebody help me with this Edexcel Italy 1911-1946:Rise and Fall of Fascism Essay?
The Essay Title is:
How accurate is it to say that the methods used by Italian Fascists completely changed during the period 1919-1921?

What aspect do you need help with?

Hi everyone, I am in year 13 and doing OCR history. I got an 8 at GCSE Edexcel history and I am predicted an A* at a-level.
My units are on Yorkists, Lancastrians and Tudors, international relations and civil rights in the USA.
I am really enjoying doing my coursework about the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, but I am struggling a little with the 30 mark interpretations question in the civil rights course. I can't really find any online resources for OCR and my teacher doesn't give any useful advice or examples on how to structure it and talk about how "valid" a view is.
If anyone has any advice on how to structure these sorts of questions I would really appreciate it! Thank you!

I also got an 8 at Edexcel GCSE History but I'm doing Edexcel A-Level History. What's the Yorkists and Lancastrians unit like, content wise? I'm doing it in Year 13 and even though we do different exam boards, the content should be similar.

It pretty much the Wars of the Roses, then we do domestic and foreign policy of Henry VII. It's actually one of the units I did last year but I'd say it was my favourite because I really liked my teacher.
My timetable this year is 4 periods of civil rights a week then we get 1 period a week dedicated coursework with the teacher that taught us Lancs, Yorks and Tudors. What are your courses like?

They're going good. The thing I'm struggling most with is History Essay Structure. We're doing Germany 1918-1989 and Italy 1911-1946 at the moment. I'm in Year 12. We're doing Yorkists and Lancastrians and ,Witchcraft (Coursework which everyone has to do it on)

I'm not very familiar with the question layout for Edexcel - could you run it down for me quickly and maybe I could give you some advice that I've learned from both year 12 and into year 13 too? I'm pretty consistent with getting top band marks on the essay and source questions (basically all of the ones that don't involve interpretations!)

Here's a essay title.
"How far do you agree that opposition to the Weimar constitution was the most significant problem for governments to deal with in the years 1919–33?"

So I'm assuming thats out of 20, and I haven't ever learned about the Weimar Republic
My standard layout sort of goes like this
Introduction: introduce the wider historical debate, mention the factor in the question and then outline 2 other factors that you feel confident talking about. I would then finish with a statement saying something like "but factor X/Y/Z was the most significant faced by governments in the years 1919-1933
Have your 3 main arguments, and start with the one that you believe to be most significant. One thing that I have always had drilled into me is to never refer to yourself in an exam, and I personally think that using phrases like "I agree/disagree" sound a little clumsy, so it is better to refer to significance in an objective light.
When actually structuring your arguments:
- start with an introductory sentence that outlines the whole argument
- provide some evidence for qhat you're saying, like a statistic or a specific event
- explore the IMPACT of this evidence and make sure you finish it off with a mini-conclusion
- I always throw in an "Overall, factor X/Y/Z...." as a part of your substantiated judgement
Your conclusion ought to sum up everything you say, and don't try to introduce new things you haven't discussed in the essay. I usually take the concluding statement from the end of each of my arguments and rephrase it slightly, and if you do put evidence ibto your conclusion, make sure you only reference the things you have already discussed
I appreciate that this is a bit of an incoherent ramble about essays but I hope it helps you a bit!

What do you mean by the impact of the evidence?
Yes It is out of 20.
My Human Geography teacher told me I should put "I" in my essays but I already knew you shouldn't put "I" in History essays from GCSE.