History A level- pick or not?

6

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

Reply 1

alestalagie

7

Original post

by Student room2333

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

Honestly for me A-Level History was my easiest subject as it's genuinely 90% technique. I can't really remember GCSE History but I achieved a B overall for GCSE by just writing what I thought/without any technique.

For me, in A2 I used the format: Point, evidence, argument, counter argument, evaluation
and then for my final conclusion I essentially just got every evaluation and mashed them together.

This got me full UMS on both my papers so it was really effective. I can't comment for the combo of History & Politics personally, but my friend did History and Politics and he really enjoyed both subjects so he obviously had a good time.

The History NEA (for me) was by far the easiest NEA, in comparison to my other subjects (Computer Science & Digital Technology) which took me 9 months, I wrote my History NEA in 2 days and got a B.

I sat my exams with WJEC however, so this might not be 100% transferrable to your situation.

Reply 2

NoorAhmed147

1

Original post

by Student room2333

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

Hi! I do Nazi Germany and Tudors for A level history and Russia for my NEA. I wont sugarcoat it, it's a lot of work but I genuinely love the subject. Im forever glad that I picked the subject (even though it was a last minute decision on results day) and I've decided to do a degree in history. The workload is manageable if you stick to your teachers advice and stay ontop of things and it's the same for every other A Level. My friend does politics and history and im ngl she does sometimes regret it. Politics is only really good if youre interested in the political systems and how they all work (id speak to any year 12s ot 13s if you want more advice) but my friend wishes that she did sociology because we have those in depth conversations about recent politics from a sociological lenses. It all depends on why you want to do politics and what you're looking to do in the future (no pressure to decide as I had no idea what i wanted to do until late year 12)
Hope this helped!

Reply 3

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

19

Original post

by Student room2333

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

What are you wanting to do after your a-levels?

Reply 4

Student room2333

OP

6

Thanks everyone, this is really useful :smile:

I'm thinking of doing law in the future.

Reply 5

s3phie

4

Original post

by Student room2333

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

Im Currently doing A level history as a year thirteen, and I’m doing AQA, and Tudors is one of my topics. I recommend it if you enjoy history. The Tudors is a really enjoyable topic and so is Weimar Germany. I got a 7 in Gcse history and im hoping for an A/A* so i would say if your predicted a 9 then your guaranteed the top grades at A level, as long as you adapt to what A level history requires (which wont take long). There is a lot of content, and long essays but it is manageable - i find flashcards, mindmaps and essay practice really helpful, and also ive found that reading around the subject has really helped me. The Aqa Tudors textbook is really useful, as for the revision guide. I dont do politics as an A level however im going on to do history and politics at university, and from my understanding History and Politics pair very nicely as subjects.

Reply 6

Florizan_Banks

7

Hi! I’ve just started doing AQA A level History with Tudors as my breadth topic. A few of my teachers have said it’s “as difficult as two A-levels” because you basically do double the exams during term (especially if you are learning the modules concurrently like I am). Honestly, it is difficult, but no more difficult than any other A-level, especially other humanities A-levels like Politics. For context, I didn’t do GCSE History but got 9s in lit and lang, and after a term of sixth form I am around a low A in History. As long as you keep up with the content, do some extra reading and revise well, you should be fine.

If (like me) you are interested in politics, the Tudors module offers quite a bit: there is a heavy emphasis on monarchical political authority, government, and foreign policy during late medieval and early modern England. However, there are also links to religious, economic and social history in the module. If you did A-level Politics, you may be writing essays in a similar way, but there is more of an emphasis on contemporary politics as well as liberalism, Marxism, Thatcherism etc. The stuff about politics is not from my experience, but from friends who also do A level politics and history.

I can’t really comment on Nazi Germany, I do the Russian Revolution instead

Oh and finally, in terms of resources I find the best thing to do (esp for Tudors) is to read books on the topics by published historians, as this is what you get assessed on in the real Tudors exam. I’m currently reading “Tudor England” by John Guy - I wouldn’t recommend reading it cover to cover because it’s the opposite of light reading (there is six pages about the price of corn), but skimming through sections on certain events and historigraphical debates is really useful because it provides you with analysis and gets you used to reading texts with difficult language.

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 7

Sise

2

Original post

by Student room2333

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

Hii! I only got a 6 in GCSE but I loveee history with my whole heart so I did it at alevel and its my fav subject by far! Of course its got so so much content but I also do AQA Tudors and its a similar structure for all of the monarchs and its 100% much more simple compared to my other course (Stalinist Russia). Id say that if you are passionate for it then you shouldnt mind the work load, and with being a predicted a 9 youll be fine! The NEA can be harddd at first but dont overthink it, its a very similar structure to the essays just very over-glorified :smile:

Reply 8

PotatoEnthusiast

5

Original post

by Student room2333

Hi
I'm in year 11 and I was wondering what A level history is like, eg workload, content, difficulty, NEA. I will be doing AQA Tudors and Weimar Germany. My target grade is a 9 for GCSE, so I was wondering what is the jump like from GCSE to A level.
I'm also thinking of doing history, alongside politics, does anyone does this combo? What's it like?
Also, are there any good websites/resources that are useful for if/when I do History for A level (for future reference)?
Thank you!

History at A level is just GCSE with slightly more depth and knowledge, if you genuinely enjoy history then it’s definitely worth picking, most people in my class who had picked A level history on their first tests got strong passes and some of them didn’t even do history at GCSE and we weren’t told about how to answer at A level. And history is quiet a favorable A level by universities and is in general more enjoyable than something like geography or RE but is harder but what matters is that you are interested in it so you have motivation also history does go pretty well with politics but you should also consider something like economics or English lang and lit and check university requirements before making your choice if you are considering going to a university

History A level- pick or not?

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