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A Level History revision ... annoying
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Aaah bloody history!! This is the first real time i've had trouble with any sort of revision.
Well first off does anyone do A Level history? or has anyone done it in the past?
Its just i'm having trouble knowing how to revise it as there is SHITE loads of stuff to go over, i mean 4 tudor reigns, plus european stuff like stalin etc. I just don't know how to go through it all, as i have loads and loads of notes
I mean content wise, i'm ok. I can quite easily read my notes and pick up all the factual content its just i'm just a little confused at how to go about it all, if that makes any sense at all.
Alot of the marks go for analysis and argument, not just factual stuff. So just reading my notes won't help. Maybe making notes and notes on my own opinions etc could be the answer?
Sorry if this sounds pretty boring to people, just doing my head in. Apart from this my revision is going fine :thumb:
Well first off does anyone do A Level history? or has anyone done it in the past?
Its just i'm having trouble knowing how to revise it as there is SHITE loads of stuff to go over, i mean 4 tudor reigns, plus european stuff like stalin etc. I just don't know how to go through it all, as i have loads and loads of notes
I mean content wise, i'm ok. I can quite easily read my notes and pick up all the factual content its just i'm just a little confused at how to go about it all, if that makes any sense at all.
Alot of the marks go for analysis and argument, not just factual stuff. So just reading my notes won't help. Maybe making notes and notes on my own opinions etc could be the answer?
Sorry if this sounds pretty boring to people, just doing my head in. Apart from this my revision is going fine :thumb:
Post edited by JustV on
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try breaking the tudors up into each monarch...then from that foreign policy, domestic policy and religious policy...make bullet notes and also spider diagrams for key issues...read over them and make the connections that are needed
I did A-level History, and now do degree level history. I usually focus on the significance and things once I get the basic facts, as that way it shows more of an understanding of the historical relevance and significance rather than just knowing the facts.
If I can think of anything else, I'll let you know.
thats the key i think...you take an event or treaty and look at it's significance and how it affected future treaties and how it differed from past ones...examiners like that i think
I did AS Level History and had a similar problem. I got a B but I don't really know why because I was focusing on my three A Levels.
It's a difficult subject, but I found the examiners were looking for more general knowledge about a range of issues than forcing you to learn exact facts. As long as you know roughly what happened, when, and in what order, you should be alright.
We've done quite a few past questions in lesson and i'm getting way better at my analysis. I'm just gonna focus on finishing making my notes, read through them all and then make some kind of summary notes about what i think etc etc.
Cheers
As for the facts themselves, writing them out on a postcard and memorising the postcards when you're on the bus or whatever is a very good idea.
I am doing that this year...It's the dullest module but pretty easy at least. Oh yeah, you're thingy says Bucks..No chance you had Swan if you went to Challys?
AGS old boy Im afraid
I found the module very interesting, though mind you im now at uni studying politics. :thumb:
Ohh I know a few people at AGS, seem cool. It's RGS everyone's supposed to hate I think.
Fairnuf, yeah I take Politics AS too which certainly makes that module easier. Hope ya enjoying it at uni.
Hey. I'm doing Henry VII/Richard III, Louis XIV and Peter the great for AS, and i was wondering how anyone does last minute cramming. my exams like 2moro n am just not gonna get the A i need!
You have revised as much as you can now. Have a long hot bath, an early night, and get up tomorrow morning and make sure you have a reasonably-sized breakfast with a lot of complex carbohydrates in it. Don't look at your notes any more- regardless of the temptation- as last-m,inute cramming only serves to confuse rather than clarify.
Everyone always crams at the last second, and it is always counter-productive.
Maybe it's a bit late to be of benefit to you now, but I've (nearly) got a PhD in history and I did it at A-level, albeit eight years ago.
Cramming in facts isn't the important thing - a few factual errors don't really matter so much. What's important is a general understanding of the period and its historiography, and some ideas and arguments oif your own that you have enough factual knowledge to produce evidence in support of.
To be honest, I have to say that I don't havce particularly good memories of my A-level history course. It wasn't that well taught, and the syllabus was pretty pedestrian. It all seemed to be about a narrow, nationalistic conception of history, and about learning by rote rather than developing some sense of chronology, and some coherent theory of why change over time occurs. But that's my pet soapbox, and probably best stayed away from...
You think it would be a good idea to have a seperate sheet just full of my own ideas, arguments on certain areas in the topic?
No, all I was trying to say was that it's more important to have a good general understanding of the period you're studying it, than it is to know every minor point of detail. If you get one or two dates wrong, that is less important than misunderstanding the period as a whole: in other words, and as an example, it is more important to understand the connections between Lenin and Stalin, and the process by which Stalin came to power, than it is to know the date of Lenin's death and Trotsky's expulsion down to the minute!
History's not about being able to regurgitate dates and facts: it's about understanding, analysing and interpreting the past. Those are the skills they're looking for - not just a good memory.
Try and gain as good an understanding of what other historians have written, and develop your own views on the basis of that. If you can critique a few other historians' work (i.e. X says this ... but his argument fail because he doesn't take account of ... ), then so much the better. Either way, be aware of who the more important historians in your field are, what their preoccupations and blindspots are, and think how this has influenced their work.