OCR History AS Help!

Amanda65

This is money saving as it could save me sending my daughter on an Easter revision course

If anyone has done OCR History A level I wondered if they had any essay tips? DD1 got a 'A' in her GCSE but is struggling with the different essay format for A level. She says the way the essays are written is completely different and as I ahven't done this cannot comment.

Can anyone help please

Gingernutmeg

It's a few years ago now but I did a History A Level ... I found the 'Access to History' books really useful, they do separate ones for each of the topics and they're really well written.

Regarding the essays, A Level essays are very different from GCSE - GCSE is about regurgitating facts, in the A Level you start moving towards a more analytical approach, looking at different interpretations of history. I'd really recommend a good study/essay writing guide so that she can learn how to write a good essay - I remember that that was probably the most useful lesson I had at A Level! One I found useful was the Palgrave Study Skills handbook by Stella Cottrell. It might also be a good idea to see if your daughter's teacher would be willing to give her some advice on essay writing, and an OCR revision guide might be useful for pointing her in the right direction.

letsdance_3

i did ocr a level history 2 years ago... i managed to do quite well in it... the approah to essays are different when the subjects vary. what topic is your daughter doing? all i can say is dont make it all about pure fact, make sure every arguement is backed up and thoroughly explained and that you dont steer from the question. it depends on how many marks it is too, generally if you can fit in as much as you can then your laughing. i know this probably isnt much help as it could be applied to any essay.

Amanda65

letsdance wrote: »

what topic is your daughter doing?

Her source paper is Nazi Germany, then she is doing church reformation in Tudor England and Mussolini's Italy

18Chris88

Hi,

I did AQA History last year, although not the same exam board are basically similar but vary on some slight points. I would suggest firstly looking at the chief examiners reports of last year and exam specification for this year which should give some insight into what exactly the examiners are looking for.

I would also recommend looking through certain student forums which I found very helpful as many people were in a very similar boat and all looked to help each other. I could try find the one I used which I would highly recommend ( they went a little far by after the exam listing each question and then re answering them, the last thing I wanted to see was the questions again lol)

To be honest essay writing is the key skill in history, I would say its my strongest point and would go as far to say it counts more than the knowledge you put on the paper. The ability to argue and get across your point is much more appealing to an examiner than a list of facts and figures they have read all day long, try giving the examiner something a little different to read at the end of the day you cannot be wrong in history as long as you argue your ideas thoughtfully (unless you suggest the holocaust never happened!).

Source based exams I found more difficult as they relied alot more on looking at the evidence and using it correctly and within the right context of the question. I believe that Easter schooling would be pointless as whatever skills your daughter could learn there would most probably only be a repeat of what has been taught during the year, I know the standard of education varies across A level colleges/sixth forms but if you find a good forum like i mentioned before they all talk about their teachers teaching methods etc.

Hope that helps

chezza262

When i first started uni i found it difficult to make the jump from A Level essays. The way I understood it at A Level you are required to give an introduction, one side of the arguement, the other side of the argument and a balanced conclusion. With a source based exam the points from your argument should come from the actual sources themselves. I think mine was about appeasement and I had to assess which was the most useful ie was it propaganda (who wrote it and why). However this was a little while ago now...

If i remember rightly you may may be able to download past papers from the exam boards website which may help give an idea of whats expected.

Yes they're here: http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/AS_ALevelGCE/History/documents.html#Past_papers_2006_-_January_series

mrhenry1

The above post sums it up very well. The main thing to understand is that at A-Level the student has to not only understand the facts (as GCSE) but also understand the conflicting viewpoints and supporting evidence for them that existed at the time and have come about since. And also be able to write about them just as well! It's not important what view the student has, just so long as they know how to justify it. I can guarantee this to be the case as in last year's AS exam I purposefully argued contradicting points in successive questions, and came out of it very well!

Always remember this format for essay Q's in the exam:

Introduction (give the question context)
Argue the point in favour of the title with the 3/4 main points
Argue against the point of the title with 3/4 main points
Conclude, weighing up the most important of the above 7/8 points

and don't forget to drop in enough factual knowledge to make it clear that she know's what she's talking about, but not so much that it becomes a story

hope that helps a bit