a level history essay structure ocr

OCR A Level History Past Papers

A complete collection of ocr a level history past papers. perfect for preparation for upcoming exams. can be used at home for individual learning or within a classroom environment..

It’s time to start preparing for your exams and it’s never been easier with School History. We’ve got hundreds of past papers that are easy to use, come with mark schemes, and are specifically tailored to each specific examination board, so you can get the most from your revision time and enter your examination feeling confident and fully prepared.

Why use past exam papers?

The answer is simple: preparedness. As a A Level student, exams become an important part of your assessment criteria and preparation for A-levels. The use and importance of past papers, therefore, cannot be over-emphasised.

Fill in the blanks

Using past papers are an effective way to establish your strengths and weaknesses so you know where to focus your revision time. Don’t spend hours on a topic you’re familiar with while neglecting an area that needs more time and effort to familiarise yourself with.

Learn effective time management

Proper time management can quite literally mean the difference between passing and failing an exam, even if you know everything that’s required to pass. Your revision time and using past papers is an excellent way to start practicing how to properly manage the time in the exam setting. You’ll be given different styles of questions with different mark allocations, so it’s important to know what’s expected of you and how much time to dedicate to each question, whether its a multiple-choice question, short answer or an essay.

Walk into your exam with confidence

With proper preparation, it’s possible to walk into and out of your exam feeling confident. Confidence is key to performing well as doubt and anxiety can cloud your judgment and affect your ability to think clearly and make the proper decisions. Past papers are the most effective way to familiarise yourself with important terminology, vocabulary, and styles of questions so that you have a solid understanding of what is expected of you to excel in each and every style of question.

Get to know your questions

Remember, some questions will be assessing your knowledge and understanding of key features and characteristics of a period studied, others will require you to explain and analyse historic events, others will require you to compare and contrast source material and contextualise it in the historic environment, while thematic studies will require you to demonstrate knowledge clearly over centuries while following a particular theme. All of these questions require you to substantiate your answers using facts.

All these questions will be awarded marks in levels, i.e. basic, simple, developed and complex, and short answers and essay questions will also have marks awarded for spelling and grammar. By practicing with past papers you’ll have access to mark schemes, which examiners use to evaluate your responses and you’ll quickly learn how to achieve the most marks while striking the right balance with time management.

Where do I find past papers? Right here, of course! School History has hundreds of examination-style questions to help you practice for your history exams. By signing up, you’ll not only have access to past papers but thousands of resources related to what you’re studying, including notes, activities, quiz questions and more. Let’s dive in! Take a look below at the major examination boards we cover. Give yourself every advantage to excel in your exams and sign up today!

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Five key things to remember for a level historical themes - mike goddard.

Most of our A Level history centres are about to start teaching unit 3, historical themes. Its approach is unique to the OCR specification, and so many teachers new to our specification won’t have taught thematic history at A Level before. This unit is worth 40% of the overall grade, so here are five key things to remember to help make it a success:

About the author

Mike is a history subject specialist and has worked at OCR on the history portfolio since 2007. Previously he has held roles at Cambridge International Examinations and for an educational publisher. Mike has a degree in Economic and Social History from the University of York and a Masters in Modern History from UCL. In his spare time he enjoys crosswords and snooker.

A Level History Coursework Edexcel – A Guide

• Post author By admin
• Post date November 16, 2023
• No Comments on A Level History Coursework Edexcel – A Guide

This guide shows you how to plan, research and write A Level History coursework for Edexcel using ideas, resources, examples and structure. This coursework is weighted towards Assessment Objective Three (AO3) 15% and Assessment Objective One (AO1) 5%. This makes it substantially different from coursework assessed under AQA or OCR. For Edexcel coursework, the focus is on differing interpretations of the past and analysis of them, alongside your own view of the events.

A Level History Coursework Edexcel – Ideas, Examples and Resources

Question Format – The question that you decide to answer for the Edexcel Coursework will always use the following template.

• Historians have disagreed about [ the chosen question, problem or issue ].
• What is your view about [ the chosen question, problem or issue ]?

Thus, we can see that there are two parts to this coursework:

• Part 1 – dealing with the historian’s viewpoints which is (AO3) and worth 15%
• Part 2 – your own viewpoint which is (A01) and worth 5%  

Question Ideas, Example and Selection

There are two key points to consider when selecting a question, problem or issue for your coursework.

• Is there enough debate around this question? – There needs to be a scholarly debate around the question or issue. This means differing views on the question from different historians. This makes it easier to select appropriate works to analyse and compare.
• Can you access the appropriate resources? – You must use a minimum of three different key works as well as two supplementary works. Your three key works should hold opposing views about the question or issue. Let’s look at an example question to make this clear:

Historians have disagreed about the extent to which by 1924 the Russian people had exchanged one authoritarian regime for another. What is your view about the extent to which by 1924 the Russian people had exchanged one authoritarian regime for another?

• View 1 – Tsarist Rule was more authoritarian. (C. Hill argues this)
• View 2 – Bolshevik rule was more authoritarian. (R. Service argues this)
• View 3 – The regimes were equally authoritarian. (R. Pipes argues this)

This is the ideal example of having three viewpoints that would be spread across the historiographical spectrum. This helps us to engage with the historical debate and hit the following criteria for the coursework:

• analyse ways in which interpretations of the question or issue differ.
• explain the differences you have identified.
• evaluate the arguments, indicating which you found most persuasive and why.

You would then add to this a minimum of two supplementary works, (more is better) that would assist in helping you form your view and add weight to your analysis and arguments. Critically, you must be able to access all these resources to use them effectively in completing the coursework.  

Coursework Resources

• Library – school, local, college, university – you should be able to borrow appropriate works.
• Teacher – your teacher should be able to provide you with copies of appropriate resources to use.
• JSTOR – www.jstor.org – contains a large collection of journal articles from historical publications covering numerous topics. These will often engage in the historical debate by replying to opposing views.
• Purchase Books – many second-hand books are available to purchase at very cheap prices through Amazon or similar sites.

A Level History Coursework Edexcel – How to Research and Write

Researching the Coursework – When researching our coursework we use the resource record form, which acts as a bibliography to the books, articles and online resources we are using. As we go through these resources we want to make notes that help us to identify the overall argument of the historian. Key quotes or passages should be noted down, alongside a reference. If we then use this material in our write up, we can add the appropriate footnote.

Writing the Coursework – When writing our coursework we need to be aware of the total word count as well as making sure that we hit all the assessment criteria. This means dividing up the 4000 words (maximum word count) effectively between the assessment criteria. An example structure to implement this is shown in the next section.

A Level History Coursework Edexcel – Structure and Planning

First section – introduction to the overall question and key works (c. 1000 words).

Introduction to the overall topic. You need to put the question into context by providing relevant information regarding what was happening at the time. You then need to define any key terms in the question.

Example from our question above – authoritarian regime would be defined as ‘a regime in which power is highly centralised and maintained regardless of popular support, with the use of repression and violence’.

Finally, you need to set out valid criteria by which the question can be judged.

Example from our question and definition above – we need to compare the Tsarist regime to the Bolshevik regime in terms of:

• Centralisation of power .
• Power maintained despite lacking popular support.
• Power maintained through repression and violence.

You should now have a complete introduction to the topic (1 paragraph)

Introduction to the debate by placing each of the key works in the historiographical debate. You can also place your supplementary works on the historiographical line here. (1 paragraph)

Set out the arguments in extended detail from the three key works. What are the historians’ views on this question? (1 paragraph)

Show how the arguments from each of the key works differ or are like one another. (1 paragraph)

Summary of the views of the key works. (1 paragraph)

Second Section – Explaining why the key works differ from one another (c. 1000 words)

Introduction – You need to set out three valid criteria to explain why the key works differ. Why is it that the historians’ arguments differ? There are several different potential criteria that could be used here: When was the work written? What sources and evidence did they use? Have they defined the key terms of the question differently? Have they defined the criteria to answer the question differently? Do they have different scopes of enquiry? What is the purpose of the work? What is the historians background and view?

Example from our question – The historians have defined the key term to answer the question differently – C. Hill has focused on authoritarian being defined as lacking popular support. R. Service is more focused on authoritarian being defined through repression. R. Pipes is mostly focused on authoritarian being defined as a centralisation of power.  

The historians have defined the key term ‘authoritarian’ differently. (1 paragraph)    

Paragraphs – This is where you use the criteria set out from the introduction to this section. You want one paragraph per item of criteria that we are judging the key works on.

Example from our question – one paragraph regarding how the historians have defined the key term ‘authoritarian’ differently.

Then you need to consider the three works in terms of the criteria set out for that paragraph. Show why there are differences in the key works regarding that criteria and how that leads the historian to arrive at their interpretation. Use evidence to support your points. (3 paragraphs – 1 for each criterion)

Conclusion – Brief conclusion that offers a summary of why the key works are different. (1 paragraph)

Third Section – Your own viewpoint on the question (c. 1000 words)

Brief introduction of your own viewpoint and line of argument that will be taken, remembering to re-instate the criteria by which the question can be judged . (1 paragraph)

Paragraphs that set out your own view on the question. This is where you should be using the criteria set out in your introductions. You want one paragraph per item of criteria.

Example from our question – one paragraph regarding ‘centralisation of power’.

Then you need to bring evidence and analysis to assess the criteria being judged. You can also use the key works and the supplementary works in this section to help you. (3 paragraphs – 1 for each criterion)

Conclusion that reaches a judgement on the question and follows your line of argument that has flowed throughout. (1 paragraph)

Fourth Section – Evaluation and Judgement of the key works and of the question (c. 1000 words)

Go through each of the key works and make a judgement on how convincing and valid the arguments from the historians are compared to the criteria. (3 paragraphs – 1 for each key work)

Form an overall judgement on the question and an overall judgement on which of the key works is most convincing. These should broadly align together. (1 paragraph)   

How To Improve Further at A Level History

Pass A Level History – is our sister site, which shows you step by step, how to most effectively answer any A Level History extract, source or essay question. Please click the following link to visit the site and get access to your free preview lesson. www.passalevelhistory.co.uk

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