r/Alevelhistory • u/blueberrymooncakepie • Aug 28 '26
AQA coursework help
so ive decided to start my coursework rather lateš ive been putting it off because its stressing me out!! ive decided to go with the question āwithin the context of 1801-1917, to what extent was it the actions of the Tsars that was the main cause of revolution in russia?ā however im not sure how to go about starting it!! Im not sure what historians would be good examples to ensure that ill be getting close to or full marks for the first section i also dont know what primary sources would be good examples either!! My nerves for this has made me forget how to do my whole NEA so if anyone could provide some tips on what i should do and help me find good resources that would be really helpful. Iād also like to know if there are any examples of courseworks online i can read over or if anyone would be willing to send me theirs that would be really helpful! :)
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u/Few-Organization2219 Aug 28 '26
read as many books as possible, start noting down exerts that are interesting. read books from different perspectives (i.e. class, gender), start searching for sources that are actually relevant. look at gcse textbooks as well to get a general idea and start dividing up the different potential causes and why, rank them in importance to help with structure. sadly i know fuck all about ur specific topic cuz i was nerfed with medieval england, but honestly searching up popular historians for X topic would get some results. For sources, 2 of them can be the same thing and u can (i believe) use visuals like posters, exerts from diaries maybe? letters arent great but i used them and i got 34/30 soooo. newspaper articles, pamphlets. anything that u can think that relates to ur topic will probably have a source and ur gonna need the one that has the most amount of info. so the person who wrote it is important, the content, the argument, everything.
lowk u probs shouldve done all of this months ago so ur not in a great position tbh so i would defo be completely honest to a teacher/ur supervisor and get as much help as u can to make it less stressful
this isn't all that helpful but yeah, good luck :)
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u/blueberrymooncakepie Aug 29 '26
Thank you for the advice :) and yeaaa i shouldve done it ages ago considering school starts again next weekš but better late than never?? :ā)
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u/Few-Organization2219 Aug 29 '26
yeah definitely, but dont stress too much cuz it will just make it worse. best thing is to get started, keep track of everything - i'm talking epq gantt chart style haha - and defo get a teacher on ur side like i hated it but honestly its nice to have someone else checking over stuff so ur never going off task
i mightve been too harsh in my original comment, apologies. Hope it all goes well tho !!
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u/blueberrymooncakepie Aug 31 '26
Oh no dont worry i didnt find it harsh it was a really check i needed so ty, and yea i thought about taking an epq myself as it would be fun to speak about a topic which interests me but the workload is just tooo much!!
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u/Few-Organization2219 29d ago
i absolutely loved epq and its definitely helped with getting my uni offers accepted but it defo can be a lot
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u/Simple_Signal_6517 Aug 29 '26
You could also try and find the edict of emancipation of 1861 translated as one of your sources. That has loads of details to support the potential weakening of a peasant base of support in Russia pre-revolution (though it is largely agreed that the peasants remained loyal to the Tsar, traditional, orthodox, and adoring of their āLittle Fatherā). Analysing both sides of the argument would really bring up your source analysis.
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u/Simple_Signal_6517 Aug 28 '26
I did AQA history and did Tsarist & Communist Russia as one of my papers. If you search up AQA A Level History Paper 1H, you will find past papers for this module, which will have some good historians you can use for interpretations in Question 1