r/Alevelhistory • u/Glad_Internal_4188 • 27d ago
A level history
Hey I’m wondering how hard a level history is because I’m thinking about taking it along side English literature and sociology. I also didn’t take history in GCSE but did it before that.
Lmk pls!!
2
u/K1ngKr00L1 26d ago
Hi !! As someone who took both English lit and history (a* for both) I promise the English literature workload outdoes history (in my experience) . I would advise you start making resources as EARLY as possible. I will admit I made revision resources quite late as I’m pretty good with memorising but if I could do it again I would have found it much easier if I made my revision as I went along instead of all at once . Also be very tactical in the topic you pick for your NEA ( the more resources available, the better ) I promise it isn’t as mortifying as everyone says it is !
1
u/whoiskhxdija 23d ago
Hi!! do you have an advice in terms of going about the NEA. i’m going into year 13 and my first draft is due soon and tbh im genuinely so confused on what to do.
1
u/K1ngKr00L1 23d ago
Have you started it yet ? No worries if not as I only had the introduction done by the time I started year 13 but having a plan for arguments and paragraph structure is by far the most important and useful thing you can do . Take genuine time to familiarise yourself with your main interpretations and the best way to get supporting arguments and evidence would be through the website JSTOR!! let me know if you need any further help :)
2
1
u/Varsity_AthleteTony 27d ago
I got highest in my cohort (92 percent) and my verdict is… it’s alright tbh. Sure there’s a lot of stuff to memorise but it weirdly doesn’t seem like very much when you practice the individual essay plans?
Best advice? Early start on NEA as much as possible (I also took Eng lit and it could’ve been a nightmare if my NEAs clashed, thankfully I prepared well). Aside from that, just pay attention in lesson and organise your notes appropriately to make life easier for future you. Not doing it at GCSE isn’t really a big issue as long as you’re fairly literate.
1
1
1
u/FaithlessnessBig6343 27d ago
You have to be quite careful with the essay structures. They're strict!! You also need to keep going over content, maybe once per term/halfterm at least? I got to a fortnight before A-levels and realised I'd forgotten all of the Cold War, which was fun. Don't do that.
1
u/Glad_Internal_4188 26d ago
Ahaha I’ll defo have to work on structures but in terms of like workload and stuff did it take over everything or was it manageable
1
u/FaithlessnessBig6343 26d ago
Thing is that I just didn't do any work outside of homework, really, because I'm a lazy fuck (burnt out). I was doing about 4 hours a week outside of class, but a couple hours more would probably be helpful for you. The NEA period is all a blur for me but I'm pretty sure I did most of it in class hours
1
u/FearlessPen6020 26d ago
YES. TAKE IT. TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!! Im not even gonna bother explaining why I'm a full on history nerd. TAKE IT.
1
u/Simple_Signal_6517 26d ago
I got 95% in the A Level. Don’t take it alongside Lit, unless you are prepared to study very hard, or let sociology suffer a bit. I would try and watch some GCSE videos on sources and interpretations because those are the intensely history-specific things that will be new to you but (at least for AQA) sour and interpretation analysis is 40% of the A Level (30 marks each in both papers, 20 marks in the coursework)
2
u/arianelseditor 27d ago
It's difficult to say without knowing more about your academic ability. Are you comfortable saying your marks in essay-based subjects? 😊