A2 OCR History F966 How to structure essays for this paper 1

For those of you who have studied Russia at AS clearly there is some areas of overlap -such as content, however obviously there are also some distinct differences.  For instance this is a 60 mark question and last year it was only 50 marks.  Additionally, this year you are looking at a 100 year time frame.  Finally you need to approach these exam questions thematically and you would never have been asked to do that previously.

I suggest joining the student room for all your subjects and topics, posting questions, joining threads and getting other students to give you feedback on your essays will be useful. 

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/

Additionally I also suggest that you tackle this unit thematically, because clearly it is thematic and thus requests you to show synthesis in your essay writing.  Moreover it is also important to not adopt a chronological approach but rather to use a thematic approach and synthesis, thus include, evaluation rather than merely narrative and if possible avoid adopting a narrative approach, please also apply equally to both questions.   The examiners are looking to see in your work, meaningful comparative arguments and better grades will be awarded if you use, direct comparison/thematic approaches.  It is also important that you assess relevant issues of continuity and change within your essay questions, to assure allocation to the top band of the exam mark scheme.

Your introductions and conclusions should be brief and be mere summaries of the main points discussed in your question or to be discussed and generally just revealing what your answer to the question is. 

Last year you would have been advised to tackle your essay questions keeping in mind political, social and economic issues.  This year I would suggest in your study skills as well as your actual exams that each individual historical event should be broken down into its key themes, this could be done on cards, in mind maps in your historical timeline or any other way that works for you. 

 

As you already know in the Russia paper there are 4 themes and these are as follows: (1) society, (2) economy, (3) nature of government & (4) war, these can be used virtually generically for most questions that you will answer in the exams, this then should assure you essay is both thematic and synoptic.  . 

Themes	Society
	Economy
	Nature of Government
	War

Next week I will be tackling History coursework tips and also how to improve previous essays which didn’t achieve the result you want without completely writing your answer.  I will come back to the Russia unit tips in 2 weeks time.

Also don’t forget the January sale and to look at Newsletter from last week which include a testimonial from a former student who is now the Head of Economics.