Pre-U History

[lovethedog]

Does anyone know anything about Pre-U History ? My ds' school has announced that they are to switch from A level to Pre-U for History next year.

I can't find that many schools that do it, although quite a few seem to do other subjects for Pre-U. Westminster School for instance do quite a few pre-Us, but seem to have opted to stay with A level for History.

Any experience or knowledge would be helpful.

My DS's school only do Pre U's (as far as I'm aware the only school that does) they are generally considered harder than A levels and this is reflected in the fact that each grade carries more UCAS points than its equivalent grade at A level.
This is what the school website says about them: "School follows Cambridge Pre-U courses in almost all subjects. These are linear courses so there are virtually no external examinations in the penultimate year. The Cambridge Pre-U offers breadth and depth; there are open-ended questions and plenty of encouragement for independent learning. Assessment provides differentiation at the highest level with three grades of distinction." Contrary to what many say on MN they are accepted by all universities in the UK and abroad including the US
Hope this helps.

The History Pre-U looks remarkably similar to the old style A Level that I took decades ago. But also similar to the likely shape of the new Goveian A level. I'm not quite sure that there's much to be gained by switching now.

Have just had alook at the paper and it looks MUCH more fun than the A Level!

I would have loved questions like this - soo much more interesting (but actually pretty hard to answer well).

From the 2010 paper - anyone fancy answering this?:

"Why, in the 1980s, did Margaret Thatcher attract both such strong support and such deep opposition?"

or how about:

"How did social and technological change affect opportunities for women in the years after 1945?"

My sort of questions understand ing as well as regurgitating facts. I'm a scientist I like those sort of questions.