Any History A level OCR teachers able to advise please?

[NotDonna]

DD in yr13 has OCR history A level exam very soon. It’s called ‘Thematic Study & Historical Interpretations’. She’s confused regarding the structure of the two 25 marker questions. She’s looked at a generic mark scheme but is still confused especially in regard to what they are referring to as ‘synthesis’?
Anyone able to advise please?

Can she not ask her history teacher?

From the OCR site

’The AS/A Level History A mark scheme shows that a fully developed synthesis supporting a substantiated judgement is expected in the best answers. Synthesis simply means the ability to draw out and use evidence from over the period to support an argument.’

https://www.ocr.org.uk/blog/making-sense-of-synthesis/

They’re on study leave now @TuesandThursNero and she says that the teacher hasn’t once mentioned ‘synthesis’ in class or in the marking of previous essays.

Synthesis was all that was talked about at parents evening - not sure I can remember the detail, but can ask DS when he gets back later today if somebody doesn't come along with the answer before then.

Interesting @AmytheDancingBrick as no mention of synthesis at ours. It’s always been ‘needs more detail’ for her.
She’d also like to know how many examples they need per paragraph as she’s concerned that 3-4 is too many to then have time to show proper synthesis. Per paragraph seems a lot as she has 8 paragraphs (6 as the body = 18 plus examples). They have 45 mins to write about 200years.

The number of paras and examples required seems about right. Top grade students will be writing up to 20 A4 sides in a 2.5 hr exam.

I think the synthesis is about drawing conclusions throughout the essay about WHY X group were more of a threat or HOW important the impact of Y was. So it's not just giving examples to say that Z event made something happen, but comparing causes and measuring the varying impacts of them.

At A level they are looking for nuance and analysis supported by solid factual knowledge. It sounds to me like her explanations need more depth, not necessarily in terms of dates but in terms of proving how the example supports her argument and compares to her other examples and points.

DS says it is all about comparing to other factors over time.

So for example if the question was about how did African-American leaders advance civil rights.

You would never look at each leader in isolation. You would say that MLK in the 60s did XYZ such as his use of media in the Birmingham riots, however in the 1880s Booker T Washington took a different approach. Rather than using the media to show the oppression of the American Government as MLK did, he set up the Tuskegee Institute which allows African-Americans to get a higher level of education, so in the long term they would benefit by being in control of their civil rights. (This is over simplified).

You would define in the intro what an advancement of civil rights is (usually 3 factors) and then refer back to those 3 factors in 3 separate paragraphs - Factor 1 in paragraph 1 etc. Then you would compare the time periods, usually focus on social, political and economic (if it fits the question).

He's says you have to compare / contrast for each civil rights leader. In the example above you would use their use of media or closeness to president or keeping momentum going. This is because social, political, economic doesn't fit with the example (Try to get to 3-4 leaders in each paragraph with at least 2 examples for each civil rights leaders. so you get 6-8 synthesised points in each paragraph.

Make sure to compare each civil rights leader to each other.

End with conclusion.

DS stresses that this is a very simplified response - he's off to his leavers meal tonight and busy getting ready but happy to help more tomorrow. He's taught by a teacher who marks and writes the papers.

Thank you @AmytheDancingBrick Ive given your DSs guidelines to DD. Theirs is the witch craze but she’ll be able to transfer concepts. Huge thanks.

I just hope it made sense!

She understood what you/your DS meant thank you so much. I think she’s a much better understanding of the structure in general now, thank you.

@NotDonna mine did OCR GCSE History and the revision book they had was brilliant, talked through structuring answers and was incredibly helpful. They both got 9s. Not sure if your DD has an A level revision guide or not or if she would want one at this point but this is the same series mine had, this one is the witch craze one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revision-Notes-level-Witchcraze-Centuries/dp/1510416447/

Thank you @BaskeyDownSoeMa and well done to your DD with her 9! I’m pretty sure she is using this as I recognise the cover but I’ll double check, thank you. She’s only a week away but I think she’s understanding what the mark scheme means by synthesis and judgement and has a better idea of how to structure the essays, which was confusing her. It’s 40% of the A level so it’s a big deal and it seems the synthesis is crucial for those higher marks, which she’s striving for.

@NotDonna brilliant. Mine had incredible history teachers and this sort of thing was introduced early on so they got to practise. They were literally walked though how to gain marks and they were very passionate about the subject.

Don't forget their actual school work too to look over, sometimes they forget all the stuff they were given in lessons and it might jog her memory on things.