A Level History (not finishing syllabus/no revision in school)

[shepherdsangeldelight]

DD's school have not yet finished the syllabus for History A Level. The teacher is hopeful that they "may" be able to complete it before they go on study leave but it is touch and go. Even if they do complete it they have had no time to practice any questions on their final paper.

DD is panicking. Are there resources (online or otherwise) that I can point her to to allow her to self learn? I think it's understanding what is needed to successfully answer exam questions that she is most worried about. I am hoping that school will provide some support, but anything extra would obviously be useful.

If it matters it's OCR board and the thematic study and historical interpretations paper that they haven't completed.

Hasn’t she been answering essay questions for homework?

Theres way too much in Alevels these days. Not enough time to teach it all.

Oh OP that's really poor. What is the reason - has there been staff sickness or something else? If so I wonder if there is any possibility of asking the school to apply for extenuating circs for the whole class?* If it's just that the teacher is a bit crap tho then probs not.

History A level is so not my area haha but there must be study guides or a textbook available? Textbooks for A level are not cheap but a quick google shows me some online study guides that may be useful.

Hopefully someone with more in-depth knowledge will be along.

*No idea if this is a possibility? If a student misses a lot of the course through illness tho this can apply, so why not the other way round?

Hi - I teach aqa and only finished about two weeks before Easter. We're edexcel for a level politics and won't finish content until next week. History is a very content heavy subject but not as bad as politics and I'd say you should definitely expect to finish by Easter. The key thing is access to every single past paper since 2017. Print them all out (with mark schemes) and go through planning all the different past paper essays and doing some practice on the skills questions. These are resources I would have expected school to provide already. This is what I have been telling my year 13s to have been doing over Easter.

You should be able to access all the papers online - just go to ocr's wevsite

Don't bother with more books/revision guides (presumably she has a textbook or a few that she's been using for two years?). You needs to be working through questions. I would suggest ordering them into chronological order. So let's say she's doing Germany you pick out all the past paper questions on Weimar/reasons for hitlers rise to power, plan the essays (thematically) and whilst you're doing it youre checking you've got enough detailed evidence to support your points (this is your content revision bit).

Download all the practice questions - if you can’t as many are protected, ask the school as it’s the least they can do

They need to finish the syllabus. If this means they do additional after school sessions then so be it but they have a responsibility to teach it all.

Oh, and give the questions to history staff to mark. If her teacher won’t then give them to the head of history and then the headteacher. Make a fuss, OP! I am a teacher and this is an acceptable time to make a fuss

100% echo what the previous poster has said!!

You aren’t eligible for exam special consideration if your school has failed to prepare you fully for the exams. You’re just expected to get on with it, unfortunately.

If she hasn’t had a teacher and that’s why they’ve not covered the content, that’s something that can be noted on UCAS applications.

One of DS’s teachers has been off sick more than being at school. I don’t think they’re near to covering the syllabus, but he’s read around it a lot anyway.
We just bit the bullet and got a tutor for all his subjects (and sent his siblings to a better school).

Practice past papers paying particular attention to the mark scheme

Thanks @noblegiraffe I did wonder as I wrote it. Not happened to me or mine thankfully.

Good advice here from history teachers @shepherdsangeldelight