Help with GCSE history

[KezzyBoo21]

DS is in y11 and seems to have done well in all of his mocks (5,6 and 7’s) except for history where he keeps getting 2’s and 3’s and doesn’t understand what he’s doing wrong.

He’s a good, articulate writer and his subject knowledge seems ok. Timing in the papers has been an issue in the past but he’s getting on top of that more. He just doesn’t seem to have a clue how to answer the questions or what the examiner is actually looking for, and it’s making him completely demotivated to the point where he now says he hates history, never wants to hear the word ‘history’ again, and he won’t revise because he doesn’t care anymore.

I offered to help him because I did history A level (a long time ago, but I did get an A lol) so I figured I could at least help demystify some techniques for him (even though I feel the teachers should surely have been doing this for the past year and a half(!)) - but then he showed me a past paper and OMG the questions are written in such opaque language now, even I couldn’t figure it out! I remember it as being more ‘Compare and contrast…’ or ‘Show that…’ or ‘Discuss…’ but there was none of that, just gobbledygook. I told him I wasn’t surprised he was struggling.

He watched a walk-through video that the teacher had recommended and seemed more confident going into the mock but the poor soul has come out with a 3 again and he just doesn’t know why. The only feedback he got was ‘Expand your answer’ when he’d already written three pages! He really needs 5’s in everything to get his desired college place and I’m at a loss as to how to help him.

Any advice, links, hints, tips, gratefully received please. Thanks!

Revision guides are specific to topics @KezzyBoo21 so you will need the ones for each topic as well as a generic one. Here's what they have.

https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/secondary-books/gcse?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAtNK8BhBBEiwA8wVt98NI1g0ThSp_NRdNihVQRpyPg7MJLZ6mma20vEYbXwhePNXUoKRZOxoCH8cQAvD_BwE&sort=best_selling&quantity=36&page=1&view=grid&currentFilter=Subject_30&filter_exam%20board=ExamBoard_143%2CExamBoard_284%2CExamBoard_1125%2CExamBoard_942&filter_subject=Subject_30

I agree it's odd if he is able to get 8 for Eng lit; is it that the topics are not engaging him? I can't believe the teacher can't be more helpful with specifics. Worth going back to them.

His teacher should be helping him more. I'm a teacher and have just marked the mocks. Each student had detailed feedback on their answers, plus I spent a lesson for each paper going through the questions and showing examples of excellent answers on the board. This is really standard practice. You should contact the teacher and ask them for more help.

Past papers/marking scheme for specific exam board.
Revision guides (again, specific to exam board) - check his 'option' choices (in practice, the school will have decided their focus)
youtube e.g. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6in0IaKnp63Y89v2rsPch4N--HYNaokT The Weimar Republic

Maybe they are planning to do this in the coming weeks. They only completed the final history mock paper this week. Meanwhile I’ll keep trying to get DS to seek out more feedback but he refused to even discuss it yesterday, he was so upset with his mark. Often a threat of me being Embarrassing Mum and emailing the teacher on his behalf will do the trick! :)

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions! I will send him the links and keep trying.

If the main issue is how to answer the questions and the teacher isn't helping (enough / in a way he gets it) then he'll need to look up old papers and mark schemes and watch the online stuff about how to answer the questions. One of mine would have written loads and had good subject knowledge - the other had a general understanding and some subject knowledge but spent ages working out exactly what to answer for each question. That was definitely the better technique.

Have you asked chat gpt what an example answer would look like

I wouldn't. AI recently told me that Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister in 1929.

😂😂 Yeah, I figure encouraging a teen to look at ChatGPT for schoolwork could be the start of a slippery slope so not going there!!

This is interesting, thanks. I think this approach is counterintuitive to both of us so it’s hard but I will definitely chat to him about it (when he’s feeling more receptive!).

I agree with others that the teacher should be doing this and seems to be letting them down. DS is definitely not the only able student currently getting low marks in history. They’ve had a new teacher this year (previous one left the school) which really hasn’t helped, although DS said that they weren’t given any past papers in y10 so it seems like a poor showing from both teachers tbh. Very frustrating.

Mine did a different exam board but having looked at the mark scheme for AQA it lists "AO1" which means there are "Assessment Objectives" and you have to hit these to get the mark. It is the same in English (AO2 is language, AO3 is context and then a level so level 6 would be the top in this subject).

In his notes for his History usually glued into the first page of his book are the Assessment Objectives and mine also had "second order concepts" as well. However, the school was amazing and they had a WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like) which had an exemplar answer which was colour coded to show which parts were AO1 or AO3.

Look at the mark scheme at the same time as the past paper which will detail what they are looking for answer content wise. The more you know the more help you can give.

My DS did Edexcel GCSE History last year. He did many of the strands your son is doing.

The best revision resource we used was the Primrose Kitten website. Lots of free resources but also very good master classes (which you do pay for). Their predicted papers were also very good with some of the questions close to the real thing.

Get him to set up an account on Primrose Kitten

@CagneyNYPD1 Thanks, haven’t heard of this one before. Will take a look. The name will appeal to my cat-obsessed DS too! 😀