AQA A-Level History - Help Desperately Needed

[MuddyWellies7]

My DS loved GCSE History and although grade wise got off to a rocky start (got 3 in his mocks), studied hard, pulled it together and ended up with an 8 for his GCSE. He could not wait to take it at A-Level.

Fast forward a year, he is just about to start his second and final year of A-Levels and he hates History!! It seems to be the combination of the leap from GCSE to A-level, A-Level being far more in depth, and the teaching style of one of his two teachers. According to my DS, the teacher just stands at the front of the class either reading from text books or from slides. There doesn’t seem to be any variation from this, no student interaction or group discussions etc and my DS finds it very boring.

We have tried talking to his teachers, but the consistent message we get back is that DS just has to knuckle down and work harder.

DS is taking two other A-levels which he is doing well at and his predicted grades are good - A/B. His predicted history grade is not good and is really affecting his university options and we don’t know how to help him pull this grade up.

I’ve searched online for online study help, but for A-Level history, there seems to be very little available.

Has anyone found any online helps that have helped their kids navigate A-Level history. Absolutely any help at this stage would be very much appreciated.

This certainly used to be a fairly standard teaching style in history at a level.

what period is he doing? There are so many options at a level.

Has he considered a change of subject? It would mean an extra year at college but one of my DCs did this with an A level she just couldn't cope with and the relief once the decision was made and course changed was enormous, her grades were good and she got into her uni of choice. She also did an EPQ and L2 BTEC alongside in third year to fill her timetable.

Is there a difference in the marks he is getting for the work done for the different teachers? Say Teacher A is the Chalk and Talk one reading out and Teacher B has a style that your son finds more engaging, is his work to a higher standard for Teacher B?

Many years ago I dropped A level history as despite getting an A at GCSE as it was then I hated the having to study the domestic and foreign policy of Tsar Nicholas II and the also studying Tudor foreign policy. I loved social history and still do but the change of focus at A Level meant it wasn't the right A level for me and no amount of interaction and debates made policy interesting for me.

If you want to support him and he wishes to keep studying history you need to find out which of the components he is doing from the list
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/history/a-level/history-7042/specification/specification-at-a-glance he should know what he has done so far and what is planned for this year

Ds has just finished history A level, though not AQA, he also didn’t have the best teacher. He found some history podcasts that helped him gain further knowledge and understanding, The Rest is History and In Our Time, both available on BBC Sounds and have episodes on different topics. BBC Bitesize also has some A level content and he signed up to the British Library, which gave him access to lots of resources. He got a B in the end, having been predicted a C at the end of year 12

Was he hoping to read history at university? If yes, then he had better get used to the style of teaching he's currently experiencing.
Tutorials would be a different matter of course.

My A Level History teacher wasn't particularly inspiring. He had us making notes from text books*, rather than using slides, which weren't a thing when I was at school.

But my God he taught me how to write an essay, a skill which I have applied in many types of writing throughout my life and for which I will always be grateful to him. So I would get your son not to focus on teaching style, but on what is actually being taught, and what he is learning.

And to work on his essay writing skills, if that is an isssue - constructing an argument and selectiing evidence to back it up.

Plus, he is more than half way through. In my day, the expectation was the syllabus was finished by Christmas and the spring term was for Mocks, in class revision and practising essay/exam skills. Even if the syllabus isn't finished until Easter, that's still three terms down and only two to go.

*And I can still remember some of those notes on the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia.

Sometimes teaching style does matter, and many teachers don't spend every lesson reading from slides, lectures are different but even then you can make it engaging.

What does the struggle with? What grades is he getting in it? Essays based on sources or interpretations? - which are the 30 makers, one for Paper 1 and another for Paper 2. Those are really important because AQA is only 2 papers, if you mess it up, it has a big impact on your marks in each paper.
Is it forming an argument? Or is it the nuance etc?

How's his coursework? Has he started it? What topic is it?

I think there's some good YouTube accounts, Alan History Nerd is pretty good. What topics does he do for Paper 1 and 2? Then I might be able to suggest some more speicifc resources.

He doesn’t particularly love school, so I don’t think doing another year would be an option, as he is counting down the days until he finishes! But that would have been a good option if he was more amenable to the idea.

He gets slightly better grades with the other teacher, but he interest has dropped so much he’s really not interested at all unfortunately. He has only hair started doing research for his coursework. I’m hoping he can really try and get a good mark for coursework as he’ll need all the marks he can get.

I think he need to work on his essay writing and depth of knowledge. He tends to repeat the question rather than answer it currently!

Currently getting a high D at the moment in mocks. I’ll have a look at Alan History Nerd - thank you.

Definitely not doing History at uni!

What is his coursework on? Like the topic? Also what topics are his paper 1 and 2? I might have some more specific resources for them as I have quite a few but they may or may not be relevant. Mr Gunn has a few gold videos on history essay style (quite old so scroll right back) and just searching up things I wish I knew before y13, how I got an A* in history on YouTube will bring lots of videos with different advice. He can try and see what works for him.

If he's getting similar grades for each side of the course then it's not the teacher, and honestly lecture-style is the best way to get a lot of content across. There's a huge step up to A level history from GCSE and it sounds as though he's not quite there.

If he's sitting at a D currently then it's knowledge that is letting him down. He should be doing consolidation work after each lesson - creating timelines, flashcards, planning essays and so on. He'll need to do the same for his year 12 content - he should start that now, don't let him leave it until 'revision time'. The best thing he can do for himself is read around the subject - depending on the topics he's doing for each paper, there may be some good documentaries and podcasts too (there are loads for French Rev for example.) This knowledge will really help him, particularly in AO3 extract questions.

His NEA should be well underway, that's his opportunity to get 20% of his marks under his belt before the exam - as long as he's chosen a question he's interested in, this shouldn't be something that's affected by any personal issues with the teacher.

There are actually lots of resources for A level history but they tend to be individual books for topic areas rather than a generic "A level History revision guide."

If you search on a bookshop website for (eg) A level History AQA Russian Revolution, there should be some decent study guides which will give factual content as well as essay style/mark scheme advice. Oxford UP and Hodder are two decent publishers of this type of thing.

These are the best revision guides I have come across for AQA History. You will have to find out what his topics are:

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/oxford-aqa-history-for-a-level-the-tudors-england-1485-1603-revision-guide-book-margaret-haynes-9780198421405?sku=GOR009156287&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19891791290&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAIAztCrOdM3Vxpi13O3emcczb&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgs_QsdLIjwMVlJxQBh31YDPPEAQYAiABEgIHNPD_BwE

They have lots of skills questions and essay questions in them for him to plan. There is no quick fix to this, I’m afraid, I would use it is as a bit of a life lesson. He will find lots and lots of things boring but he still has to put the work in to get a positive outcome.

Do they have things like knowledge organisers? If not, you can still print the specification out and he can start making revision resources making sure he is covering the course. He also needs to start reading properly for his coursework and making really organised notes. The students who read and keep themselves organised are the ones who do well.

The teacher does sound rather dull but he needs to put that to one side and crack on.