History

Course summary

History A level encourages you to understand and think intelligently about aspects of modern history. It involves much more than just learning vast amounts of factual information. Of course, there is a lot to learn and you will immediately notice in how much greater detail a topic is covered than at GCSE. However, what students find most rewarding is the attempt to understand, evaluate and analyse the past. Questions at A level will never just ask you to recount what happened. They are designed to make you think critically about the material and to formulate your own assessments. You will, for example, learn to make judgements about the policies of individual leaders and nations, or to analyse the causes of a particular event and evaluate the importance of different factors. Then you will have to write a well-organised and clearly explained essay giving your answer.