History GCSE Revision Tips: Student Led Initiative

Introduction 

Adel, a Save My Exams IGCSE student, has shared his tips for achieving at least a grade 8 in IGCSE History. These tips could also help you if you study GCSE History. He has broken it down into 5 key areas: Understanding, Knowing, Remembering, Expressing and Practicing. He also shares how he recommends utilising time properly and how to maximise efficiency - very important tips to help you avoid procrastination!

Adel is Egyptian and History is a subject that excites him. 

History IGCSE Revision Tips: Student-led Initiative

History IGCSE can be one of the hardest subjects to get through. I have heard horrific stories of people who spent months studying and were then disappointed with a grade 2 or 3 at the end of it. As for myself, after studying for about two months before exam season, I was able to acquire an 8 in IGCSE History. Therefore, I shall share my studying techniques and what separated me from my peers.

My System For IGCSE History RevisionI planned my system for study after careful consideration, and have broken it down into five areas:

1. Understanding – You need to understand why events happened and how the global scene is linked through motivations, errors and successes. For example, you may say that the League of Nations’ passivity after Japan’s invasion of Manchuria had inspired Mussolini to invade Abyssinia. Although the two wars were about 8,000 kilometers apart, one had indirectly inspired or perhaps caused the other. This is a skill you will use extensively in your depth study as you must go into depth when answering the question.

2. Knowing – This is, quite simply, knowing what is related to what – like a string of threads in your brain tying events to individuals. 

3. Remembering – You do not need a photographic memory to remember every fact; you simply need an effective system for memorising. 

4. Expressing – Your answers must make sense. You must master expressing your answers clearly and without repeating yourself.

5. Practising – You will learn from your mistakes and refine your answers. “Experience is the teacher of all things” – Julius Caesar

Understanding

In order to achieve the first part of my system, I recommend getting the exam-board textbook that covers your syllabus. Without making any notes on it, go through the chapters in the following way:

1. Answer the review questions at the end of the chapter – This will indicate what is important in the chapter and what you should pay attention to (Note: Some textbooks might not have review questions). You could also ask your friends to quiz you on these questions

2. Enrich your vocabulary – Keep a notes page on your phone, or in a small notebook, and write down any words that may be helpful. These don’t have to be flashcards, just a list. This will allow you to express yourself in the exam without having to repeat words or make a string of long sentences to describe a word that already exists. This will save you time in the exam. (Note that this should be a list of words,  e.g. benchmark, not terms, e.g. plebiscite.)

Repeat this system with the whole textbook. Once you have done this, you will have understood the events and will have a real answer-factory that will generate your answers for all the logical parts of questions in the exam. 

Knowing

After completing the first step (understanding), you will probably not remember every key name or date. Get a revision book and a notebook, and (using a pen) summarise each chapter in well-written and structured notes. Make sure to include the definition of each key term and write down any dates and names you come across. 

By slowly reading the revision book, you will be revising what you looked at in the previous stage, and when you write your notes, you will be reinforcing the information in your mind. Most people stop here, but after this, you must do what I call “double revision”. Get a pencil and make new notes over your existing notes (written in pen) to summarise them even more. These notes will be helpful when revising in the run-up to your exam. 

Remembering

In this third stage, you will need flashcards. You can buy these or make them with A4 paper. On these, you should write:

• Statistics

• Names of figures

• Names of events

• Key terms

Review these flashcards every day and they will help you remember. As a result of using flashcards, I still remember multiple statistics from my revision. 

For the depth study, I suggest also making timelines.

Expressing

Ask your teacher how to structure your answer for each type of question. I did IGCSE History (0977), and my teacher was a Cambridge examiner for three years. They told us that 50 per cent of your mark depends on how you write your answer.

Practising

Practise by answering as many past papers as possible, you could also consider getting a tutor (not just a friend or relative) to mark them.

Increasing your efficiency

Just as important as studying is utilising your time properly. So, as promised, here are a few tips that helped me to maximise my efficiency. Use these to avoid procrastinating and wasting hours of your precious time. 

• If you lack motivation to study – take a cold shower. This will bring your dopamine baseline down and make studying a lot easier

• Meditate – It makes you more aware and less likely to waste time

• Avoid obsessing over certain activities – Doing too much gaming or any other activity makes it harder to concentrate and you lose that sharp focus that comes naturally

• Live half your day like you’re in the 1800s – Take more walks, use your phone less, read more, and generally lower your dopamine intake. This will make studying a lot easier and more fun

• Eat healthily – I have found that when I eat healthily, I have a sharper mind and as a result do better in class

These were the few golden nuggets I had to offer. I hope you do well in your exams, and best of luck!