How to Get a 9 in GCSE History

Cracking the code to achieving a grade 9 in GCSE History is a challenge every ambitious student wants to master. After graduating from university with a BA Hons in Modern World History, and qualifying as a history teacher from Keele University, I spent ten years teaching students with a range of abilities. However, I specialised in helping students to understand and achieve a grade 9 in history. In my experience, it is not an easy achievement, however, with the correct guidance, work ethic and positive attitude, it is achievable. 

This article will provide you with some practical top tips which, if applied correctly, will help you to achieve a grade 9. In addition, this article will also provide you with some advice on common practices which prevent students from achieving a 9. 

10 Top Tips to Get a 9 in GCSE History 

1. Revise

A grade 9 in history GCSE can not be achieved without revision. Most GCSE history exams cover a wide range of historical knowledge and skills, without practice, you can not achieve a grade 9. 

Revising for GCSE history should be split into three areas: 

1. Knowledge-based revision

2. History skills-based revision 

3. Exam paper practice 

Your revision time should be split evenly between these three areas, as you will be examined on both your historical knowledge and skills. Furthermore, you need to be able to apply these skills in an exam. 

Many students concentrate their revision on building their historical knowledge, often spending hours rewriting notes or creating spider diagrams. As a result, they tend to overlook the importance of revising their history skills and applying the information and techniques they've studied.

To achieve a grade 9, you should start your revision process as early as possible. History exams cover a vast amount of knowledge and skills. Plus, you will be sitting multiple exams at the same time. Grade 9 students, in any subject, will give themselves plenty of time to revise and will have a structured revision schedule with plenty of scheduled breaks. 

2. Use suitable revision strategies 

Many different revision strategies can be used when revising for GCSE history. From my experience, this differs from student to student depending on how they like to revise, and more importantly, what works best for them. Most students who achieve a 9 in history use different revision strategies depending on what they are revising, for example: 

Historical knowledge revision could be completed through the use of: 

• Flashcards 

• Reading revision notes, textbooks or your school class notes 

• Spider diagrams 

• Graphic organisers 

• Cornell notes 

Historical skill revision could be completed through the use of: 

• Historical sources 

• Activities like continuum lines, which are excellent for practising a “how far do you agree” skill 

An image of a continuum line showing how a student can practice creating an analytical explanation and judgment in a ‘how far do you agree’ question 

Exam practice could be completed through the use of:

• Past exam papers 

• Improving your old answers 

• Marking exam questions

  • Mark schemes are hard to understand and a lot of teachers find them complex. Try and use pupil-friendly mark schemes  

• Planning exam questions 

Most students only use one or two techniques and often do not know how to revise. Students who achieve a grade 9 use different techniques, know how to revise, and are not afraid to stop using a revision technique if it is not producing the grades they want. 

3. Know the requirements for the questions

Students who achieve a 9 in GCSE history know how to answer the questions. For each question on the paper, you should know: 

• How to structure the question 

• What history skills are required for this question 

• What not to include 

Grade 9 students will include this in their revision process, because of how important it is to achieving a grade 9. For example, in most history GCSE “How useful” questions, if you do not include relevant and detailed own knowledge you can not achieve a level two on a mark scheme. Knowing these important elements of each question will help you to achieve a grade 9 as you will : 

• Use your writing and planning time more effectively in an exam 

• Focus on the key demands of the question, allowing you to achieve more marks 

For guidance on how to answer GCSE history exam questions, explore our AQA and Edexcel courses. 

4. Practice, practice, practice … and more practice 

All history teachers will tell you that this is very important to achieve a grade 9. Practising exam questions has several benefits: 

• It allows you to practice and apply your history knowledge and skills 

• It can highlight what you know, and what you do not know

• The more you familiarise yourself with the exam papers and questions, the less scary and intimidating they are  

Exam questions are easily accessible, and they can be found here for AQA, Edexcel, OCR History A, OCR History B and WJEC GCSE History.

5. Source work 

In every GCSE history course, you will need to write at least one question about a historical source. Most students find using historical sources difficult, however, to achieve a grade 9 you must have the ability to use, understand, apply and evaluate historical sources. 

Students who achieve a grade 9 will not only practice source questions but familiarise themselves with a variety of historical sources. Historical sources can be easily found in a search engine or by using sources from past exam papers.

When you find a historical source, you should:

1. Read the source carefully 

2. Pick out key features of a source such as the nature, origin, purpose, tone, and audience as many exam boards expect grade 9 students to be able to include them in their source-based answer 

3. Annotate the source by applying your own knowledge and understanding to it 

The more familiar you become with historical sources, the easier it will be to write about them in an exam and the more likely you will become to achieve a grade 9. 

An example of how to revise for historical skills by using a historical source and applying your own knowledge 

6. The rule of three 

In GCSE history, students will normally be asked to answer an essay question. The structure for most essay questions is as follows: 

• Introduction 

• 3 paragraphs (often PEEL paragraphs)

• Conclusion 

Therefore, grade 9 history students will know at least three pieces of detailed information about key events, developments, people, battles etc. 

For example, when studying the First World War, you should know at least three causes of the war. Such as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the alliance system and the Moroccan Crisis. 

The rule of three will help you to streamline your revision, and prepare you for not only essay questions but all of your other questions. 

7. Plan your answers

As a history teacher and exam marker, I have attended many exam board training sessions. In every session, teachers are told by examiners that the highest-achieving students plan their answers. 

The reason for this is that a planned answer will:

• Plan their structure 

• Consider what part of the source or knowledge they plan to include 

• Have a sustained and well-substantiated judgement 

For questions that are 8 marks or above, spending no more than five minutes on a plan will help you to achieve the majority of the skills needed to achieve the higher levels of a question.

An example of how to plan a 16-mark exam question for AQA Britain: Medicine Through Time 

8. Know your exam timings and question order 

In an exam, you are given a set amount of time to complete the exam question. In all history exams, each question is given a specific set of marks. These marks can help to inform a grade 9 student how long they should spend on that question. 

However, because some exam boards offer more time in their papers than indicated by the number of marks, such as AQA and Edexcel, you need to work out how long you should spend on each question. 

The reason that you need to do this is so you spend the right amount of time on each question. If you spend 15 minutes on a 4-mark question, the likelihood of you getting a grade of 9 decreases. You need to be spending more time on the higher level marks. 

In addition, you do not need to answer the exam questions in order. Grade 9 students tend to start at the hardest questions first when they are most focused. This means that if you run out of time, you will be only sacrificing the lower-marked questions, such as a 4-mark describe question. 

9. Use your feedback

Feedback is a grade 9 history student’s best friend. We all know that teachers spend hours marking exam papers and questions and provide excellent feedback. A teacher's feedback is personal to your work and will provide you with instructions on how to get to the next grade or how to achieve more marks. 

However, most students will read the grade or mark and not read the feedback given. These students will not get a grade 9 because they do not know how they can improve their work to achieve a grade 9. Therefore, when receiving a piece of feedback from your teacher or an AI marking program, you should: 

1. Read it 

2. Re-read your answer, and apply the suggested changes to that piece of work 

3. If possible, get your changed answer remarked 

4. Have a go at another question, of the same type or on the same topic

5. Make note of your feedback so you can continue to apply it to your future work 

10. Ask for help  

Asking for help is difficult, and many students will never ask for help. However, if you do ask for help, your grades will improve and the likelihood of you achieving a grade 9 will dramatically increase. 

Remember, just like feedback, if you ask for help follow the guidance given. If you find that it does not work, or it does not suit your needs, ask again. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How Hard Is It to Get a 9 in GCSE history?

Achieving a grade 9 in history at GCSE is hard. In 2017, the numerical grade system replaced the previous letter system, and a grade 9 was created to recognise the very highest performing students in this subject. However, achieving a grade 9 depends on many different factors, such as: 

• The exam board 

• What options you do 

• How many people took your exam 

• How other people performed that took the same exam as you 

As shown below, achieving a grade 9 is harder for students who take Edexcel, as the overall percentage needed to achieve a grade 9 is harder compared with OCR B and AQA history. However, Edexcel and OCR exam skills are easier than AQA. Therefore, more people perform well, making it harder to achieve a 9 because more students perform well. 

What Percentage Is a 9 in GCSE history?

This again depends upon many different factors and changes every year. What percentage is needed to achieve a grade 9 depends upon: 

• The exam board

• How well students perform in that exam 

It is difficult to predict what percentage a 9 in GCSE history will be because of previous data from COVID cohorts and due to the unknown factor of students' performance year-on-year. 

How Common Is It to Get a 9 in GCSE history?

It is not common to achieve a grade 9 in GCSE history, as the table below shows. Regardless of which exam board you sit your history GCSE with, on average only 5.52% of history students will achieve a grade 9. 

Score a 9 in GCSE History with Save My Exams

Save My Exams offers students targeted revision materials designed to help them achieve a Grade 9 in History. Our resources are crafted by experienced teachers and examiners, ensuring expert guidance from specialists who know what it takes to excel. With comprehensive revision notes, topic-specific questions, and fully worked solutions, students gain the knowledge and skills needed to achieve a grade 9 in History.

Want to learn more about GCSE History on SaveMyExams? Explore our GCSE History resources to kick-start your journey to exam success!

References

Setting grade 9 in new GCSEs – The Ofqual blog 

Grade Boundaries - 2024 Exams (AQA) 

Grade Boundaries - June 2024 - GCSE (9-1) 

OCR June 2024 GCSE Grade Boundaries 

Results statistics GCSE – June 2024 exams

OCR June 2024 Provisional Results Statistics Level 1 / 2 version 1.0 

Grade Statistics-June 2024 (Provisional) GCSE (9-1) Specifications