Keir Smith, history teacher at a school in Bristol, talks to Tassomai about what parents need to know about the history GCSE and how they can support their child with their revision.

Each exam board structures their content slightly differently and they don’t all cover the same topics but the skills they are assessing are largely the same. As long as your child builds a strong knowledge foundation and practises how to apply that learning to suit their specific exam criteria, they should be able to thrive in their history GCSE.

How to revise for GCSE history

I have found that the best way to tackle revision is through key themes, e.g. conflict or empire, and ask your child to write down everything they know about that theme on a bit sheet of paper. They should spread out each piece of information, and then you can ask them to draw lines between the different facts and explain the connection between them. This really helps them to visualise the links between events, which will push them up the marking criteria in exams. They can do this for any topic or time period they are covering as well. 

Some of the topics they cover span time periods of anything between 10-1,000 years! Each topic requires a different level of granular detail but as long as they can show that they have a solid knowledge of the time scale they should be able to pick up more marks.

As with many other subjects, it’s very important to make sure that your child fully understands what the question is asking them for, so practising dissecting previous exam questions is a great way for parents to get involved and help talk through how the questions would be answered (with the mark scheme in hand). 

Aiming for top marks

There’s a lot of content to cover for this subject but that doesn’t mean that students should get sucked into feeling like they have to remember every single date, time and historical figure – this can cause them to feel overwhelmed. The best way for them to pick up marks in a history assessment is to demonstrate that they understand the connections between different events. This skill is what helps them climb into the top marks. 

That isn’t to say that they don’t need to remember any dates, but they have to make sure they can show the examiner all of their skills. Exams don't require students to list all of the dates for a whole time period, but they will ask them to draw upon their knowledge and explain when and where an event happened and place it in context. This is what makes the GCSE a big step up from KS3 history, it’s all about making connections and learning about the bigger picture. 

How can parents help?

The easiest way for parents to help their child to revise for their history GCSEs is a simple one: encourage them to make flashcards that you can use to test them at home. Once they have some key facts really embedded then you can start breaking down exam questions with them and thinking about how they would approach different essay topics. History can be a challenge for students who don’t feel confident in their essay writing skills, so practising structuring and writing these longer answers can be a real help when it comes to the exams.

Which are the trickiest topics?

Writing essays can feel like a big challenge when students aren’t used to it but breaking down the structure can make it much more manageable. It’s important that students learn how to plan out their answers and stick to their plan in an assessment. Ensuring that they have an introduction, 3 clear points backed up with facts and a conclusion will get them a long way. Practising this technique can also make sure that your child is consistently engaging with the questions they are being asked and learning how to answer questions in line with exam specifications.

To find out more about our History GCSE course being released in the new year click here.