Revise A Level History with us

In short, we cover any option that a student applies for.

Unlike other revision course providers we do not have a limited list of options, and we will run courses providing there is a student who requests it and we are given sufficient time to find a suitable tutor.

Unlike any other A level there are a bewildering number of options within A Level History. Also unique to A Level History is the fact that no teacher knows all of it. There are well over a hundred options and hence thousands of possible combinations of topics. To an extent this also holds true for GCSE, IGCSE and IB History.

At OXSS we do not think that there’s any merit in a generic A level history course – except in the case of an introductory course or within study skills generally. Once a student has started their A Level study of history the options absolutely determine what a revision course needs to cover. There are, of course, overlapping elements, but these tend to be around, for example, generic history essay writing skills/use of sources/etc.

We do have, for example, maths tutors who can comfortably teach any of the A level options. We have some excellent, experienced History tutors, but none of them can cover all the possible options. A tutor may well be an expert in 20^th century tyrants but have little knowledge of the Angevin Empire in the reign of Henry II, 1154–89. A good historian may have a very broad-brush knowledge of a wide range of history but will inevitably specialise in particular periods or topics.

Also, at A Level, History is split into “History” and “Ancient History” – we do cover this too. There is also a “Classical Civilisation” A Level though this covers, literature, history, art and culture – so it’s not “pure” history. The earliest period covered by the 3 main exam boards is OCR’s Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800. The classical period is often viewed as ending with the fall of the Western Roman Empire- roughly 476AD. The Y301 is a bit of an outlier in that it does (technically) cover a period which overlaps with the Roman Empire.

It is, of course, worth noting that students do not have completely free reign over what they opt to study if they choose A Level History. Pragmatically no school can give students complete freedom over their choices, even within one exam board. It is, for example, unusual for schools to cover any of the medieval options, in spite of the fact that it’s roughly a thousand-year period. Most schools tend towards 20^th century history or British monarchy/broader British History.

There are options that cover Asia and Africa – which I am certain would interest many students:

• OCR’s Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion from the Steppes c.1167–1405
• OCR’s Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: four case studies
• AQA’s 2P The Transformation of China, 1936–1997

But in our experience schools very rarely cover these.

Almost all A Level History options are bound within specific periods; some range vaguely others are very precise, compare:

• OCR Y213: The French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon 1774–1815
• OCR Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Y213 covers an exact 31-year period, whereas Y312 is broadly a couple of centuries. To my knowledge there are no unbounded (date-wise) history options at A level.

Here at OXSS we most frequently cover AQA, Edexcel and OCR exam boards. Of the International A Levels (IAL) we have covered CIE and Edexcel/Pearson. We could consult availability for the WJEC exam board also, if requested.