Edexcel GCSE History Tutors Online

Edexcel GCSE History is code 1HI0, with a qualification number of 601/8092/4, written for first teaching from September 2016 and first certification from 2018. The specification prints no discount code and refers centres to the GOV.UK website. This page works from Issue 6, ISBN 978 1 446 92586 7, which is the current version.

Unlike most subjects in this qualification family, the specification states its total outright. The total qualification mark is 168, of which 8 marks are for spelling, punctuation, grammar and use of specialist terminology. All assessment is taken in May and June in a single year, and there is no November series.

The qualification has three papers, and the middle one is the heaviest. Paper 1 is the thematic study and historic environment at 1 hour and 20 minutes, worth 30% and 52 marks, split into 16 for the historic environment and 36 for the thematic study. Paper 2 is the period study and British depth study at 1 hour and 50 minutes, the longest paper, worth 40% and 64 marks, with 32 for the period study and 32 for the British depth study. Paper 3 is the modern depth study at 1 hour and 30 minutes, worth 30% and 52 marks.

The published weightings of 30%, 40% and 30% relate to assessed content before the SPaG marks are included, which is why Paper 1 and Paper 3 can both be 52 marks while Paper 2 is 64.

There is a large amount of choice, and the choice is made by the school rather than by the student. Paper 1 has four options, each pairing a thematic study with a historic environment: crime and punishment with Whitechapel, medicine in Britain with the Western Front, warfare and British society with London in the Second World War, or migrants in Britain with Notting Hill. Paper 3 has four modern depth studies: Russia and the Soviet Union, Weimar and Nazi Germany, Mao's China, or the USA. Paper 2 is different, because students take one of four British depth studies and, separately, one of five period studies.

Inside the papers the choice narrows. In Paper 1, Section A is marked out of 16 and is fully compulsory, while Section B is marked out of 36 and asks students to answer three questions, of which the first two are compulsory and the third is a choice of two. In Paper 2 the period study booklet has four questions with the fourth offering two of three parts, and the British depth study booklet has four questions with the fourth offering one of two. In Paper 3, Section A is marked out of 16 with one compulsory source question and a choice of one from two, and Section B is a single compulsory four-part question built on two sources and two interpretations.

The four assessment objectives are not spread evenly, and the breakdown table is mostly dashes. AO1 and AO2 are equal at 35% each, and AO3 and AO4 are equal at 15% each. Paper 2 carries 20% AO1 and 20% AO2 but no AO3 and no AO4 at all, so 40% of the qualification is knowledge and explanation with no source work and no interpretations. Paper 3 carries no fewer than all 15% of AO4, all inside Section B. AO3 is split evenly between Paper 1 and Paper 3 at 7.5% each.

The consequence is that a student who only practises source questions has almost nothing to practise them on in Paper 2, and a student who avoids interpretations loses the whole of AO4. Papers 1 and 3 carry identical marks, 16 and 36, and identical section weights of 10% and 20%, but they are not the same paper: Paper 1 is 11.25% AO1, 11.25% AO2 and 7.5% AO3, while Paper 3 is 3.75% AO1, 3.75% AO2, 7.5% AO3 and 15% AO4.

Extended writing is rewarded in the mark schemes of questions that target AO2 and carry 8 or more marks. Many of those questions provide stimulus points, which students may use but are not required to use, and the mark schemes penalise a student who uses stimulus points without adding points of their own.