Student walkthrough videos for GCSE History Paper 3 now available!

We’ve worked with Harris Federation to create a series of pre-recorded student walkthroughs to help your students prepare for this summer’s exam series. There is a recording for each component, and in each video we remind students about the structure and focus of the paper, the specific questions and what they are assessing, and suggest some general revision tips.

You can now view the Paper 3 walkthrough videos for Section A and Section B, as well as the videos for Paper 1 and Paper 2.

Updated GCSE History command word guidance

We have recently updated our student-friendly GCSE History command word guidance to include separate guidance on each of the different ‘explain’ questions, as well as new guidance on stimulus points:

This handy document contains links to all our student-focused support for Summer 2024 including links to the student walkthrough videos, command words and general revision tips:

Updated guidance to support GCSE History 2025 changes

We have recently updated our guidance on the Edexcel GCSE History 2025 changes to include more exemplification of the changes.
 

Update on supporting text for consequences questions: When we announced the 2025 assessment model changes we said that we would consider adding in some extra supporting text before some of the consequences questions to help students recognise the focus of the question. Since this announcement we have been testing this idea with centres and whilst most teachers have responded well to the idea, we feel that more testing and research is needed before any final decision is made to implement this change. Issues we are discussing include whether or not it should be included on every question and whether the sentence makes a difference to student performance. At this stage we have decided not to implement this particular change for 2025 assessment and we have updated the guidance document to confirm this (see page 19). We will monitor closely the performance of our questions, especially the ones that we’ve amended for 2025 and will continue to review our assessments to ensure we are making progress in improving the student experience.

Updated GCSE History Sample Assessment Materials to reflect 2025 changes

We have now updated the sample assessment materials for GCSE History to reflect the 2025 assessment changes. This document has been made available on the qualification page under secure download to avoid confusing current Year 11 students. The sample papers for some topics are not yet available so we will be adding them to this zip folder when ready:

We will formally replace the old sample assessment materials after the Summer 2024 exams have finished.

New Edexcel A level Coursework Guide

We have produced a new A level History coursework guide for teachers which contains lots of useful guidance on teaching and assessing coursework. It collects together the guidance that has been produced in different support documents so that you can find all the information you require in one place.

We've also produced this coursework case study with Dr David Brown, Curriculum Manager History at The Sixth Form College Farnborough, about how he approaches coursework with his students.

Reminder: coursework deadline 15 May

The final date for centres to submit coursework samples and marks this Summer is 15 May 2024. Please note your exams officer will have their own internal deadlines to enable them to meet this deadline.

If you are submitting A level History coursework this May you can find guidance on how to mark coursework, along with how to submit marks and samples on our website.

Reminder of GCSE History Paper 2 assessment arrangements this Summer

This update is to remind teachers and exams officers of the exam arrangements for Edexcel GCSE History Paper 2 in Summer 2024, to ensure there is a clear understanding of how the paper will be assessed on the day of the exam.

HA Conference 2024

The annual HA conference will take place in Birmingham on 10 and 11 May 2024.

Pearson staff will be attending the event and we will be running a session on our 2025 GCSE History assessment model changes on Friday 10 May at 12pm. One of our A level subject specialists, Dr David Brown, will also be available at the Pearson stand on the Friday to answer any questions you may have about planning or delivering our A level History qualification.