Slight (or possibly major) Change of Plan

After writing my post yesterday, it dawned on me that it was going to be a real struggle to get myself as ready for the Britain and Appeasement exam in January. I feel confident about the Russia exam, but I know that Appeasement would always be my weaker paper. Having kicked around the options yesterday afternoon, I decided that I would just sit the Russia exam in January and then sit the Appeasement exam and the A2 exam in January and June 2013 respectively. I drew up a timeline and saw how it should work in terms of the dayjob and the MA. My tutor was also supportive.

I telephoned the college to tell them that I would only be sitting one exam in January and they made a note of it. I knew that this would mean that I would have paid £25 quid for nothing, but rationalised that it would be better to lose the money than do a half-cocked exam. However, I was under the impression that the £50 administration fee that I had paid for the January exam(s) was a general fee. I was told it wasn't. I would have to pay £50 administration fee for each session of exams that I took as well as the £25 for each exam. Totting this up, I would have to pay £150 to submit the coursework and sit the 2 remaining exams AND pay £75 on top in order to have them marked. I could accept a one-off fee of £50, but having to pay in total £200 JUST for administration and then the same again for the exams and coursework feels too much.

Sooo I feel I'm at a point where I need to make a decision. Do I pay another £400 on top of what I paid for the course to finish it off, or do i just sit the Tsarist Russia exam and walk away to focus on my MA? I'm pulled both ways:

* I could drop the A Level, rationalising that I am now working towards an MA and have that as my goal now. An MA will, relatively speaking, get me further along where I want to go than the A Level, but I have to square this with losing the money that paid to study the A Level. Then again, I could say that the journey has been worth the money, even though I haven't got to the destination that I wanted. I will also have failed in my quest to complete my A Level 20 years on.

* I could continue to do the A Level. I know that with the new schedule, I could fit it around the MA and work, BUT it is getting costly - the whole process will end up costing me close to £800 just for one sitting of the exams.

I need to think about this more, but the financial aspect is weighing heavily on my decision

Five Weeks to Go!

I'm now five weeks(ish) away from my first AS exam (Russia 1855-1917). On the whole, I'm nervous but feeling more confident the more revision that I do.

I've spent the last 4-5 weeks revising for the Russia exam and I feel that my grasp on the topic is better now than it was a year ago when I was working on it. I'm using a pages and pages of spider diagrams for the various units and questions and can rattle off the material when I'm given a prompt (i.e. 'why did Alexander reform?') and I can also see how the topics fit together to form the larger topic of economic and political reform in Russia in the period in question. The only material that I haven't covered in my revision is the October Revolution and the role of Lenin, so I'm hoping that doesn't come up.

This week I've started revising Britain and Appeasement 1919-40. I've made some progress but I'm hoping that I can devote more time to it over Christmas. At the moment, I feel less confident about the material than I do about Russia, and am worried that my brain will only be able to hold so much information and the more I put in about the new topic, the less I will be able to store about the previous one. The appeasement exam takes place a week after the Russia one, so I have 6 weeks to get my head around it. I was worrying about the exam and wondering whether I should try and cancel my application for the appeasement exam and just focus on Tsarist Russia, doing the English Civil War exam in June and appeasement the following January, but aside from losing 25 quid, it would be dragging the whole exam process out for too long. I think I'm just panicking. A month ago, I was considering pretending to be ill on the exam days and trying to get a refund, but I've got over that now. I just need to knuckle down a bit more and go through the pain of revision.

20 Years Later: One Year Later

Today is a major milestone: exactly a year since I started my A Level and approx eight weeks until I sit my AS exams. It's been an interesting year; I certainly know more about Russia in the nineteenth century and various other historical topics than I did a year ago, but I still feel very much a neophyte, especially on the MA. I still feel very much like my toe is just only in the water and that I need to find more time to throw myself more fully into the subject, but I'm hoping that will come with the MA.

Aside from the day-job, my major focus are the exams in January. As has been the case throughout the last year, I'm pulled between the two poles of obsessively wanting to do the best that I can and knowing that, particularly the A Level, is something that I am doing for interest and that I should enjoy the process. I find myself veering between these two poles, thinking "I have to get a good grade in the exams" and then consoling myself with "yes, but remember, you're doing this for fun; whatever you get, an extra A Level won't go on your CV".

The hardest thing recently has been getting my head around revision, not least as the last exam I sat was in 1996! I started revising back in mid-October, but made little progress for the first few weeks. When I've been able to make time with the MA and the day-job, I've started to make spider diagrams for the various topics and, all things being equal, hopefully I should be able to finish the Britain and Appeasement ones this week. Then, it's the hard slog of trying to memorise as much as possible the material and order it in my head in such a way that I can answer questions. When I think of the topics, I can faintly see the material (as if through a fog) and how it all fits together, so I'm hoping that the more I devote myself to it, the clearer it will be.

hopefully...

Revision is driving me mad! :-(

I've spent the last few weeks revising when I can and nothing seems to be going in and I'm beginning to panic about whether I will be ready for the exam in January.

It's years since I've revised for an exam and I've tried various strategies to get the information to go in with, as yet, little benefit. I started trying to do plans for past questions but found that (thankfully) I had covered them pretty closely with my notes. I then spent a while writing model answers based on my notes but, again, found that I had probably done as well as I could with the answers to questions that I put on the blog. I've also had occasional goes at reading the course books, but keep giving up, thinking that I need to spend my time more explicitly on the exam.

Every so often I wonder whether I could cancel my exam fee, but I know that the college wouldn't let me and that If i did I would have wasted the money that the course is costing. I also keep thinking 'do I need to do this if I'm doing an MA?' but again think of the money and time that I would have wasted.

I think it comes back to a question that I raised right at the start of the A Level: is it about the journey or the destination? Yes, I'd love a good grade, but ultimately I don't need another A Level and it should be enjoyable. But whenever I think this, I then think the opposite: that if it was all going in, then I would be banging on about the destination as well.

I think I should give it a break for a day and then maybe try doing revision diagrams and listening to the Teaching Company lecture series on Russia that I have.

AS Revision has Begun!

I've started revising for my AS exam in January - trying to fit in as much as possible around the MA and the day job. The last exam I took was in 1995, so I have to throw myself back in at the deep end in terms of revision techniques. Looking back at my notes, they are pretty good and already are focused in terms of the broad topics and themes within each unit. My plan now is to get all the past papers on the units that I'm going to be examined on, try and work out what questions are asked and then work up model responses - just like what I did for my A Levels back in the day. For example, in terms of Russia 1855-1917, the broad questions so far have been:

Questions on the 1855 Reforms and their Success

'Explain' Questions on the Reforms

* Explain why Alexander II emancipated the serfs

* Explain why Alexander II decided on a policy of reform in Russia

* Explain why Russians were dissatisfied with the decree emancipating the serfs in 1861?

Evaluating Questions on the Reforms

How successful were Alexander IIs reforms in modernising Russia before his death in 1881?

Questions on Opposition to Alexander II and Its Success

* How successful was Alexander II in overcoming opposition to his regime (24)

* Explain why liberals were dissatisfied with Tsarist autocracy in 1881?

Questions on the Russian Economy 1881-1914

'Explain' questions on attempts to modernise the economy

* Explain why Russian governments promoted economic development in the years 1881

* How important was the work of Vyshnegradsky and Witte in the development of the Russian economy in the years 1881 to 1904

* Why did Witte promote industrialisation in Russia?

Evaluating questions on attempts to modernise the economy

* How important was the backwardness of agriculture in contributing to weakness in the Russian economy in the years 1881 to 1914

* How far was Russia an industrialised state by 1914?

Questions on 1905 Revolution and 1905-14

'Explain' questions on the revolution and the Tsar’s reaction

* Explain why revolution broke out in Russia in 1905

* Explain why Nicholas IIs regime survived in Russia between October 1905 and the meeting of the First Duma in 1906

* Explain why Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto of 1905

* Why did Tsar Nicholas summon a Duma to meet in 1906?

Evaluating questions on the impact of the 1905/6 reforms

* How important were government concessions in enabling the tsarist regime to survive in the years 1905 and 1914.

* How successful was the tsarist regime in restoring stability to Russia between April/May 1906 and the outbreak of the war in 1914?

* How important were the Dumas in contributing to stable government in Russia in the years 1906 to 1914

Evaluating questions on Stolypin’s reforms

* How successful was Stolypin in strengthening the Tsarist regime?

The Revolutions of 1917

'Explain' questions on the impact of military failure on the Feb/March Revolution

* In what ways was military failure important in the collapse of the tsarist government in February/March 1917

* Explain why Russians were increasingly dissatisfied with Nicholas IIs wartime leadership in the years 1915 to 1917

Evaluating questions on the impact of opposition groups on the Feb/March Revolution

* How important was political opposition to Nicholas II between 1914 and the February/March 1917 Revolution in bringing about the fall of the Tsarist regime?

Evaluating questions on the factors that brought about the October Revolution (Lenin, Provisional Govt, continuing war etc)

* How important was the role of Lenin in bringing about the collapse of the Provisional Government in October/November 1917?

* How far were weaknesses of the Provisional Government responsible for the Revolution of October/November 1917?

Once I've done this, I'll start looking at Britian and Appeasement around December.

Finished Family Fortunes

I've finished the first major activity of my MA: reading Family Fortunes. The book traces the development of an ideology prevalent among the emerging middle classes and influenced by evangelical Christianity that there were two spheres: the domestic sphere inhabited by women and the public world inhabited by men. The authors explore the roots and development of this ideology, how it was manifested and its various contradictions, focusing on the city of Birmingham and villages in Essex and Suffolk .

I read the first 160 pages properly but have to admit that I skimmed the rest. While I respect the amount of work - particularly archival - that the authors put into researching and writing the book, a page-turner it is not. I fell asleep twice reading the first 160 pages. Luckily, from what I can pick up on the course forum, I'm not the only one found it a bit if a turgid read. My fear now is the first TMA is focused on the book; albeit - fortunately - on its reception (and significance) rather than the book itself.

The thing that I found most useful from reading the book was (ignoring the turgid prose) the structure of how they presented their findings, which generally went:

* Make a general claim (referenced through general works);

* Illustrate with statistics or material from reference works, novels, contemporary sources and/or;

* illustrate with own findings.

This was reassuring as it is what I'm used to in the social sciences (claim - evidence/illustrate), although the nature of the evidence is different. The next stage for me, once this dreaded TMA is out of the way, is to look more into gathering and analysing this kind of evidence. Tomorrow I'll start to read the commentaries and plan my essay

I've started the MA

This morning, the portal for my MA came online and I was able to begin studying, although the course itself is not scheduled to begin until October 1. The portal is well set out and provides a study planner that takes me up to December and my first essay, links to resources etc.

The first unit is based around the book Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850 by Davidoff and Hall. I have to read it and three articles reflecting on it and then write 2.5k assessing its most significant contribution to debates in the area. I'm about 70 pages in (out of 450) and am beginning to slowly get my head around it, but I'm guessing that it will make more sense once I've read the commentaries and critiques. I can see myself having to re-read bits of it for the essay.

At the outset I am a tad apprehensive as it is a new challenge and I'm not sure yet what the MA is looking for, the approach required etc. I'm still finding my feet, but this is to be expected at the end of day one! My plan is to try and finish the book itself within a week, then spend the week after reading the commentaries and coming up with an argument for my essay - maybe running my ideas past the tutor, assuming I can and he/she doesn't think that I'm being giddy.

Ironically, I've also just discovered that part of my MA course materials have been written by my A Level tutor for ICS :-)

MA History Materials Have Arrived!!!!

I arrived home from work this evening to find a large package waiting for me containing my course materials for the MA. Inside were two ring binders and all the readings and materials (minus the stuff that is online), all neatly wrapped with a paper seal around each unit.

Receiving the pack added a degree of reality to the MA (a bit like holding a baby). I've been looking forward to doing the MA for seemingly ages now and knew that the pack would be here soon, but seeing it there added a new air of concreteness to it.

As I said, each unit is sealed although I peaked inside a few (while not breaking the seals), while the assessments are online. My plan is to try and get online to the forums etc at least twice a week, more if I can and begin looking through the online materials next week once (hopefully) work has settled down a bit.

Some Good News: ECW Here We Come!!!

My tutor has been back in touch (while on holiday - bless him!) to say that I can do the module on the English Civil War for the A2. I don't need to start worrying about it until February, but it's good to have the approval in place so that I can plan ahead.

Next stop - revision for the AS...

Thinking Ahead

I've spent the last week or so thinking about the next stage of my studies. As it stands, I have between now and May 2012 to finish off the A Level (doing the AS exam in January and the A2 exam in June), and I also start the MA in October. I had a look at the course dates on the OU webpage and I am scheduled to finish the first module in January 2013, start the second year in May 2013 and then finish it the following January. After that, hopefully with work paying for it, I would then love to do a second PhD on something history and crime related (again with the OU).
When I realised how long the MA is going to take, my initial thought was whether I could do it faster (doing the first module between October and January, and the second between May and January 2013). I spoke to the OU and they weren't keen on me doing it like that as they said I would miss out on the whole process of doing the MA and there were also be units that I had to pass before I could progress onto the second year. I was disapointed about this but then quickly realised that the whole reason why I began studying these courses was for the enjoyment and the excitement of discovery: something that a rush to the final qualification would remove. So, now I'm resolved to take things at the pace intended and enjoy the process, having it as my main intellectual focus over the next couple of years.
I've also been thinking about the A2 module. Under the ICS specification, I'm due to study Stability and War: British Monarchy and State, 1714-1770. However, I've recently developed an interest in the English Civil War (prompted largely, I admit, by the lovely ECW miniatures made by Warlord). The AQA have a module on this period (British Monarchy: the Crisis of State, 1642–1689), that I would much prefer to do, not least as there is one of the AQA/Nelson Thornes books covering the topic similar to the one on Russia 1855-1917 that I found so useful. I'm finding that the ICS pack is ok for the topics but very superficial and would prefer to do a module for which there is a decent textbook. I've emailed my tutor to ask, and will await his response.

Coursework FINISHED: double YAY!

After a few weeks relatively solid activity and inspiration, I've managed to finish my A Level coursework. I was expecting that it might take me a few months to write, but I have surprised myself with how fast I managed to pull it together. I will submit it in the next day or so, but according to my tutor, it wont be marked by the exam board until next May - a bit of a wait. There are no estimated grades, but I'm really hoping (and in a way expecting) that it will get an A.

John Walliss Course Work (FINAL)

The plan now is to take the summer off from A Level things and then return to the AS in November, to revise for the exam in January.

Coursework update: YAY!

My tutor has been back in touch and has given me positive feedback about my coursework [yay!]. I just need to tinker with some bits and add a short bibliographical essay at the end, where I explain how and why I used the secondary texts and sources that I used. At the most, I'm guestimating that there is about an hour's work to do now to finish it - inc. writing the last bit on the conclusion.

It goes without saying that I'm REALLY pleased about this. Once it has been submitted formally, I'll upload the final version to scribd.

[Yay!]

Finished the first draft of the coursework

After a rare week of creativity, I've finished the first draft of my A Level coursework. Once I was told that I didn't have to write something on the balance of power or nationalism in 19th Century Europe, I settled on writing 3,500 words on "In What Ways Did Perceptions of the Causes of Crime Change in Britain During the Nineteenth Century, and Why?", thinking that it would be good preparation for my MA and for the dayjob.

Overall, I'm happy with what I have written, even though I always think what I write is rubbish. I'm confident (as far as I can be) that i have done what is required in terms of looking at 100 years (for me 1795 to 1896), looking at change, and using and evaluating contemporary sources and different historians' view of the past. That said, I'm pretty sure that I will have to redo bits of it - especially the conclusion that needs a final bit. In a more pragmatic sense, i HAVE to get a good grade on this - ideally an A - as the coursework component is worth 20% of the overall A Level.

Coursework: Some Good News

For the last week, I've really struggled with the material for the A Level coursework topic. I even got to the point of thinking 'well, I'm doing the MA soon, maybe I should focus on that?'. The good news, however, is that after speaking to my tutor, I don't have to do the 19th century Balance of Power for my project and can do anything as long as it covers at least 100 years and doesn't overlap too much with the other units of study.

I had two backup plans for alternative topics: the industrial revolution (flashbacks to many many visits to Industrial Museums in Sheffield as a kid) or the history of crime and punishment (linked to the day job and good preparation for the MA). After speaking to my tutor a bit more, I'm angling towards something in the latter area and am currently reading some introductory texts on the topic for ideas. All things being equal, I'm hoping that I should have a couple of ideas to send him of potential topics/questions by Monday

Continuing Coursework

I've spent the day working on the coursework and all I can say is that the 19th Century is baking my brain!!!!!

Having read through the course-pack again, I know that the question that I've chosen on the impact of nationalism on conflict in the period is asking me to briefly discuss the rise of nationalism and then look at its relative influence on the main conflicts in the era, but my brain is still completely fuzzy. I've looked through a few books as well and they are great on what happened but don't discuss nationalism's role explicitly. I'll give it a week and if I dont make any progress, I'll start thinking instead about doing the other question.

Beginning Coursework

It's been a busy time with the day-job with various things so the A Level has been on a backburner. My plan was always to return to it in July to start the coursework, but I've managed to start it two weeks early, which means that I can hopefully finish it before August and have time for a summer break (and the return to work and the start of the MA)

In the ICS scheme of work, you are restricted to writing your coursework on one topic - the changing balance of power in Europe, 1815-1918 - and a choice of two questions: 'to what extent can European conflicts between 1815 be explained by the development of nationalism?' or 'in what ways did the European balance of power change between 1815 and 1920?'. At the outset, I'm edging more towards the former, although neither seems particularly inspiring. I listened to the audio lecture series on The long 19th Century by The Teaching Company and found it all pretty boring - but that may have been because the lecturer sounded like Rick Moranis. I'm hoping I'll find the topic more interesting as I get into it.

My plan is to read through the ICS course material over the next day or so, pick a topic and then get as many books as I can from the library at work on it and try and bash out a draft then get feedback on that from my tutor.

Jumping between Qualifications

It's been a busy and stressful month or so with the day job, but one upshot of it all is that work have agreed to fund me to study MA History with the Open University as part of staff development for my new role. I initially wanted to do the MA in military history down the road, but this one looks really interesting (albeit not much scope for "kings and queens and battles and stuff" sadly), will help with work and its all paid for. It should hopefully also give me a kick up the arse to refocus my research.

This will mean that I will be simultaneously studying for an A Level and an MA in the same subject!

Looking through the courses on offer, and bearing in mind what I need for the day job, I will study the units in crime and policing, urban history, industrialisation and poverty and welfare. Breaking from the past, I'm determined not to do the religion unit.

My plan is to spend the summer writing my coursework for the A Level and then spend the autumn, among other things, revising for the AS exam in January and beginning work on the MA. Then, between January and the summer, I'll finish off the first year of the MA and work on the A2 material, sitting the exam in May, June or whenever it is. After that I will have 6 months or so to focus on the dissertation.

After that I'd love to do a second PhD...

I got a B!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received my mark and feedback from the end of unit test for Britain and Appeasement and got a B. I'm soooo chuffed. I was convinced that I would get a C and that I should maybe lower my expectation of what I would get at the end, but not that I have this grade it feels like the game is back on for at least a B in the final exam.

I'm particularly happy as I managed to get an A for the long answer, and so I now feel that I have it within me to achieve that I can write as well in the real exam. The source answer was a B, but the tutor said in his feedback that I could have pulled that up to an A if I had evaluated the sources and looked at their short-term (post-Munich impact). That would have got me the 3+ marks that would have pushed me into an A overall.

The plan now is to finish reading vol 2 of the Hitler biography and listen to the audiobook of Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (all 57 hours, 13 minutes and 37 seconds of it). I'm going to then spend a few months on the dayjob and then have a think about the coursework for the A2.

Britain and Appeasement - End of Unit Test

I have just written and submitted my end of unit test on Britain and Appeasement to my ICS tutor. Generally I am happy with what I have done, although I think I could have done better on the source question. I could see what the sources were saying and how they related to the question, but think that I struggled to get as much out of them as possible. I'm happier with the longer question, although my tutor might say (as before) that I should back up what I'm saying more. I tend to go for broad brushstrokes and general trends with odd bits of detail rather than supporting everything I say with all the possible facts and figures. I justify this by saying that this is as much as I could write in the time and possibly remember, but I wonder whether I should try and write more and with more detail in the time.

All will be revealed once I get my mark...

my long answer was:

Why was the Treaty of Versailles controversial, and why did the terms of the Treaty continue to influence European politics between 1919 and 1939?

The Treaty of Versailles was controversial at the time, and indeed afterwards, for several reasons, not least because of the detrimental effect it had on European politics in the interwar years. Indeed, a case could be made that the conditions of the Treaty sowed the seeds for war two decades later.

Turning first to the Treaty itself, it can be seen to have been a controversial document both among the victors and defeated nation. The victorious powers disagreed among themselves about the purpose of the treaty, with the French seeing it as a way of punishing Germany for the war and reducing Germany’s power so that she would not be threatened again. The British echoed this view publicly while privately wanting to ease French punitiveness, evidenced by the Fountainbleau Memorandum. Central to this was the view, put forward by JM Keynes, that without a German economic recovery, Europe would not prosper and another war would be likely. Finally, the USA under Wilson, was guided more by an idealistic vision, wanting to create a peaceful post-war order built around the League of Nations and national self-determination. These disagreements - particularly between Britain and France - continued throughout the post-war years, with each international incident (such as German’s reparations bill, and the later re-occupation of areas taken from her under the Treaty) dividing the 2 nations over whether compromise with Germany should be sought or whether the terms of the Treaty should be enforced, perhaps militarily.

Moreover, the Treaty was also extremely controversial for the defeated power. Not only did Germany lose territories and colonies, such as the Sudetenland to the Czechs, Alsace and Lorraine to the French, and have the Rhineland occupied and demilitarized, she also had her army reduced dramatically to what was essentially a small defensive army with no tanks or heavy artillery. Last but by no means least, Germany also had to accept responsibility for the war through the so-called War Guilt clause and pay reparations to the allied powers - at a figure that was later set at £6,600m). Put together, these were seen as a humiliation by the Germans who saw the Treaty as a Diktat, the result of the German military being, like the Wagnerian hero Siegfried, ‘stabbed in the back’ by those that Hitler referred to as ‘The November Criminals’ (despite it being the case that the military itself had sued for peace). Germans were particularly aggrieved that, as they saw it, the Treaty went against the 14 Points put forward by Wilson that had promised “no annexations, no contributions, no punitive damages” as well as national self-determination. Through the Treaty, Germany suffered each of these and her national self-determination was undermined through, for example, the occupation of the Rhineland. Finally, Germany was aware of the allied, particularly the French, desire to punish her and the way that the Treaty was framed through this motivation.

These two factors, the disagreements between the allies (particularly Britain and France as the USA had subsequently withdrawn into isolationism) and German grievances about the treaty influenced - indeed arguably poisoned - European politics in the interwar period in several ways. First, it led to those allied powers who had, they felt, contributed to the war but gained nothing from the Treaty, Italy and Japan, to embark in the 1920s and 1930s on military struggles to gain land and influence. Mussolini in Italy, for example, felt that the Treaty of Versailles had given Italy nothing, and wanted to extend Italian influence through a new Roman empire, a view that led him to invade Abyssinia in 1935. Secondly, throughout the two decades, France and Britain frequently disagreed on the question of how Germany should be treated, with the actual political decision being an uneasy compromise between the two. Whereas in questions such as the payment of reparations, how to respond to German rearmament in the early 1930s and finally German territorial re-acquisitions in the mid to late 1930s (The Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland and the rump of Czechoslovakia), France responded with alarm and calls for action, Britain, in contrast, sought to appease Germany and avoid making any firm commitments to France. Thirdly, while it would be wrong to argue that the Treaty of Versailles led inevitably to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and ultimately to the Second World War, the Treaty did create many of the grievances that the Nazis, as well as other far right groups, capitalized on in their rise to power. A central theme in Nazi rhetoric from the early 1920s was that the ‘November Criminals’ should be punished, that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles should be broken and Germany given national self-determination, and later, that Germany should be a great military power again (and indeed, should expand). Once the Nazis gained power in 1933, Germany may be seen to have done just this - undermining the territorial and military changes enshrined in the Treaty. Indeed, it could be argued that German foreign policy throughout the mid to late 1930s, culminating in the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of war, was aimed at undermining the Treaty and destroying the European order that it had created.

In this way, to sum up, the Treaty of Versailles was controversial in the way that it divided the allies and laid sole blame for the Great War on Germany, through punitive measures such as territorial loss and reparations and war guilt clause. From the Treaty to the outbreak of war in 1939 it is possible to see how these two themes interlinked and influenced European politics - most notably through German attempts to roll back the Treaty and Anglo-French disagreement over how to respond to this.

Doing An A Level

I saw this really interesting article on the Beeb this week about calls for a shift away from written exams to being able to do them on the computer. According to the article:

AQA chief executive Andrew Hall welcomed Ms Nisbet's comments and said it was "really important" that students be "assessed in the same way that they learn and using the technologies that are commonplace in the world outside the classroom".

Personally speaking, this would be a great move, although I appreciate that the shift will have taken place by the time I do my first exam in a year. My hand-writing was already pretty bad, and has got worse since I hardly write anything - and what I do write are just notes for me to read. I think I'm going to struggle to write for 90 mins, cover everything that I want to say, AND make it legible. On top of this, I'm completely out of practice of writing in a medium where you can't cut and paste, start at the end and move things around. I think at least half of the revision period is going to be taken up practicing my handwriting under timed conditions.

The article has a link within it to another whether its easier doing an A Level twenty years on. One interesting thing the journalist says is that "Suddenly a couple of hours a week in an evening class wasn't really going to be enough - the syllabus was aimed at students doing six hours of lessons each week, supplemented by homework assignments". I would agree with him on this, but I personally prefer that I am able to work at my own pace when I want and that I don't have to put up with idiots in the class carping on about rubbish (I found this even when I was doing classes with adults). I think the main (perhaps only) disadvantage is that, while you have tutor support with ICS, there really is no substitute to having physical access to a tutor who has possibly taught the syllabus for years and who knows all the tricks to get good grades for students.

Speaking of grades, this week my main goal is to write and submit my end of unit test for Britain and Appeasement. I'm also hoping that I can start and complete the second volume of the Kershaw biography of Hitler.

Britain and Appeasement - an Update

I've now finished taking all my notes on Britain and Appeasement and have printed them out ready to go. There is no way near as much material as in the Russia topic, but I'm guessing that is because in the classroom a lot of time would be taken up covering how to analyse texts. My plan now finish the first volume of Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler, do the end of unit ICS test, and then read vol 2. After that, I'll draw up some plans of exemplar answers for the past exam papers on the topic and let my tutor see them.

Also, the more that I think about it, the more I think that writing my coursework on something around Europe in the 19th Century would be a good way of closing the circle. All things being equal, I'll start working on that over summer.

Second Stage Completed

I've now finished taking notes from Britain: Foreign & Imperial Affairs 1919-39, Hitler, Appeasement and the Road to War, and Appeasement, and now just have to finish reading The Age of Appeasement (which is by no means a page-turner). The next stage will be to produce some plans for the past exam questions and get feedback from my tutor.

I'm also thinking about the coursework. I was going to do something on slavery, to take advantage of the material we have at work. I've changed my mind, though, as the sample material in the ICS pack is from 19th Century Europe and it might be nice to do that as it was the topic that I began back in the day when I started my A Level and would be (hopefully) a great way of closing the circle.

Britain and Appeasement - first stage completed

I've completed the first stage of my note-taking - using the material in the ICS coursepack for the initial outline. The next stage will be to flesh these out with academic texts.

I recognise the general outline from my GCSE and more recent reading, and can see what the broad debates are but my main thoughts/concerns are:

1. Ive gotten used to looking at the path to war from the German perspective, with Britain etc. just reacting to what Hitler did next. I need to shift the focus on this.

2. The notes felt a bit bitty and it wasn't easy to keep the chronology of events in my head. One thing that I am going to have to do down the line is develop some sort of chronology with all the factors shown.

The next stage is to take notes on Alan Farmer's Britain: Foreign & Imperial Affairs 1919-39.

New Unit - Britain & Appeasement 1919-40

After clearing the decks of other things, I can now start on the second unit of the AS: Britain & Appeasement. Unlike Russia, some of this material is familiar to me from my reading on WWII and (in a hazy way) my GCSE.

The notes in the ICS folder are brief and don't really flow together, so - as with the Russia unit - my plan is to rely mainly on A Level texts and then more general texts. I'm hoping to have this unit completed by May and then I can have the summer to work on the coursework and some research from the dayjob - assuming I still have one by then.

Update

I now have more info on my test paper. The answer that I was really happy with was a B, which isn't so bad. The main comment from the tutor was that I need to support what I am saying more. I thought I had done this and generally I had but he said that more could be done. I've clarified this with him and my understanding is that evidence can be of the 'for example' type or I can cite a source (which is what I'm used to).

Hopefully I can develop this in the next unit. I just have two more books on Russia to read (Figes' A Peoples Tragedy and Fitzpatrick's The Russian Revolution) and then I intend to start it.

Gutted :-(

I got my mark back today for my Russia 1855-1917 test paper and I got a C (55%). To be honest, I'm gutted - although I will wait to see what the feedback says. I knew that my first answer was better than my second one, so hopefully the latter pulled the former down. If they have been given the same grade I will be REALLY worried.

Im trying to rationalise it by saying that ultimately the most important thing is that I'm having fun (I am), that I'm learning new stuff (ditto), and that I dont *need* the A Level for a job, get to University etc (double ditto) but I'm also driven by wanting to get a decent grade out of it. It's doubly painful as I really enjoyed the topic. Then again, it took me a year to get my A Level grades in the two subjects that I got As for up to a C back in the day.

Not sure. Once I get feedback, I'll post that and my answers up on here.

The main thing is that I'm gutted.