All Done

Well, over a year since I began studying Russia 1855-1917, I finally took the exam today; marking (most likely) the end of my A Level experience.

I took the exam today at Birkenhead Sixth Form College, say on a row by myself at the end of a number of rows of 17ish-year olds doing their papers on the French Revolution. As I sat waiting for the exam to start I must admit that I felt the nerves but they went instantly once I flipped the paper over and started writing. I then wrote almost constantly for 95 minutes - something that I haven't done in years and at the end just watched the clock tick down for the last 10 minutes.

On the whole I think I did the best that I could have done (which is obvious to say, I know). I was able to answer the 4 questions and did not find myself struggling to recall what I need to.

The paper was very much focused on the period 1870-1917, largely ignoring the Emancipation of the Serfs, The Bolshevik Revolution, and economic development. The four questions I tackled were:

* Explain why, in 1905, revolution broke out in Russia

Here I discussed the proximate cause (the Bloody Sunday Massacre) and the short term factors (defeat in the Russo-Japanese war) as well as the long term factors (demands to reform, autocracy, and the discontents of industrialization/modernisation from 1855 onward)

* How successful were Stolypin's policies in restoring stability in Russia in the years 1906-1914.

Here I started by discussing Stolypin's agricultural reforms, saying that it was difficult to assess how successful they were because WW1 intervened. I then broadened my answer out to look at both Stolypin's work with the Duma and his repression of dissent. My argument was that Stolypin was successful through the use of a 'carrot and stick' method (I used that phrase) - giving some degree of reform to pull the liberals away from the radicals and persecuting dissent (social revolutionaries, peasants, nationalists, social democrats).

* Explain why the Bolsheviks had little support in Russia in 1914.

My brain initially went blank with this one and I don't think that I answered the question fully. My argument was that they had limited support among peasants (who were the bulk of the peasants/workforce) as their message of workers' revolution did not fit with the peasant experience. Similarly, the liberals did not want revolution when they had the Duma and somewhat of the constitutional monarchy that they had been hankering after since at least the 1850s. Finally, I said that they also had little support as the Bolshevik leaders were in exile and so were unable to provide effective leadership for the workers.

Again, I don't think I answered this question very well. I was throwing enough ideas down to get some marks - hopefully.

* How important were military problems in explaining the Tsar's decision to abdicate in February/March 1917.

I was soooooo happy when I saw this question and reasoned that it would be worth taking a hit with the last question to answer this one. I started off by outlining the proximate causes of the abdication (riots, army mutinies and then calls to abdicate from the Duma and military) before looking at the role of military problems. My argument was that while they were significant, they served mainly to exacerbate existing social, political and economic tensions within the country.

So, all in all I don't think that I could have done any better (aside from possibly in the third question). I found it an exilerating and strangely enjoyable experience taking the exam. At one point I even thought that maybe I should try my luck with the Appeasement exam next week, having paid for it, but I don't think I will. Now all I have to do is wait to see how I did...

Exam Tomorrow!!

Well, after a seeming age, I finally have the exam for Russia 1855-1917 tomorrow. I feel pretty relaxed and haven't done any revision this weekend. I'm pretty confident that I know the material as well as I ever will and that I can recall most of it and how it all links together: I also have to keep telling myself that the exam that I will be taking is designed for the average 17-year old.

I'm also calm because after giving it a lot of thought, I don't think that I will be continuing with the A Level after the exam. I said a month ago that I'd been blindsided by how much the local college were going to charge me as an administration charge per exam. This, I must admit, is a big factor in why I can't see myself taking any more exams: I'm not prepared to pay a couple of hundred quid to take the exams (75 quid per exam at the rate that I want to take them). I reserve the right to change my mind on this if I found a college or school that would just charge me per exam, but at this point I can't see myself doing that. I also want to devote more time to the MA and reading generally around history and the history of crime in particular for the day job.

When I began the A Level, I had fallen back in love with history and I wanted to get the qualification in it that I didn't get for various reasons at school. In the course of things, I've oscillated between wanting to get an A-grade by all means necessary and trying to enjoy the journey as much as possible. More recently, I've started the MA and am enjoying that (mainly) and doing pretty well with it (so far, so good). Again, I veer between wanting to get a really good grade for the MA and wanting to just enjoy the process, but I think I'm more 'ok' now with the journey side of studying.

So, unless I decide to continue this blog for the MA, this will probably be one of my last post for the blog. I'll post something tomorrow reflecting on how the exam went, but the blog will probably end in March when I discover how I did tomorrow.

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.

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.

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.

Grrrr

Just had an email back from my tutor: I need to post my answers to him. That means with Xmas, postal delays etc that I am unlikely to hear back from him for at least two weeks. grrr.

A Level History: One Month In

I've been working on the A Level now for exactly a month. Its still a lot of fun and I have made great progress. I'm still smarting that I won't be able to do the exam in May as I had planned though.

The major news for this week was that my tutor got back in touch with me after having read my the material that I sent him. The good news was that he said that they were "many ways very good answers - the focus on each question was good and they were mostly well written". The only real issue was that I need to make sure that I don't "skimp on evidence".

I spent Friday working on my end of unit questions, that again get sent to my tutor. I was really happy with my answer on Alexander II's reforms (although it was much longer than I would be able to write under exam conditions), although I wasn't 100% happy with my answer on how far and with what consequences Russia was industrialised by 1914. I think that I covered all the relevant material, but it just felt like something was lacking in the answer. well, I'll know soon(ish) enough.

I'm also trying to get my head around the structure of the A2. I thought that I just had to do one unit and the coursework, but the ICS pack includes two units (one of which looks like the one that I began back in 1990!). I'll look into that, as I would prefer to write the 3.5k piece rather than do another unit (and another exam)

shitshitshitshit

Just discovered the the AS exam in May is taking place when I'm out of the country. The double irony is that I missed a job interview as a consequence of attending the same conference last year!

Sooo this means that it will now be the AS in Jan 2012 and the A2 in June 2012.

AS History: One Week In

Phew, what a week it's been. I've really thrown myself into the material for Russia 1855-1917, and have so far completed three of the five elements from the unit.

I need to take a few days break from it to finish off some work for the day-job, and then my plan is to finish the remaining two elements within the next 10 days. Then I will go back through my notes, adding more material from some other A Level texts that I've bought. After that, I'll read some general histories of the period so get the big picture of how the era fits together.

I'm planning to definitely sit the AS in June, assuming that I can get a centre to accept me.