OCR A-Level History: Reviewing the 2025 Exams

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This in-depth course is designed to provide a thorough analysis of the 2025 OCR A-Level History exams, helping you identify key trends, common mistakes, and areas for development. Through expert-led sessions, you will gain insights into examiner expectations and explore strategies to improve students’ performance in essay writing, source evaluation, and interpretations questions. The course will offer practical guidance on enhancing students’ historical argumentation, use of evidence, and critical engagement with sources and interpretations.

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BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

• Gain key insights from the 2025 OCR A-Level History exams
• Identify common pitfalls in essays, source analysis, and interpretations questions
• Develop strategies to improve students’ written responses and historical reasoning
• Strengthen students’ ability to evaluate sources and engage critically with historians’ interpretations
• Learn how to create a progressive teaching culture that drives continuous improvement

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PROGRAMME

10.00am: Understanding the 2025 Exam Performance

• Key takeaways from examiner reports – strengths and areas for improvement
• Identifying patterns in student performance across different components
• Addressing common errors in argument structure, evidence use, and historical analysis
• Developing an action plan to refine teaching approaches

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10.45am: Break

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11.00am: Excelling in Thematic and Depth Essays

• Understanding examiner expectations for essays in both Thematic and Depth studies
• Structuring responses to ensure clarity, coherence, and depth
• Strengthening the use of historical evidence and argumentation (AO1)
• Developing students’ ability to analyse and evaluate historical perspectives (AO3)

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11.45am: Mastering Source Analysis (Paper 1 & 2)

• Common mistakes in evaluating primary sources
• Teaching students to assess provenance, content, and context effectively
• Integrating own knowledge (AO1) with source evaluation (AO2)
• Strategies for improving students’ ability to develop substantiated judgments

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12.30pm: Lunch

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1.30pm: Navigating Historical Interpretations (Paper 3 & Coursework)

• Understanding the demands of interpretations-based questions
• Teaching students how to critically assess and challenge historians’ views
• Balancing own knowledge with evaluation of interpretations (AO3)
• Supporting students in producing high-quality NEA coursework

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2.30pm: Break

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2.40pm: Moving Forward – Preparing for Success in 2026

• Key lessons from 2025 and how to implement them in teaching
• Preventing recurring mistakes through targeted intervention
• Developing a progressive teaching culture for continuous improvement
• Practical action planning for the year ahead

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3.30pm: Depart