A useful first History lesson starts with your route and two sticking points, not with a period of history. The hour works well on one source skill and one explanation skill, practised on your own work. This guide shows how to choose them.
Step 1: Confirm your route
History tuition only helps if it stays on the syllabus you are studying. Write down four details:
- Core option. Which one is your school teaching?
- Depth study. Which one did your school choose?
- Exam year. Check the Cambridge History 0470 page for that year.
- Assessment route. Does yours include coursework or other independent work?
If you are unsure, ask your school History teacher or exam centre. Our assessment route guide lists what to ask, and the study route guide shows how to match material to your route. Having a topic on this site does not mean it is on your paper.
Step 2: Sort your lost marks by cause
Take the last two or three answers that lost marks. Next to each, write the cause in plain words. Most History causes fall into five groups.
| What happened | Likely cause | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| I retold what a source said | Paraphrase, not use | Evidence and source interpretation |
| I listed reasons with no links | No connection or ranking | Causation and supported explanation |
| I told the story but the question asked about change | Wrong focus | Change, continuity and comparison |
| I forgot or mixed up the order of events | Memory and frame | Chronology and historical context |
| My answer was long but off the question | Planning and relevance | Writing and answer development |
Mark one or two groups that recur. Those are your candidates.
Step 3: Pick two sticking points
Choose one source skill and one explanation skill. Two is enough for an hour.
For example, a student on a twentieth-century option might choose “tell a fact from a viewpoint in a source” and “link two causes with a reason”. Another might choose “say what a source cannot show” and “compare before and after without telling the story”.
Write each as a sentence beginning “I find it hard to…”. The one-hour trial agenda builder can help you shape the agenda.
Step 4: Bring the right material
Bring your core option and depth study, your exam year, and:
- two or three of your own answers, including one that lost marks,
- one source question you found confusing, with the source,
- your timeline or notes for one topic, to show how you revise.
Here is an original example of why real answers matter. A student says “I am bad at sources.” The teacher asks for one answer. It reads: “Source B says the harbour fee is ruinous, so it is useful.”
The hour can go straight to one fix: ask who wrote the source, what they gain and what else could be checked. A vague worry would have taken twenty minutes to locate.
Step 5: Know what the hour will not do
A trial is a taught class, and it has limits.
- It will not cover a whole period or finish your syllabus.
- It will not mark your work officially or claim a grade.
- It will not write or finish coursework or other independent work.
- It will not replace your own practice between lessons.
What it can do is show whether the teacher reads your reasoning, stays inside your route, and explains in a way you can repeat.
What should I watch for in the trial?
After the hour, ask yourself three questions.
- Did the teacher ask about my core option and depth study before using examples?
- Could I answer a fresh source question afterwards using the method I was shown?
- Did the teacher separate what the record shows, what the source says and what a historian concludes?
The post-trial reflection guide helps you score these honestly. Schedule and frequency are arranged with the teacher.
How do I start?
Enquire on WhatsApp with your subject, year, core option, depth study and your two sticking points. We assign an experienced History teacher, and confirm that teacher’s rate for the paid one-hour trial before the lesson. It starts from RM80.
Read the online one-to-one History tuition page for the full process, or go back to considering History tuition if you are still deciding whether one-to-one is the right format. The History learning guide sets out the modules in study order.