Personal study
Contents
Background of the Personal Study
A Personal Study is a vital part of the AQA History A-Level course. The Student chooses any topic area/s from the European/American History Syllabus (American/Russian/German) that they find interesting. Previously, a student could do a personal study on either the British or Foreign history that they were studying, but since the new A-Level syllabus (British now becoming 1951-2007), it has narrowed considerably.
Once chosen, the student will then research this topic, and produce an "Outline Form". On this they write the question they will attempt to answer in fewer than 3500 words, a "Brief Plan" of how they will answer it, and a list of probable sources that they will attempt to use in their work. This "Outline Form" is given to the student's teacher who will assess how likely it is the student can complete the question well, using their plan and their sources. If the "Outline Form" is suitable, it will then be sent to a moderator, who will attempt to make dubiously humorous comments on it, and use as many !'s as possible in two lines (even compared to Mr Grehan's humour- this stuff is BAD).
The "Outline Form", having been passed by the dubiously humorous moderator with illegible writing, can then be tackled by the student.
How To Tackle A Personal Study
Option One: What the student is meant to do
Upon receiving their accepted "Outline Form" the student buys or uses many books relevant to the topic that they are studying (the type of book will depend on the type of history being studied). In the case of using the books, the teacher will provide a large box of books and magazines, in the case of Mr Elkington, with which you can get photocopied and include in your study. The student immediately drafts their Personal Study, and hands it to the teacher. The teacher then comments, and the student revises their draft into the final piece of work. This course of action is advisable.
Option Two: What the student does
More commonly, a student confident of their ability, or of the amount of time left, and often outraged by the costs of postage and packaging, purchases only the chepeast source/s available, and does minimal research (the amount to convince their teacher that they have at least done something).
Suddenly the student finds themself in March, with little free time and a 3,000 word essay to write on a topic, which very soon becomes the most boring thing ever known to man. The Student has no time to draft their work, and therfore writes it "off the cuff" hands it in, and ends up re-writing very large portions of it. Whilst doing this the student will often notice how bored they actually are as they find searching for cartoons immensely more interesting than re-write sections of their work. Thankfully, the cartoons can form a part of the personal study; unfortunately the rule "a picture is worth a thousand words" is not fully applicable in this case.
