Pearson Edexcel is the only board offering this subject
International A-Level History comes from Pearson Edexcel only: a depth study with interpretations, a breadth study with source evaluation, a thematic study with source evaluation, and an international study with historical interpretations. Each unit is a pick-one-of-several named topics that your school chooses on your behalf.
Analyse, don't narrate
The biggest jump from GCSE or IGCSE history is that essays get marked down hard for narrating events in sequence instead of building a sustained argument. Every paragraph needs to be doing analytical work: weighing up factors, explaining why something mattered, linking straight back to the question.
Source evaluation goes deeper here
On source-based units, evaluate provenance, purpose and reliability specifically in relation to the question you've been asked, cross-referenced against your own contextual knowledge. Summarising what a source says in isolation, without that cross-referencing, isn't evaluation.
Explain the disagreement, don't just report it
Say why historians might disagree, their evidence base, their own context, rather than simply noting that they do. Back everything with specific evidence: dates, named events, real figures. And state your line of argument early rather than building to it gradually across the whole essay.
Where marks quietly disappear
Watch for slipping into narrative under exam pressure instead of sustaining analysis, treating interpretations as a list of named historians rather than analysing why they clash, and describing sources instead of evaluating them on source-based units.
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