AQA GCSE History Active Recall Guide (8145)
AQA · GCSE
AQA GCSE History Active Recall Guide
Every topic of specification 8145 written as exam-style questions with the answers printed after them. 1,889 questions across 16 topics and 154 subtopics, including every option so the guide fits whichever four you sit.
- AQA
- GCSE
- Specification 8145
- 1,889 questions
Guide overview All 16 topics Sample questions Papers and weighting Look inside Questions and answers
What the exam asks of you
AQA GCSE History is assessed by two written papers of two hours each, worth 50 per cent apiece. Paper 1, Understanding the Modern World, pairs a period study with a wider world depth study. Paper 2, Shaping the Nation, pairs a thematic study of British history with a British depth study.
A student sits one option from each of the four groups, so four of the sixteen topics here. Which four depends entirely on what the school chose.
| Paper | Covers | Length | Marks | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Paper 1 Understanding the modern world |
America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation Germany, 1890–1945: Democracy and Dictatorship Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism America, 1920–1973: Opportunity and Inequality Conflict and Tension: The First World War, 1894–1918 Conflict and Tension: The Inter-War Years, 1918–1939 Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 Conflict and Tension in Asia, 1950–1975 Conflict and Tension in the Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990–2009 |
2 hours | 84 marks | 50% |
|
Paper 2 Shaping the nation |
Health and the People in Britain, c1000 to the Present Day Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day Migration, Empires and the People in Britain, c790 to the Present Day Norman England, c1066–c1100 Medieval England: The Reign of Edward I, 1272–1307 Elizabethan England, c1568–1603 Restoration England, 1660–1685 |
2 hours | 84 marks | 50% |
What is in the guide
All 16 topics
Every topic has its own page with its subtopics, what it covers and sample questions.
Sample questions
Taken from the guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
-
The geography of North America
Which two mountain barriers had migrants to the Pacific coast to cross?
Show the answer
The Rocky Mountains and then the Sierra Nevada. -
The ‘Boom’
Why was advertising so important to the consumer society of the 1920s?
Show the answer
Newspapers, magazines, billboards and radio persuaded Americans to want goods they had never owned, creating the demand that kept the factories profitable. -
The end of the Second World War
What was the quarrel at Potsdam about reparations, and how was it patched up?
Show the answer
Stalin demanded huge payments from Germany while the western powers refused to strip a country they would then have to feed, so each occupying power was left to take reparations from its own zone. -
The causes of the Korean War
What did Kim Il Sung and Syngman Rhee both claim, despite being bitter enemies?
Show the answer
Each claimed the right to rule the whole peninsula and wanted the country reunited on his own terms. -
Regional instability
What did Saddam Hussein still possess in 1988 that alarmed his neighbours?
Show the answer
A huge, battle-hardened army, which he kept mobilised instead of sending home after the ceasefire. -
The Alliance System
What was the Entente Cordiale of 1904?
Show the answer
A friendly understanding between Britain and France that settled their colonial quarrels, without either side promising to fight for the other. -
The armistice
What were Wilson's Fourteen Points?
Show the answer
His programme, set out in January 1918, for a fair and lasting peace based on ideas such as self-determination, open diplomacy, freedom of the seas and disarmament. -
Elizabeth I and her court
Give two qualities of character that helped Elizabeth I govern successfully.
Show the answer
She was highly intelligent and a gifted public performer, and she was cautious, often delaying a decision until it suited her.
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
-
Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
-
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
-
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Look inside
Questions for a subtopic print together and the answers for that section print after them.
- America, 1840-1895: Expansion and Consolidation105
- America, 1920-1973: Opportunity and Inequality100
- Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945-1972139
- Conflict and Tension in Asia, 1950-197599
- Conflict and Tension in the Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990-200988
- Conflict and Tension: the First World War, 1894-191893
- Conflict and Tension: the Inter-War Years, 1918-1939123
- Elizabethan England, c1568-1603118
- Germany, 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship98
- Health and the People in Britain, c1000 to the Present Day165
- Medieval England: the Reign of Edward I, 1272-1307103
- Migration, Empires and the People in Britain, c790 to the Present Day158
- and 4 more
- What is meant by hire purchase?
- Which car did Henry Ford build in enormous numbers in the 1920s?
- How did the moving assembly line cut the cost of building a car?
- Why was advertising so important to the consumer society of the 1920s?
- Name three new household goods that spread through American homes during the 1920s.
- What was a tariff meant to do for American industry?
- What did the Republican policy of laissez-faire mean in practice?
- Which Americans gained little or nothing from the prosperity of the 1920s?
- What did it mean to buy shares on the margin?
- Buying goods with a small deposit and then paying the rest in weekly or monthly instalments, which let ordinary families take an expensive item home at once.
- The Model T, which grew cheaper year after year until around half the cars in the world were Fords.
- Each worker repeated a single simple task as the vehicle moved past, so a car took far fewer hours of labour to finish.
- Newspapers, magazines, billboards and radio persuaded Americans to want goods they had never owned, creating the demand that kept the factories profitable.
- Vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and radios.
- Taxing foreign goods made them dearer than home-produced ones, so Americans bought American and domestic firms kept the market to themselves.
- The government interfered with business as little as possible, leaving companies free of regulation to grow and take profits as they chose.
- Farmers hit by falling crop prices, black Americans, and workers in older industries such as coal and textiles.
- Paying only a fraction of the price in cash and borrowing the rest, in the belief that the shares could be sold at a profit before the loan fell due.
questions
Scroll sideways to turn through the pages.
Questions students ask first
I only do four of these. Is the rest wasted?
No. You take one period study and one wider world depth study for Paper 1, and one British thematic study and one British depth study for Paper 2.
All sixteen are in the guide because schools choose differently. Work your four and skip the other twelve. Each is a separate page.
How do I know which four I do?
Your teacher and your exam timetable will have them. The topic list here is grouped by paper, so you can match your four against it.
The thematic study covers a thousand years. How do I revise that?
By subtopic. Health and the People is 165 questions and Migration, Empires and the People 158, and both divide into subtopics of 8 to 25. Working one period of one theme at a time is what makes the span manageable.
Do I need to know dates precisely?
Yes. History rewards specific evidence, and a date or a name is the difference between a supported point and an unsupported one.
AQA GCSE History Active Recall Guide
Every question paired with its answer, grouped by topic and subtopic, ready to work in three passes.