Edexcel GCSE History Active Recall Guide (1HI0)
Edexcel · GCSE
Edexcel GCSE History Active Recall Guide
Every option of specification 1HI0 written as exam-style questions with the answers printed after them. 2,881 questions across 21 options and 233 subtopics, so the guide fits whichever four your school teaches.
- Edexcel
- GCSE
- Specification 1HI0
- 2,881 questions
Guide overview All 21 options Sample questions Papers and weighting Look inside Questions and answers
What the exam asks of you
Edexcel GCSE History is three written papers. Paper 1 is a thematic study with its historic environment, 1 hour 20 minutes, 52 marks, 30 per cent. Paper 2 is a period study and a British depth study, 1 hour 50 minutes, 64 marks, 40 per cent. Paper 3 is a modern depth study, 1 hour 30 minutes, 52 marks, 30 per cent.
Every paper is chosen from options, so no two cohorts study the same course. All 21 options are in the guide, each with its own pages, and you work the four you sit.
| Paper | Covers | Length | Marks | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Paper 1 Thematic study and historic environment |
Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000–present Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: Crime, Policing and the Inner City Medicine in Britain, c1250–present The British Sector of the Western Front, 1914–18: Injuries, Treatment and the Trenches Warfare and British Society, c1250–present London and the Second World War, 1939–45 Migrants in Britain, c800–present Notting Hill, c1948–c1970 |
1 hour 20 minutes | 52 marks | 30% |
|
Paper 2 Period study and British depth study |
Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88 The Reigns of King Richard I and King John, 1189–1216 Henry VIII and His Ministers, 1509–40 Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88 Spain and the ‘New World’, c1490–c1555 British America, 1713–83: Empire and Revolution The American West, c1835–c1895 Superpower Relations and the Cold War, 1941–91 Conflict in the Middle East, 1945–95 |
1 hour 50 minutes | 64 marks | 40% |
|
Paper 3 Modern depth study |
Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917–41 Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39 Mao’s China, 1945–76 The USA, 1954–75: Conflict at Home and Abroad |
1 hour 30 minutes | 52 marks | 30% |
What is in the guide
All 21 options
Every option 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.
-
Anglo-Saxon government, economy and society
How was England governed below the level of the earls?
Show the answer
Each shire was split into hundreds, both with their own regular courts, and a shire reeve acted for the king in collecting his dues and enforcing his law. -
Developments in colonial society
How did the spread of new farms create conflict beyond the colonies themselves?
Show the answer
Settlers took hunting grounds used by Indigenous nations, which brought raids on the farms and reprisals against Indigenous villages. -
The British withdrawal and the creation of Israel
What was attacked in Jerusalem in July 1946 and why was that building a target?
Show the answer
The King David Hotel, which housed the British military and administrative headquarters in Palestine. -
Factors driving change in crime and punishment, c1000–present
Why is the Norman Conquest treated as a turning point?
Show the answer
William I created new offences such as breaking the Forest Laws and used harsh punishment to hold down a conquered people. -
The situation on Elizabeth’s accession
What work did Justices of the Peace do in the counties?
Show the answer
They were unpaid local gentry who kept order, tried lesser offences and made sure royal orders were carried out. -
Henry VIII, Renaissance Prince
Through which bodies did a Tudor king rule the country in 1509?
Show the answer
Through a royal council of trusted advisers, with parliament summoned only for taxes and new laws, and justices of the peace keeping order in each county. -
London at the outbreak of the Second World War
Why did raids aimed at the wharves kill so many ordinary families?
Show the answer
Terraced streets of dockworkers' housing stood right against the quays, so bombs meant for cargo sheds fell on homes. -
The Civil War, 1945–49
Give two weaknesses that damaged the Guomindang in 1946.
Show the answer
Corruption among its officers and officials, and an economy wrecked by runaway inflation.
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.
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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.
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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.
- Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060-88135
- British America, 1713-83: Empire and Revolution114
- Conflict in the Middle East, 1945-95114
- Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000-PRESENT165
- Early Elizabethan England, 1558-88123
- Henry VIII and His Ministers, 1509-40126
- London and the Second World War, 1939-4597
- Mao’s China, 1945-76175
- Medicine in Britain, c1250-PRESENT159
- Migrants in Britain, c800-PRESENT184
- Notting Hill, c1948-c197084
- Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917-41171
- and 9 more
- Which groups of European migrants arrived in the mainland colonies in large numbers after 1713?
- Why did the colonial population rise so fast in the early eighteenth century?
- What was the backcountry?
- What was an indentured servant?
- Which people stood at the top of colonial society?
- Why did resentment grow between frontier farmers and the older coastal counties?
- How did the spread of new farms create conflict beyond the colonies themselves?
- Which crop was the most valuable export of Virginia and Maryland?
- What did the mainland colonies mainly sell to the sugar islands of the West Indies?
- Scots-Irish and German migrants arrived in growing numbers, alongside continued migration from England.
- Land was cheap and families were large, and heavy immigration added both free settlers and enslaved Africans.
- The belt of frontier land inland from the older coastal counties, where poorer newcomers cleared farms towards the Appalachians.
- Someone who agreed to work without wages for a fixed number of years in return for their passage across the Atlantic.
- A small elite of planters, big landowners and merchants, who also filled the assemblies and the courts.
- Frontier districts were given few seats in the assemblies and little defence, while the coast set the taxes and controlled land grants.
- Settlers took hunting grounds used by Indigenous nations, which brought raids on the farms and reprisals against Indigenous villages.
- Tobacco, which was shipped to Britain and re-sold across Europe.
- Grain, salted fish, timber and livestock, because the islands used almost all their land for sugar.
questions
Scroll sideways to turn through the pages.
Questions students ask first
Twenty-one options. Which ones do I do?
Four. One thematic study with its historic environment on Paper 1, one period study and one British depth study on Paper 2, and one modern depth study on Paper 3.
Your options are named on your exam entry and on the front of your textbooks. Find those topics in the guide and ignore the rest.
Why are all 21 in one guide?
Because schools choose differently and the combinations run into the hundreds. Each option is a separate topic with its own pages, so nothing is mixed together.
What is the historic environment?
The second half of Paper 1, tied to your thematic study: Whitechapel with Crime and Punishment, the British sector of the Western Front with Medicine, London in the Second World War with Warfare, Notting Hill with Migrants. It carries its own source questions, and each has its own topic here.
Does it help with the source questions?
Indirectly, and that is the point. Paper 1 and Paper 3 both set sources, and both are marked on the historical knowledge you bring to them. A source you cannot place in its context is a source you cannot evaluate.
Edexcel GCSE History Active Recall Guide
Every question paired with its answer, grouped by option and subtopic, ready to work in three passes.