I have written a few posts about the different books that we used as part of our Edexcel IGCSE History but after getting our results (she got an 8) and getting a few questions I thought I would try and summarize what we used, what we did not like and really what worked for us. (I will include links for the more detailed posts about each book – this is just going to be a summary).

You have to select 4 topics for the exam. There is a wide choice to select from and we choose ours based on what my daughter wanted to study and what I thought I could find sufficient resources on. So she gave me a short list of what she liked, I then went and searched for resources and we then sat down and discussed which ones would be the best options for us. Having said that I still did find that there are not as many resources for History IGCSE as there are for the Science subjects which is why I ended up making her question and answer sets (links for these later on it the post).

For each topic that we selected we used a Pearson Edexcel student book (eg. Russia 1905-1925, Superpower relations, USSR 1924-53 and China). This was the “main” resource and honestly the resource that I could not have survived without. We would read sections in the book, answer the questions and watch youtube clips that linked into what we had read. We did all of the end of the chapter questions and practiced answering the “exam type” questions right from the very beginning. Really want to state these were my must have books.

After hearing some people recommend the SchoolHistory website I did buy a subscription. But honestly it did not suit us. I tried to use it for our first topic and we just were not that impressed. I thought the notes in the books that we bought were better and although they did include questions under the topics I thought the questions in the books were better. So we actually ended up ignoring our subscription.

As we progressed and after I realized that the SchoolHistory website was not for us I did search for a second resource (and I do recommend not just sticking to one resource for each topic) we got the Hodder books (Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Depth Studies and Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Investigation and Breadth Studies). I have to admit that if I had to do History IGCSE over again I would still stick with my idea of a second resource for each topic. I think having more than one resource is a MUST.

While we were revising for my daughters mocks I started feeling like she needed a way of testing if she could remember the key facts (because lets be honest there is quite a bit to remember) and I searched and could not find anything suitable so I ended up making her some question and answer cards for each topic. These are the cards I made for her (Russia 1905- 1925, Superpower relations, USSR 1924-53 and China)

Okay and lastly when we were revising I did start panicking a bit and I ended up buying my daughter this book – Pearson International GCSE History revision notes. It is a brilliant book and I loved it but I am not sure if we really needed it or if it was just me panicking. If you are looking for a third book than I would say this is excellent however I want to stress I do NOT think this could take the place of the more detailed student books (the ones that I mention at the start of the post).

Now YouTube. We did watch lots of clips as we studied the different sections. We really did watch quite a bit. But I do want to mention one channel – All You Need Notes. They have some really useful clips on how to structure your answers. We thought her suggestions were the best (we also really liked her videos on Superpowers).

Okay so those were our key items for our IGCSE History.