Cambridge IGCSE History is a course in using evidence to support a point about the past. Knowing what happened is the starting line. The marks come from saying what a source shows, explaining why events happened, and judging how much changed.
This guide explains the code, how the course is built, how to study it well, and the order in which to work through our topic modules.
Which History syllabus am I studying?
This site covers Cambridge IGCSE History, code 0470. Your school paperwork or exam centre confirms the code you are entered for, your exam year and your assessment route.
Cambridge sets the content, papers and assessment details for each exam year. We do not list paper numbers, durations or weightings here. Open the Cambridge History 0470 page, download the syllabus for your exam year, and use our assessment route guide to work out what to check.
History differs from many subjects in one important way. The syllabus describes core options and depth studies, and a candidate follows the combination chosen by their school or centre. Having a topic on this site does not mean you study it. Confirm your core option, depth study and whether your route includes coursework or other independent work before you start.
We are not an exam centre. Entry, results and access arrangements are handled by your school or exam centre and Cambridge.
How is the course structured?
Think of the course in two layers.
The content layer is the period you study: a core option and a depth study. In the blueprint we use for this site, core option A covers nineteenth-century units and core option B covers twentieth-century international relations, and the depth studies include the First World War, Germany, Russia, the United States and the Second World War. Check the Cambridge syllabus for your exam year to see which of these exist for you.
The skills layer is what every question asks of you, whatever the period:
- Knowing events, people and terms in their order.
- Interpreting sources: what a source says, who produced it, and how far it can support a claim.
- Explaining: causes, consequences, change and continuity.
- Writing: a relevant, supported answer that stays on the question.
The skills layer carries across every period. That is why we recommend learning it first, then applying it to your own option and depth study.
How should I study History well?
Keep fact, viewpoint and interpretation apart. A fact is something the record shows. A viewpoint is what the author of a source says, shaped by their position. An interpretation is a conclusion built from evidence. Label each one when you take notes, and your answers stop mixing them.
Build a timeline first. Write ten to fifteen key events for your option in order, with dates. When a new fact arrives, place it on the timeline. You will see causes and consequences without needing to memorise them.
Ask of every source: who, when, why, and what does it leave out? Provenance is the source’s origin and purpose. A source can be reliable for one claim and weak for another, so judge it against the question.
Use qualified causal language. “Contributed to”, “made more likely” and “was one of the reasons” are more accurate than “caused”, unless the evidence truly shows a single cause.
Answer the question asked. Underline the command word and the focus of the question, then write a plan of three points. A fine paragraph on a different question earns little.
Practise from your own reasoning. Write a short answer, then compare it with the evidence. Our original practice page offers non-assessed exercises with explained answers, and the source analysis self-check gives a structure for any practice source.
Plan revision by gaps. The study route guide and revision guide help you build a plan from what your answers actually show, and the terminology guide separates terms students commonly confuse.
In what order should I work through the topic map?
Start with the five skills modules. Then move to your own core option and depth study. Finish with the assessment route module to check what applies to you.
- Chronology and historical context. Place events in order and in their setting, so later explanation has a frame.
- Evidence and source interpretation. Read a source for what it says, who made it and its limits.
- Causation and supported explanation. Connect events with qualified reasons, and support each with evidence.
- Change, continuity and comparison. Judge what changed, what did not, and how two cases compare.
- Writing and answer development. Turn a plan into a focused, supported answer.
- Core option A study pathways. The selectable core option that covers nineteenth-century units, if it is yours.
- Core option B study pathways. The selectable core option that covers twentieth-century international relations, if it is yours.
- First World War depth-study pathway. A bounded chronology, source sets and plans for this depth study, if you take it.
- Germany depth-study pathway. Separates documented events from later interpretations, if you take this depth study.
- Russia depth-study pathway. Builds a chronology and handles sources that disagree, if this is your depth study.
- United States depth-study pathway. Scopes the question, uses data with its date and population, and compares perspectives, if you take it.
- Second World War depth-study pathway. Locates topics by theatre and date and separates evidence from moral or political endorsement, if you take it.
- Assessment route and independent work. Checks your school’s choices, plans revision for your route and explains what teaching feedback can and cannot do.
Modules 6 to 12 are options. Study only the ones that match your entry. Modules 1 to 5 and 13 apply to everyone.
What do students find difficult?
Paraphrasing a source instead of using it. Repeating what a source says answers a different question from “what does it show about this claim”. Ask what a historian could conclude from it, and what they could not.
Treating a source’s claim as a fact. A merchant writing about a tax is a viewpoint. A dated record of the tax rate is a fact. The first must be tested, and the second can be used as it stands.
Lists of causes. Three reasons in three paragraphs score less than three reasons connected and ranked with evidence.
Hindsight. Saying people “should have known” what happened next ignores what they could know at the time. Keep to the evidence they had.
Telling the story when the question asks for change. A chronological retelling is not a comparison of before and after.
Adding opinion. Moral or political verdicts on people and states are not part of a History answer. Judge the strength of the evidence, not the side.
What does one-to-one tuition add?
A book explains a skill. A teacher sees your attempt and finds the sentence where the support fades. In History, that usually means a claim without a named source, a cause without a link, or a viewpoint treated as a fact.
Individual teaching can also keep you inside your own core option and depth study, instead of a general history course that does not match your paper. It cannot replace your own reading, and coursework or other independent work must remain yours.
If you want to try it, read about our online one-to-one History tuition, including the paid one-hour trial starting from RM80. To see whether it is a good fit first, considering History tuition compares it with self-study and group classes.