Checking your route means finding out, in writing, which core option and which depth study your school has selected, and for which exam year. It matters from the first week of Year 10 or Form 4, and again before you start any serious revision.
This lesson sits in assessment route and independent work. It needs no historical knowledge, only the habit of confirming facts before building on them.
What exactly are you confirming?
Four things, each with a different source of truth.
- Exam year. Your entry is made by your exam centre, so the centre knows this.
- Core option and depth study. Your school selects these. Your History teacher knows.
- Syllabus version. Cambridge publishes this on the 0470 page for your exam year.
- Assessment route. Whether coursework applies to you is also a school and centre matter.
If the source of truth is not you, your job is to ask the right person, not to guess.
How do you do the check step by step?
- Open the Cambridge syllabus page for History 0470 and download the syllabus that matches your exam year.
- Read the contents overview to see what choices exist. You are only looking for the names of the options, not memorising them.
- Ask your History teacher: “Which core option and which depth study are we entered for?” Write the answer down with the date.
- Compare the names your teacher gave with the names in the syllabus. They should match.
- Ask your exam centre whether coursework applies to your entry.
- Store the answers on one page, the route sheet, at the front of your folder.
Worked example
An invented student, Mei Ling, joins a revision group. A friend lends her a set of notes titled with a depth study. She does not know whether her class is studying it.
Step 1. She downloads the syllabus for her exam year and finds the list of depth study titles.
Step 2. She asks her teacher by message: “Which depth study are we entered for this year?” The teacher replies with a title.
Step 3. She compares. The title does not match the friend’s notes.
Step 4. She puts the confirmed title on her route sheet and files the friend’s notes in a separate “not my route” folder.
Result. Mei Ling has saved herself from weeks of revising the wrong material. She also keeps the notes in case her skills practice benefits from extra examples, as long as she remembers they are not her content.
What is a plausible mistake?
Mistaken approach: “My cousin did History last year and said it was all about one particular depth study, so I will revise that.”
This goes wrong because the cousin’s school may have selected differently, and the syllabus version may have changed. The fact the cousin gave you might be true for the cousin and false for you.
Correction: use your cousin’s experience as a prompt to ask your own teacher the question, never as the answer.
Check yourself
1. Your class notes mention a depth study title, but the syllabus page you downloaded lists a slightly different phrasing. What do you do?
Show answer
Ask your teacher whether the syllabus version you downloaded matches your exam year. Titles can be worded differently across versions. Do not decide yourself which is right.
2. A classmate says coursework does not apply to anyone. Who do you ask to confirm your own situation?
Show answer
Your exam centre, usually through your school. Whether coursework applies to your entry is an assessment route fact, and a classmate cannot confirm it for you.
3. Which two details belong on a route sheet next to “core option”?
Show answer
The depth study and the exam year are two sensible answers. A source and a date for each confirmation are also useful.
Where does this lead next?
With the route sheet complete, move on to preparing a revision plan for the actual enrolled route, then test yourself with the integrated practice set.
Some students find the paperwork side of History oddly stressful. Our teachers at online one-to-one History tuition can help you turn the route sheet into a plain study plan.