I'm a current second year at Keele University studying American Studies and History. I love the place, it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere and that suits me to a t. History has always been a passion of mine and I love spending my spare time visiting museums and reading books, so a degree studying the subject seemed a good idea to me!

*Year One*

The second semster of year one is split into two sections. The first 6 weeks are spent looking at 'Medieval Europe' and the second lot of 6 weeks are spent looking at 'Early Medieval Europe'. Both modules are complusory and have 6 lectures and 5 seminars each. The first module is based on 80% essay and 20% seminar portfolio and the second module is based on 80% exam and 20% seminar portfolio. The seminar portfolio is basically 400 words answering a question you have been given for the week to research ready for discussion in class, these topics can vary depending on your tutor but everybody has to do them. Overall they were very interesting to study, but I'm more a modern historian myself!

Towards the end of year one a ballot sheet gets handed out for students to vote for which special subjects they would like to study during second year. There are two main groups 'Pre 1750' and 'Post 1750', everybody has to do one from each group, plus another from one of them. Overall every student has to do 4 modules, 2 in each semester. Students get to pick 3 for themselves but the 4th is a complusory one called Sources and Debates, but I'll discuss that in a moment.

For my second semester of year two I took Castle and Cloister (pre 1750), which wasn't my first choice, but ho hum. There were 10 lectures for this and 6 seminars and again it was marked in the same way - 40%, 40%, 20%. It was an interesting module, but not very gripping - all knights and monks pretty much.
Then Sources and Debates. The lectures (6 of them) were complusory but were very interesting. Basically a few of the lecturers came in and discussed the uses of history, who studies it, why they study it, how they show their findings etc etc. Then there were options of certain "special subjects" within this module, where a 4,000 word essay was to be researched and written. I don't really know much about this because my option didn't include writing this. I did the 'Work Based Placement', which basically took me into a museum and worked with the people there for 60 hours worth, producing something at the end of it. I was placed at the RAF Museum at Cosford and have thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and my special project was researching and writing a few pages for their website, based on the origins of the Cold War. It was a fantastic experience and I was really lucky to do it because I was one of only 10 people in my year. (I think there's roughly 170 of us).

Overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in the history department at Keele and would definitely recommend it to others who are thinking about it. The course ranges in topics and covers the majority of history (except the really ancient stuff) so is really interesting. I've always been more inclined to study modern history before, but I've had a good insight into more medieval history as well, which has been a bonus. Apart from the general disorganisation of the place, I think it's fab! The workload is never *too* bad, it just depends how hard you like to push yourself. And the quality of teaching is generally very good!