The NEA: choosing a viable question over roughly 100 years and distinct from the exam options, evaluating primary sources and interpretations, and reaching a supported judgement within the word limit.

What this dot point is asking

The Historical Investigation (NEA) is your own coursework essay, worth 20% of the A-level. You design a question, evaluate primary sources and interpretations, and reach a supported judgement. It is school-assessed and AQA-moderated, so the rules on scope and originality matter.

Choosing the question

• Favour an analytical stem ("how far", "to what extent", "assess the validity"). A descriptive "what happened" question cannot reach the top bands because it gives you nothing to argue.
• Ensure there is a genuine historiographical debate to engage, so AO3 has something real to evaluate. Pick a question where serious historians actually disagree, not one with a settled answer.
• Check that primary sources are accessible in translation or print, so AO2 is feasible without specialist archives or languages you cannot read.
• Confirm the question covers a span of around 100 years and is distinct from your taught exam options, since overlap breaks the AQA rules and risks your work being disallowed.

Good NEA questions are often narrower in topic but longer in timespan than students expect: a focused issue traced across a century gives room for change, continuity and a real debate.

Meeting all three AOs

Build the investigation so that source evaluation and interpretation comparison are integrated into the argument, each used to advance your case rather than parked in a separate section. A practical test: every primary source you evaluate (AO2) and every historian you discuss (AO3) should be there because they help answer your question, not because you are ticking a box. The strongest NEAs read as a single sustained argument in which evidence and historiography are the tools, not as three bolted-together essays.

Structure and length

The investigation runs to about 3,500 to 4,500 words. A workable shape is: an introduction setting out the question, why it matters and the main lines of the debate; a series of analytical sections that each advance the argument while evaluating key primary sources and historians; and a conclusion delivering a supported judgement that follows from the body. Reference your sources and historians properly with footnotes and a bibliography, since accurate citation is part of the academic discipline the NEA assesses. Plan the word budget so the historiography and source work are not squeezed out by narrative: a common failing is spending half the words setting the scene and leaving too little for analysis.

How the NEA differs from the exam

Unlike the timed exam answers, the NEA rewards depth, independence and craft: you choose the question, do real research over weeks, and redraft. It is the one place in the course where AO1, AO2 and AO3 are assessed together, so it is excellent preparation for the separate skills the exam tests in isolation. Treat the linked skills pages on essay writing, source evaluation and interpretations as the building blocks you combine here. Because it is worth 20% (as much as half a written paper) and is done in your own time, it is the most controllable marks in the whole A-level, and it deserves serious, early effort rather than a last-minute rush.

Try this

Q1. How long is the NEA, in words? [1 mark]

• Cue. About 3,500 to 4,500 words.

Q2. Which assessment objectives does the NEA test? [2 marks]

• Cue. All three: AO1, AO2 and AO3.