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OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation revision

These activities are mapped to OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation J199. Eighteen of them, eighteen to twenty-eight minutes each. **Whichever entry option your department runs, it is covered.** OCR builds this qualification from two independent choices: one thematic study out of two, and one literature and culture option out of three, which OCR publishes as six lettered routes, A to F, with no prohibited combinations. All five of those option components have activities here, so all six routes do. That makes this the exception on this site. Options-based specifications usually get one route built and the rest left, and this is the one where the whole matrix is filled. These are also the longest activities we have, averaging twenty-four minutes.

This page lists what we actually have for OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation J199. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

Every route through the qualification

OCR assembles this GCSE from two independent choices. A department takes one thematic study, either Myth and Religion or Women in the Ancient World, and one literature and culture option, either the Homeric World, Roman City Life or War and Warfare. OCR publishes the six pairings as lettered entry options A to F and states plainly that there are no prohibited combinations.

All five components have activities here. Four on Myth and Religion, four on Women in the Ancient World, three on the Homeric World, three on Roman City Life, four on War and Warfare.

The practical consequence is that this page does not need a warning at the top. Most pages on this site that describe an options specification have to say which option we built and which we did not. Our AQA GCSE History activities cover four of sixteen options, which is honest and limiting. Here, whatever letter your entry code ends with, the content is present.

A subject where revision actually works

Two features of this specification make it more revisable than its reputation suggests.

The first is that the Literature section uses prescribed sources only. There is no unseen literature. The passages a student will meet are a fixed list, published in advance, and that makes them something you can genuinely learn rather than something you can only prepare for in general.

The second is that the content is narrative. Heracles, the Cyclops, Penelope and the bow contest, the agoge, Thermopylae, Actium: these are stories, and stories hold in a way that definitions do not. The activities lean on that, which is part of why they run long.

The Culture section does use unseen sources alongside prescribed ones, so the visual and archaeological material needs looking at as well as reading about, and that is your department's slide deck rather than this page.

The longest activities on the site

Eighteen to twenty-eight minutes, averaging twenty-four, with seventeen of the eighteen at twenty minutes or more.

That is deliberate and it has consequences. These are not starters. One of them is a homework, or a substantial chunk of a revision lesson, and setting three in a week would be a lot.

The longest, Leisure, Entertainment and Satire at twenty-eight minutes, covers the Roman baths, the amphitheatre and the satirists' view of both, which is a large amount of ground for one sitting. Mycenaean Archaeology and the two Odyssey activities are each twenty-four to twenty-six.

What is in each option

Myth and Religion: Greek and Roman gods with their name equivalences and domains, Heracles and the foundation myths, temples, festivals and symbols of power, and death, burial and the underworld.

Women in the Ancient World: women of legend and young women, women in the home and improper women, women, religion and power including the Vestals and the Pythia, and warrior women.

The Homeric World: Mycenaean archaeology, the Cyclops and Circe, and Penelope and the bow contest.

Roman City Life: housing and family, society and social classes, and leisure, entertainment and satire.

War and Warfare: Sparta and Thermopylae, Athens and Salamis, Rome at Actium and Trajan's Dacian campaign, and epic and verse on war.

Using them

The three activities embedded further down are playable here without an account.

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. For how each is meant to be run, see ready-to-run revision activities. To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint and share one link. Everything else, by subject and board, is on the revision pages.

What this page does not do

It does not supply the prescribed sources themselves. The activities work from them and around them; the texts come from your department.

Nothing for unseen visual and archaeological material in the Culture section beyond the named sites and objects.

It does not mark extended writing. The written tasks here run seventy to a hundred and seventy words with an explicit structure, and a human still reads the result.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Classical Civilisation activity for OCR

18 activities, all mapped to Cambridge OCR GCSE (9-1) Classical Civilisation (J199).

See all 18, by topic

Try it with your class

OCR Classical Civilisation 18 minutes

Greek and Roman Gods: Names, Domains and Equivalences

15 steps, 10 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Independent study Intervention
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

One god on this list keeps the same name in Greek and in Roman religion. Which?

OCR Classical Civilisation 24 minutes

Women, Religion and Power: Vestals, the Pythia and Sempronia

16 steps, 11 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for
Independent study Intervention Cover lesson
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Cover lesson: Teaches and tests in one go, so a non-specialist can run it.

Try one question

Which statement best captures why the Vestals matter to this option?

OCR Classical Civilisation 26 minutes

Sparta at War: the Agoge and the Battle of Thermopylae

15 steps, 10 interactive, 11 activity types.

Best used for
Intervention Mock preparation Cover lesson
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.
  • Cover lesson: Teaches and tests in one go, so a non-specialist can run it.

Try one question

Spartan citizens devoted themselves to military training rather than to farming or trade. How was that possible?

Common questions

Does this cover my entry option?

Yes, whichever it is. OCR runs six lettered entry options, A to F, pairing each of the two thematic studies with each of the three literature and culture options. All five components have activities here, so all six routes are covered.

That is unusual, isn't it?

It is. Every other options-based specification on this site has one route built and the rest missing. Our AQA History activities, for example, cover four of sixteen options. Classical Civilisation is the exception.

How long are these activities?

Eighteen to twenty-eight minutes, averaging twenty-four. They are the longest on this site, which suits a subject where the content is stories and sources rather than definitions.

Do they use the prescribed sources?

They work from them. OCR's Literature section is prescribed sources only, with no unseen material, which is unusual and means the texts a student needs are a fixed, revisable list rather than an open field.

Which should a class do first?

Greek and Roman Gods, if they are on Myth and Religion, because the name equivalences underpin everything after it. For War and Warfare, Sparta and Thermopylae.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

Create a free teacher account

Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

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