What type of
questions will be set?
Question 1
asks you to explain in your own words the meaning or
message of one of the sources or selected parts of it
Question 2
asks you to compare and contrast the message or view of
two or three sources,
Question 3
asks you to assess the value and limitations of one or
two sources with reference to the source's origins and purpose
Question 4
asks you to use your own knowledge and the sources to
construct an argument in answer to a question about the prescribed
subject
Advice on
answering questions
• Write in
complete sentences. Use the mark allocation for each question to
determine how long you spend on each question. In particular, give
yourself enough time to do justice to Question 4 as it's worth 20 marks
out of the total of 50.
• Remember to
judge each individual source on its merits or weaknesses; avoid
generalisations like "Source A is a secondary source and so is
unreliable because the author will not know exactly what happened". Both
primary and secondary sources can be reliable or unreliable. Also just
because a source is biased does not mean it is of no use to an
historian; e.g. a Soviet propaganda poster produced in the 1940s might
not provide the historian with accurate information but it might tell us
something very useful about the sort of image that Stalin's regime
wanted to project to the Soviet public and the world.
• In answering
the comprehension type of question (Question 1), you need
to remember to use both the source and your own knowledge to help
understand it. In this type
of question the examiners are testing your understanding of the source.
It is better if you keep direct quotations from the passage brief and
avoid quoting back whole chunks of the passage at the examiner. If you
need to make longer references to the text, paraphrase (put it in your
own words).
•
In comparison questions (Question 2), where you are asked
to "compare and contrast" two or three sources or evaluate "to what
extent" two or three of the sources agree, don't forget to indicate both
points of similarity and points of difference between the sources.
• In answering
questions which ask you to evaluate the usefulness of
particular sources (Question 3), keep focused on the sources'
origins - who produced them, when were they produced etc - and purpose -
why and for whom were they produced - and ensure that you identify both
the sources' value and limitations, otherwise you will be unable to
score more than just over half marks for your answer. What is meant by
value and limitations? - value means what the sources are useful for,
what they tell us about the issue that the question is asking about;
limitation means what aspects of the issue referred to in the question
the sources do not tell us about, and, the extent to which the sources
may not be reliable or accurate.
• In answering
the type of question (Question 4) that asks you to use your
own knowledge and the sources to assess a statement about a
particular area of the prescribed subject or to evaluate a feature of
it, the examiners will expect you to produce a short essay. Do make sure
that you use both the sources and your own knowledge otherwise you will
not be able to score more than just over half marks. In terms of
approach, you will probably find it much more effective and time
efficient to integrate the sources and your own knowledge, rather than
running through what the sources have to contribute and then using your
own knowledge. Equally, aim to take a thematic approach or a ‘for and
against’ approach in using the sources and your own knowledge, rather
than going through each of the sources in turn.
