18 sundayherald 2 April 2006
EXAM GUIDE
Industrial unrest in the 1970s is one topic which you may have covered in your preparation for this year’s History examinations. The picture shows a rally of shipyard workers
HISTORY
BY JOHN KERR
John Kerr is principal teacher of history
at Balerno High School, Edinburgh,
and also works within the SQA as an
exam marker and exam setter for Higher
history. He is also an author of many text
books covering both Standard Grade and
Higher history.
STANDARD GRADE
A
T General level you have one hour
30 minutes to do roughly 14 or 15
questions. You have half an hour
for each unit. At Credit level you
will have one hour 45 minutes for the three
units. You have 15 minutes more than at
General level, but there is more to read.
The Short Essay eight-mark question
In one of the contexts at Credit level only,
you will be asked a question worth eight
marks. The answer to this question requires
you to write a short essay worthy of eight
marks. The instructions in the booklet
make clear what you have to do. They state:
“For this answer you should write a short
essay of several paragraphs including an
introduction and a conclusion.” So your
short essay must have have a beginning, a
middle and an end.
A recent question, for example, asked:
“Describe fully the arguments for and
against the increase in car ownership
between 1945 and 1980.”
Start with a short introduction which lists
the main points you will expand later in
your answer. Here is a possible introduction to the question:
“Car ownership increased hugely. On one
hand, there was freedom to travel for people
(1) and more jobs were created (2). The
THE KNOWLEDGE
LESSON 1 Be sure you know how long you
have to spend for each paper. Work out how
long you can then spend on each question.
It is important to finish the exam paper.
LESSON 2 Don’t rush through your exam
paper and leave early. Write as much as you
can. Give the markers a chance to give you
marks.
LESSON 3 Exams are like any activity you
do. If you want to do well you must train or
rehearse.
LESSON 4 If you are happy with the results
you are getting then keep going as you are.
If you want to do better then you MUST do
something different in your preparation and
style of work.
LESSON 5 It’s not enough just to wish each
other luck. Luck doesn’t come into it!
Preparation does.
landscape and living patterns of people also
changed (3). On the other hand, there were
negative points to the increase such as
environmental concerns (4) and safety
issues (5).
Each numbered point should be a separate
paragraph in which you show off what you
know about each of the points in your
introduction. Markers call that “developing
an answer”. Develop each of the other
points in your introduction by including
as much relevant factual knowledge as
you can.
Remember to end with a conclusion
which sums up your main points and gives
an overall answer to the question. It
should go something like this:
‘‘In conclusion, the increase in car transport
had plus and minus points. Greater freedom
to travel opened up new lives for people, but
greater ownership led to greater congestion
which restricted the freedom people had to
drive, since queues and parking problems
became part of car driving in Britain.”
But be careful: only spend about 10-12
Helping more Scottish students to achieve their goals
2 April 2006 sundayherald 19
HISTORY
Is It Describe Or Explain?
Another thing to remember is the difference
between the words “describe” and “explain”.
Describe means that you need to tell the
detailed factual story about the subject you
are being questioned on.
Explain means that you need to give
reasons why something happened or what
the effects of an events were. For example:
“Describe the changes in the Scottish population” means you must describe where
most people lived, which areas were
becoming emptier and which were becoming busier. You should also describe where
people emigrated to and where immigrants
who settled in Scotland came from. You
should try to use words such as “depopulated” and “urbanised”.
OR
“Explain why the population of Scotland
changed” means give reasons why the
population increased (such as earlier
marriages and better healthcare), why
people moved away from certain areas and
why people were attracted to other areas.
These are called push and pull reasons.
ES
Enquiry Skills questions ask you to judge
sources. Remember that information
about a source starts from the information
about the source itself, about where the
source comes from, when it was produced
and whether it is primary or secondary.
Think about how you should mention these
points in your answer.
In any ES answer, try to think how you
could include comments about who wrote
the source or when it was written, or if it is
biased or neutral, or if it gives fact or
opinion. These are all things you should
consider when judging a source, so try to
work such comments into your answer.
Anything in your ES answers which show
you are judging a source and supporting
your comments with evidence is much
better than just describing the source.
Sometimes people are confused by certain
words in questions, especially in the ES
section. T h e f o l l ow i n g w o rd s a n d
phrases come from past papers:
during the Upper Clyde Shipyards work-in of 1971
How valuable is source A …, How typical is
source B …, How reliable is source C …, How
accurate is source D …, How far does source
E …, To what extent is source F …
minutes on the whole question. After all,
this question is only worth twice as much as
the questions for which you should be
allowing five minutes.
WHAT ARE KU AND ES?
Whatever level you sit, there will be
Knowledge and Understanding (KU) questions and Enquiry Skills (ES) questions.
Example
‘‘Give two reasons why young men joined the
army in 1914.’’
KU (General level)
KU questions have a source and then a
question. Look at the number of marks. If
there are four marks, you’ll earn three
marks by using the information in the
source and one mark for relevant information from your own knowledge.
If there are three marks, then it’s two from
the source and one point from your
own knowledge.
Answer
You will be able to find the answer in the
sources so look for two different points and
write them down.
At Foundation level, there are two different
topics (contexts) on which to answer questions. It is one hour long. You will
always get questions about Changing
Scotland. This year the second topic will be
from the unit Conflict And Co-operation.
KU (Credit level)
KU questions have no sources to start you
off. Revise by preparing for the “big
questions” from the units you have studied.
These big questions can be summed
up as:
n Why events happened?
n What were the main facts in the events
you are revising?
n What were the results of those events?
FOUNDATION LEVEL
The questions at Foundation often tell you
how many separate pieces of information
to put in the answer. Follow the instructions.
Revise
/ Practise
Do yourself a favour by always starting
answers to these questions by saying they
are “partly useful” or “partly reliable” or
whatever the question asked.
That means you can give reasons why the
sources are useful – such as it was written
by an eyewitness, it was relevant or showed
how people felt – but it also allows you to
include ideas about why the source might
not be fully useful – such as it only gives
information about one city and not the
whole of Scotland, or only one person’s
point of view. Try to have a style of answering these questions, but remember it is
never enough just to describe what the
source says or shows. You are asked to write
what you think about the source, not report
what is in it.
Bias
Remember that a biased source is always
useful. It might not give the whole picture
about something, but it reveals how people
felt at the time. If you do say a source is
biased, remember to quote a short part of
the source which shows the bias, otherwise
a marker will think you are just guessing.
Also ask yourself if the information in a
source matches up with your own knowledge. Be brave enough to write that a
Test
ILLUSTRATIONS
You may get a question about a cartoon or
photograph. Take time to look carefully and
think why the cartoonist bothered to draw
the things in the cartoon. Make clear in the
answer that you know what subject the
cartoon is about. Explain the meaning of any
words included in the cartoon. Are the words
making a joke about the picture and maybe
mean the opposite of they seem to say? Try
to explain what all the people or things in
the cartoon mean and how they are relevant
to the question.
source might only be of limited use since it
does not contain all the information that it
could.
Compare
You are also very likely to be asked to
compare sources. The compare type question provides two sources and you have to
identify in what ways they agree or disagree
with each other. Do not just describe one
source and then the other.
Example
Here is an example from People And Power
– Germany 1918-1939:
Source A was written by a British woman
married to a German noble and living in
Germany when the treaty was signed.
People were ready here to make reparation
for the wrong done by their leaders, but now
they say that Wilson has broken his word
and an undying hate is in the heart of every
German. Over and over again I hear the
same words, “We shall hate our conquerors
with a hatred that will only cease when the
day of our revenge comes again”.
Source B was written by Toni Sender, a
German woman, in 1919:
What could we do? What was the alternative
of not signing? The German people wanted
peace, they were exhausted. Not to sign
would mean occupation of the most
important territories, the blockade continued, unemployment, hunger, the death of
thousands, the holding back of our war
prisoners – a catastrophe which would
force us to sign more humiliating conditions.
Question
Compare the attitudes towards the treaty in
sources A and B.
Answer
You should make the following points:
n A wants revenge, but B is accepting the
treaty.
n A believes Germany was tricked into
accepting the treaty, but B believes there
was no choice.
n A speaks about undying hatred to the
peacemakers at Versailles, whereas B
believes it was the best option.
n A looks to the future and is rather unrealistic, but B is realistic, pointing out
the problems which had led Germany
to defeat.
INTERMEDIATE 2
Make sure you see last year’s copy of the
exam paper. There are lots of sections to
choose from. At first it looks very big.
PART 1
The Short Essay
Choose one essay from the sections you
have studied. You might want to do this
question as your last question in the exam.
This will give you the best chance of scoring
Review
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20 sundayherald 2 April 2006
HISTORY
STANDARD GRADE CREDIT LEVEL: THE MINI-INVESTIGATION, THE CRISIS IN BRITAIN’S CAR INDUSTRY
AT all levels – Foundation, General and Credit
– in the Enquiry Skills part of the Changing
Life in Scotland and Britain section you will
find a sub-heading: “The issue for investigation
is …” and a box with a statement inside it.
and there were almost no strikes in foreign
car factories.
For British car makers the result was
collapse of their industry, closure of factories
and redundancies.
Here is your Credit investigation example:
The issue for investigating is: Bad
industrial relations were the main problem
faced by the British motor vehicle industry in
the 1970s.
Source C is from a government report
called, Problems Facing The Motor Vehicle
Industry. It was published in 1974.
In the Credit exam question you will be
given three sources, such as these:
Source A is from an interview with a
car factory worker in 1970.
I worked on the assembly line. It produced
lots of cars, but the bosses didn’t care how
bored we were.
If you worked quickly you could earn more
money, but then the bosses tried to bring in
new robots to do our job so the bosses could
sack us.
They said the machines were needed to
keep us competitive, but we had to fight for
our jobs. The only way to make the bosses
listen was to strike.
Source B is is adapted from a book called
The Motor Car. It was written in 1977.
By the end of the 1960s the British car
industry had a bad name for high prices, poor
quality work and late delivery.
As a result of these problems, more and
more people bought foreign cars. Foreign car
companies used new mass production
methods. Quality was good, output was high
From previous page
highly without the danger of failing to
complete all three contexts.
Pay attention to the instructions. It
says you must write an essay “using your
own knowledge” and it should contain
“an introduction, development and a
conclusion”.
That’s very important. You cannot
pass without those three things.
Question
Here’s an example of the Short Essay
question in Part 1 of the paper:
“Explain why King Edward was asked to
decide who would rule Scotland in 1291.”
Answer
Your introduction is worth one mark.
You could start with a sentence like this:
There were several reasons why King Edward
was asked to decide who would rule Scotland
in 1291. Scotland was without a monarch
after Margaret of Norway died. Edward was a
relative, a lawyer and had been a friend of
Scotland. There was also the issue of who,
apart from God, could make a king?
Each paragraph should start with a main
sentence which lays out what the paragraph will be about.
Your first paragraph could start like this:
The first reason why King Edward was asked
to decide who would rule Scotland was
because there was no clear heir to the throne.
After Alexander III died, Princess Margaret
was to be crowned queen, but she died on
her way to Scotland. There were then many
noblemen who laid a claim to rule Scotland.
There is not the slightest chance of the
British car industry becoming competitive if
the present interruptions to production
caused by strikes continue.
As long as British car companies fail to
change to new methods of production, fail to
spend money on new machinery and continue
to accept below-standard work then there is
no hope for us.
These problems are a result of the
attitudes of management and the workforce.
Both sides are to blame for the disaster that
is the British car industry.
The following are example questions:
1) To what extent do you agree that
Source A is useful for investigating problems
facing the motor vehicle industry?
2) What evidence from the sources would
you use to support the claim that bad
industrial relations were the cause of
problems facing the motor vehicle industry?
3) Were bad industrial relations the main
problem facing the British motor vehicle
industry? You must use evidence from the
sources and recall to reach a balanced
conclusion.
For all that Britain saw dramatic social change in the postwar era, industry lagged behind
King Edward was asked to make a
decision …”
You could then develop this paragraph
by dealing with the claims of John Balliol
and Robert The Bruce, for example.
You should have a few more paragraphs
explaining the other points you have
made in your introduction.
Your conclusion should refer to the main
question, show that you know there were
several reasons for the changing attitudes
and sum up the points you have explained
earlier in the answer. Something like this:
In conclusion, there were many reasons. The
most important was that Scotland had no
clear claimant to the throne and needed a
powerful person who had the authority to
make a decision that others would accept.
You are more likely to score high marks if
each point is well developed and in a
separate sentence.
Another question will ask you to compare
sources, such as: “Compare the views of
Sources A and B about the methods used
by the suffragettes.”
To answer this question, make your
judgement and support it by matching
precise points from the sources, comparing one point in one source with a point
from the other source. Do not just describe
one source then the other one. That is not
comparing.
Remember, it’s also relevant to compare
the origin of the sources – a book, a letter, a
diary and so on.
PART 2
European And World
You must choose at least one context from
Part 3. You will have three questions, based
on given sources.
One of these questions will ask you to
describe a situation, such as: “What were the
aims of those who took part in the 1848 revolution?” (From the Iron And Blood section.)
Another question will be an explanation
question, such as:
“Why had Berlin become an issue in the
Cold War by 1961?” (From the Shadow Of
The Bomb: Cold War section.)
You deal with them as described earlier
regarding the previous context.
A third question will be an evaluation
question, such as:
“How useful is Source B?”
You must show the value or usefulness of
the source. For example, if you are
commenting about the authorship of a
The Scottish And British Section
You must choose at least one context from
Part 2. You will have three questions, each
one based on a source. To answer the questions you must use “recalled knowledge and
information from the sources”.
One of these questions will be a “describe’
question, such as: “Describe how Mary,
Queen of Scots was treated in England
after 1568.”
For this type of question you must be able
to write five well-developed points from
your recall. There are five marks for this
section.
Another question will be an explanation
question, such as: “Why was the Beveridge
Report considered important?” In these
questions, you must write the points made
in the source in your own words as well as
including information from recall.
PART 3
source written by Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain in 1938, you could write:
“… this source is written by Chamberlain,
the man most people associate with
appeasement and trying to maintain peace
in the face of Hitler’s aggression”.
PART 4
Remember, you must do a fourth section.
You do that by choosing another section
from contexts 2 or 3.
HIGHER HISTORY
The exam paper will contain sections you
have not studied, so be clear what sections
you have studied and what you must
answer questions on.
You have 80 minutes (that’s one hour 20
minutes). Another way to look at it is that
you have twice 40 minutes. Each essay
must only take 40 minutes to complete.
Never just do one essay – even if you have
taken more than 40 minutes on your first
essay, try to produce a second one, even if it
is shorter than your first.
Any essay must have a beginning, a
middle and an end. The beginning is your
introduction and you must make it clear
here that you understand what the question is asking you to do.
Suppose the first question you look at is
this: “To what extent did political advantage
force the Liberals into a programme of social
reform from 1906?”
First of all, stop and think.
Ask yourself what the question is about.
At first you will see the words “Liberals”,
“social reform” and “1906”. So what is the
topic? It looks like it’s about the Liberal
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2 April 2006 sundayherald 21
HISTORY
Remember that your first question in the
“issue for investigation” section will only
ask you to evaluate ONE source, not two
as was the case in previous years, so
beware if you are using past papers from
before 2005.
How to answer these questions
There are, of course, certain ways of
answering these types of question.
1) You must evaluate Source A – that
means judge its importance – as information
and evidence about the problems facing the
British motor vehicle industry in the 1970s.
You should include and explain the following
points, using your own knowledge where
appropriate.
You could make the following comments
about Source A:
It is a primary source relevant to the
study period. The 1970s were a time of
problems for the motor industry.
Source A is an eyewitness – the comments
are from someone who worked in a car
factory.
Source A is biased – “The bosses didn’t
care”; new technology introduced solely “so
the bosses could sack us” – but it is useful in
showing us an opinion of the time.
Source A shows how strike action was
seen as a way of resisting policies introduced
by management.
Overall, the source is of value since it gives
information about the problems facing the
British motor vehicle industry in the 1970s.
on many fronts
Photograph: Robert Paterson
reforms … but is it? In fact, no it isn’t.
You are given one possible explanation
why the Liberal reforms happened and
you are asked if you agree with that view
or whether
other reasons should be
considered.
So the question is really about why the
Liberal reforms happened. You have to
decide if political advantage was the real
reason or if other reasons were more
important.You should know there were other
reasons apart from political advantage. This
questions asks “to what extent”, so you
should be aware that you must show off
your knowledge about the other reasons,
before arriving at a balanced conclusion.
THE BEGINNING
A Good Introduction
By the early 20th century most men, rich and
poor, could vote and, with the rise of the new
Labour Party promising social reform, the
Liberals worried about losing their political
advantage and a way had to be found of
keeping the working-class voters. Reform
could therefore be seen as a rather selfish,
politically advantageous response to political change. (Point 1)
The Liberal reforms were also partly the
result of concern for the poor which had
been highlighted by the reports of Booth and
Rowntree, which argued that a third of
Britain’s population lived in poverty. (2)
Other factors also played a part. The
Liberals were concerned that Britain was
losing its status as a major industrial and
military power, while concern over national
efficiency and security played a part in the
reforms. (3 & 4)
Finally new attitudes in the Liberal Party,
2) Remember that there are two parts to
this question.
You must select and organise evidence
from the sources which does and evidence
called New Liberalism, caused the Liberals
to move away from the laissez-faire ideology of the 19th century. (5)
Why is this a good introduction? It is an
appropriate length. The style is mature and
clearly signposts the points to be raised in
the rest of the essay. It provides a structure
which the candidate can follow through the
rest of the paper. There is no irrelevant
information and it is clear to the person
marking the paper that the question has
been understood. If it helps, number your
separate points with a pencil in the margin
as a guide to yourself to what the main
development paragraphs should be about.
To summarise then: your introduction
(the beginning) is where you think hard.
Decide what the question is about and what
the question wants you to do. Essays that
have no clear introduction, that just start by
telling a story and don’t attempt to do what
you are asked to do in the question, will fail.
Also remember that introductions are
not places to explain everything. Just
mention the point and move on. You are
simply signalling to the marker where the
essay will go.
THE MIDDLE
Develop Your Points
In the middle part of your essays you must
develop and expand the points made in
your introduction. As a guide it must have:
n Several paragraphs.
n A new paragraph for each new point.
n Each new paragraph should have a starting sentence which makes it clear what the
rest of your paragraph will be about.
n Lots of relevant, detailed information.
which does not support the issue that bad
industrial relations were a feature of the
British motor vehicle industry in the 1970s.
competitive” – a hint that Britain was falling
behind its competitors concerning the
introduction of new technology.
In support of the issue you could mention:
Source A
“The only way to make the bosses listen
was to strike,” and:
“The bosses didn’t care how bored we
were” – both indicate bad relations.
“Robots were brought in to do our job so
the bosses could sack us” – an indication of a
lack of understanding of management
actions, therefore poor industrial relations
between workers and bosses.
“We had to fight for our jobs” – failure of
industrial relations leads to conflict.
Source B
“High prices, poor quality work and late
delivery” – these are problems which are not
necessarily a consequence of bad industrial
relations.
“More and more people bought foreign
cars … Quality was good, output was high” –
both praising foreign competitors.
“Foreign car companies used new mass
production methods” – new technology was
adopted by foreign companies more rapidly
than UK.
“For British car makers the result was
collapse of their industry, closure of factories
and redundancies” – the decline of the
industry attributed to foreign competition.
Source B
“There were almost no strikes in foreign
car factories” – by implication strikes in
British company factories were damaging
the industry.
Source C
“Accept below standard work” – a
comment directed at poor workmanship and
poor quality control indicative of poor
industrial relations.
“If the present interruptions to production
caused by strikes continue” – a recognition
that strikes were causing big problems.
“A result of the attitudes of management
and the workforce,” and:
“Both sides are to blame for the disaster”
– both imply bad industrial relations.
Against the issue you could mention:
Source A
“The machines were needed to keep us
Source C
“As long as British car companies fail to
change to new methods of production,” and
“Fail to spend money on new machinery” –
both suggest a lack of infrastructure, not the
strikes, was to blame.
3) In this answer you must provide a
balanced conclusion. You should make use of
source evidence used in previous answers to
present a balanced summary of the
arguments. You must then use your own
knowledge to develop your answer – such as
bad industrial relations were a problem, but
these problems were made worse by other
factors, eg foreign competition, the
comparative slowness of the introduction of
new UK models and the variable UK
exchange rates making foreign cars cheaper.
Here is an example from an essay
answering the question: “How far did the
civil rights movement in the USA achieve
success in the 1950s and 1960s?”
This is a good development paragraph
based on the introduction’s claim that the
gaining of national publicity was an
important part in the success of the civil
rights movement:
The gaining of sympathy and publicity by
protests was a vital part of the success of the
civil rights campaigns. When Rosa Parks
refused to give up her seat on a bus in
Montgomery, Alabama, she started a bus
boycott which gained wide publicity and led
to the emergence of an important leader,
Martin Luther King Jnr – two vital
ingredients in explaining why the campaigns
were successful. King’s speeches were
eventually shown live on national television,
proving the importance of the media,
especially TV news, for attracting sympathy
and support.
This paragraph has many good points.
There is a good sentence which links to the
introduction and lets a marker know what
to expect. There are no factual errors and
the information included is relevant to the
question. There is no doubt this information is being used to make a point –
there is a mini conclusion linking directly to
the main question and throughout the
essay there are frequent links back to
the main question so the marker is
quite clear why the factual information
is being included in the essay.
Build a good development paragraph on
to a good introduction: remember from the
section on introductions that one tip is to
remind yourself about the main points in
an answer by numbering them in the
margin beside your introduction. That
way you have thought out what the main
points will be and you have organised
the sequence of paragraphs in the
development section and what they will be
about. All you have to do is develop
the ideas.
THE ENDING
Your Conclusion
This must provide an answer to the main
question – and that also means an answer
to any sub-questions that may exist. Write a
balanced answer that credits the differing
opinions and interpretations that exist.
You should prioritise the reasons which
support your answer. You should also deal
with evidence or opinions with which you
do not agree and explain why you do not
agree with them. What criticisms can you
make of the evidence? It’s often useful to
finish with a quote that sums up your view,
but don’t repeat one you’ve already used.
PAPER 2
Most of you will be doing Special Topic 7:
Appeasement And The Road To War. There
should be no surprises. You know the
questions will be about:
n The remilitarisation of the Rhineland in
March 1936;
n Foreign intervention in the Spanish Civil
War;
n Anschluss: the takeover of Austria by
Germany in March 1938;
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22 sundayherald 2 April 2006
HISTORY
From previous page
n The Czech Crisis up to and including the
Munich Agreement.
You cannot be asked in detail about
anything outside these four events.
There are no essays to write in Paper 2.
Instead there will be five sources followed by
five questions. The five questions are worth
a total of 30 marks, with 85 minutes to
answer them all. This works out at roughly
three minutes per mark. If you allow two
minutes per mark, that will give you 25
minutes to use throughout the exam just to
read and think.
This means that, if you have a five-mark
question, you should write for 10 minutes.
That’s about one page of A4. An eight-mark
question should take 16 minutes – about
one-and-a-half pages. Remember, writing
for two minutes per mark still leaves 25
minutes for reading.
You should remember that in Paper 2
you will have certain types of questions to
answer. There is no choice; you must do all
five questions on your special topic. But
you can prepare for the different types of
questions.
There is a set pattern to the types of
questions and also the kind of sources you
can expect. There are five questions in the
exam paper, but there are only four
types of questions which must be in
the exam.
TYPE 1
The first type is an evaluation question
where you judge a source.
Example
How fully does Source A reflect public
opinion about the remilitarisation of the
Rhineland in March 1936?
Use the source and recalled knowledge.
Source A is from the Dundee Courier and
Advertiser, March 9, 1936, referring to
Germany’s re-occupation of the Rhineland:
There can be no doubt in the mind of the
country. It will refuse to be led into a new
world war. The plain truth is that the Treaty
of Versailles is in tatters. It was an imposed
treaty, valid just as long as the country on
which it was imposed remained too weak to
resist. That time was passed when Germany
recreated her army last year. If Germany’s
revival was to be resisted it should have been
resisted then.
Answer
In March 1936, Hitler remilitarised the
Rhineland area of Germany. His action
broke the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty
of Locarno, signed in 1925, in which
Germany voluntarily agreed to the status of
the Rhineland.
Source A partly reflects public opinion
about the remilitarisation of the Rhineland.
By writing, ‘‘It will refuse to be led into a new
world war’’, the Dundee Courier and Advertiser is referring to the strong anti-war
feeling in the country.
Britain had been traumatised by the Great
War (the first world war) and did not want
to repeat it. The Great War had been “the war
to end all wars”.
The public were also worried about a
future war in which “the bomber would
always get through”. Gas bombing would
put civilians in the front line and thousands
would die.
In 1936, 11 million signatures on a peace
petition show that Source A was accurate.
By writing, “The plain truth is that the
Treaty of Versailles is in tatters”, the paper is
referring to the many times the treaty has
been changed, such as the end of reparations,
German re-armament, the Anglo-German
naval treaty and so on. In Britain there was
also a strong feeling that the treaty was too
harsh and unrealistic, and by the 1930s there
was a feeling that alteration of the treaty was
acceptable.
Finally the paper states: “If her resurgence
was to be resisted it should have been resisted
then.” This is a reference to the belief that
Germany was now too strong since it rearmed in 1935, and that Britain could do
little about it now.
Overall, the paper deals with many of the
attitudes, although it ignores some points.
It does not mention the feeling that social
problems in Britain in the 1930s were more
pressing, and as Lord Lothian said: “Hitler is
only going into his own back garden.” In
other words, he was attacking nobody, so it
was inconceivable that Britain would risk a
war when Hitler had used no violence to
simply move his own troops within his own
country’s borders.
The answer is an appropriate length and
effectively uses quotes from the source to
introduce paragraphs which then use
recalled knowledge to explain and develop
the points made in the answer. The answer
is also balanced by a consideration of
points relevant to public opinion at the
time but which are not mentioned in the
source.
Finally, there is a conclusion which
answers the question and ties together the
main points in the answer.
TYPE 2
You will get a question that asks you to compare two sources. Start your answer with
“Overall …” and then identify the main difference between the sources. In The
Appeasement And The Road To War section,
for example, you will probably get one
source in favour of appeasement and one
against it. So your answer could start:
“Overall, Source A supports a policy of
appeasement while source B is opposed to it.”
Then use the phrase “In detail …” and
then you should write the rest of your
answer comparing the sources point by
point.
Don’t just describe the sources. Take one
point from the source and show how it is
supported or disagreed with by the other
source. Keep going to and fro between the
sources until you have finished comparing
them.
The comparison question is the only
question in Paper 2 where you do not have
to use recalled information in your answer.
All the marks can be gained from comparing
the sources, so if a comparison question
has five marks then it is wise to make at
least five direct comparisons. It is often also
useful to set the scene – historians call it
placing the sources in context – but do it
briefly. Marks can be given for appropriate
extra information.
Now try this question. The sources are
shorter than in the real exam but the
process for answering is the same. It is
using sources from Paper 2, Special Topic 8:
The Origins and Development of the Cold
War 1945-1985.
Example
“Compare the attitudes to the Cuban Missile
Crisis expressed in sources A and B. Compare the content overall and in
detail.”(Three marks – therefore you have
three points to make.)
Source A : From a television address by US
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
October 22, 1962.
A series of offensive missile sites is now in
preparation on that imprisoned island. The
secret and swift build-up of communist
missiles constitutes an explicit threat to the
peace and security of all the Americas.
Source B: From Andrei Gromyko, an important politician in the Soviet Union, or USSR.
US foreign policy has launched a loud
propaganda campaign about “the Soviet
threat” to the Americas. The Soviet and
Cuban governments reached agreement on
the further reinforcement of Cuba’s defences.
The appropriate arms were installed,
including rockets. This was purely a
defensive measure.
Answer
In 1962, USSR missiles sites were built on
Cuba. For the first time US cities would be
within range of Russian-controlled missiles.
Overall, Source A, by President Kennedy, sees
Russian actions as aimed against America,
while Gromyko in Source B claims Russia
and Cuba’s actions are defensive. (Point one)
In detail, Kennedy refers to “offensive missile
sites now in preparation”, while Gromyko
speaks of the “reinforcement of Cuba’s
defences”. (Point two)
Kennedy continues by saying: “The buildup of communist missiles constitutes an
explicit threat to the peace and security of
all the Americas.” While Gromyko describes
the missile sites as “appropriate arms”
intended only as “a defensive measure”.
(Point three)
The selection of extracts from the sources
support the comparison, and extracts from
the sources have been linked so that the
direct comparisons are obvious.
TYPE 3
In recent years, illustrations – photographs,
drawings, cartoons, posters and maps –
have all been used in some of the special
study options of Paper 2.
You can be asked to set a cartoon or
illustration in context and then analyse it,
making clear the meaning of the illustration or the intention of the artist.
Set the scene – what is the illustration
about? An illustration or cartoon or drawing
starts life as an idea. But what gives the
artist the idea? What happened to cause the
artists to think as they did and caused the
illustration to be produced? The secret of a
good answer to a picture question lies in
knowing what the illustration is about and
what point of view the artist has about the
event. Use the information given about
the source to decide what it is about.
Every source in the exam comes with a
brief introduction outlining where the
source comes from and when it was
produced. This information is always
useful. In Special Topic 7: Appeasement
And The Road To War, a cartoon or picture
dated March 1936 will almost certainly be
about German re-occupation of the
Rhineland. In Special Topic 8: Cold War, a
cartoon dated 1961 will probably be about a
crisis in Berlin.
You must use your own knowledge to
develop the points in the cartoon or
illustration. That means you must explain
in detail the points shown or hinted at in
the illustration. Write an answer long
enough to make as many developed points
as there are marks for the question.
TYPE 4
Whatever special topic you study for the
Paper 2 exam, one of the five questions will
always be worth eight marks – and just like
the other questions in Paper 2, the eightmark question is predictable. If you follow
the processes, you will be successful.
For this question you will be expected to
write at least one page of A4 and preferably
more. You will be expected to refer to all
three sources and a lot of your own
knowledge. The question will always end
with: “Refer to sources … and your own
knowledge.”
The eight-mark questions are usually of
the overview type, aiming to get to the heart
of the topic. For example, in Special Topic 7:
Appeasement And The Road To War,
questions with lower marks will ask about
specific parts of the course, such as the
Rhineland remilitarisation, Anschluss,
intervention in the Spanish Civil War or the
Czechoslovakian crisis, but the eight-mark
question will usually ask about a big theme
that runs through the whole topic,
such as why Britain followed a policy of
appeasement.
Other examples of previous “big
overview” questions:
From The Crusades:
To what extent did developments in
crusading during the Third Crusade lead to
a decline of the crusading ideal?
From Patterns Of Migration:
How successfully did Irish immigrants
assimilate into Scottish society during the
period 1830-1930?
From The Cold War:
“Ideology was the main driving force behind
the Cold War.” How far do you agree with
this view?
You should not just use the sources to
answer the question. You would only get
half marks at most. The question itself
gives you the clue as to how to answer the
question: “Refer to the sources and your
own knowledge.”
You must bring in new knowledge not
mentioned in the sources. There are different
ways to do that.
If you use your knowledge to explain or
develop points in the source, that would
count as your own knowledge just as much
as entirely new information not connected
to anything in the source.
In the Appeasement section, the sources
might provide a variety of reasons why
appeasement was adopted as a policy and
all these reasons could be more fully
developed by you. It would also be relevant to include reasons not mentioned in
the source as part of your overall answer.
The secret of success lies in combining
recall with the given sources in the
different ways required by each question.
HISTORY EXAM
TIMETABLE
Level/Paper
Monday May 15
Foundation
General
Credit
Monday May 22
Intermediate 1
Intermediate 2
Higher
Paper 1
Higher
Paper 2
Advanced Higher
Time
9am-10am
10.20am-11.50am
1pm-2.45pm
9am-10.30am
9am-10.45am
9am-10.20am
10.40am-12.05am
9am-noon
Supporting students from Standard Grade to Advanced Higher