Ancient History: ATAR - a summary of syllabus changes
This table summarises the main differences between the current WACE course syllabus and the Year 11 and
Year 12 syllabuses that have been adapted from the Australian Curriculum, for implementation in 2015
(Year 11) and 2016 (Year 12).
Content changes
Overall
Content changes
Year 11 specific
Content changes
Year 12 specific
Changes to the
assessment table
Year 11
2014/10741
 Adapted from the Australian Curriculum
 The course is divided into two interrelated strands: Historical skills (replaces the WACE
content areas Historical thinking and methodology and Historical explanation and
representation) and Historical Knowledge and Understanding (replaces the WACE
content area Working with ancient historical narratives)
 The content of the Historical Knowledge and Understanding strand in each unit consists
of topics and/or electives
 Each topic or elective has specific content dot points
 The content dot points have been modified in some units to add specificity and in Year
12 to better facilitate the setting of examinations
 New focus for Unit 1: ‘issues related to evidence’ and ‘interpretations and
representations of ancient sites, events or people’ (previously the focus for Unit 2A was
‘historical trends and/or movements)
 All topics and electives for Unit 1 are new:
 four topics based on ‘issues related to evidence’ (students study at least one)
 fifteen electives (ancient sites, events or people) (students study two)
 New focus for Unit 2: ‘a study of ancient societies’ (previously the focus for Unit 2B was
‘confrontation and resolution’)
 Nine of the thirteen electives for Unit 2 are new societies or time-periods that have not
been covered previously in Unit 2A or Unit 2B
 Change of emphasis in Unit 3: ‘people, power and authority’ with a greater focus on the
role of significant individuals in their time-period (previously the focus for Unit 3A was
societies and change’)
 Electives in Unit 3 include:
o ‘New Kingdom Egypt to the death of Horemheb’ (previously covered in Unit 2B and
Unit 3B)
o ‘Athens 481–440 BC’ (previously covered in Unit 3A as ‘Athenian democracy and
Empire 478–440/39 BC’)
o ‘Rome 133–63 BC’ (previously covered in Unit 2A as ‘The Late Republic 133–66 BC’).
 Change of emphasis in Unit 4: ‘reconstructing the ancient world’ with a greater focus on
sources of evidence and interpretation of sources (previously the focus for Unit 3B was
‘people, ideas and events that shaped history’)
 Electives in Unit 4 include:
o two new electives with an archaeological focus (‘Thebes – East and West, New
Kingdom Egypt; and Pompeii and Herculaneum 80 BC–AD 79).
o ‘Athens, Sparta and the Peloponnesian War 440–404 BC’ (previously covered in Unit
3B as ‘The Peloponnesian War 440/39–404/03 BC’).
o ‘Rome 63 BC–AD 14 (previously covered in Unit 2B and Unit 3A).
 The Explanation assessment type has been divided into two assessment types to align
with the Examination design brief for Year 12:
o Short answer (new)
o Essay/extended answer.
 Document study has been re-named Source analysis for consistency with the language of
the Historical skills
 Minor changes have been made to the wording of the assessment type descriptions
Ancient History | ATAR | a summary of syllabus changes
Changes to the
assessment table
Year 12
Changes to
assessment type
weightings
Year 11
Changes to
assessment type
weightings
Year 12
 The Explanation assessment type has been divided into two assessment types to align
with the Examination design brief for Year 12:
o Short answer (new)
o Essay.
 Document study has been re-named Source analysis for consistency with the language of
the Historical skills
 Minor changes have been made to the wording of the assessment type descriptions
Weightings of all assessment types have been modified:
 Historical inquiry - 15–20% (previously in Stage 2 - 20–30%).
 Short answer - 10–15% (new).
 Source analysis - 15–20% (previously in Stage 2: Document study - 20–30%).
 Essay/extended answer - 15–20% (previously in Stage 2: Explanation - 20–30%).
 Examination - 35% (previously in Stage 2 - 20–30%).
Weightings of all assessment types have been modified and are fixed:
 Historical inquiry - 15% (previously in Stage 3 - 20–30%).
 Short answer - 10% (new).
 Source analysis - 10% (previously in Stage 3: Document study - 20–30%).
 Essay - 25% (previously in Stage 3: Explanation - 20–30%).
Examination - 40% (previously in Stage 3 - 20–30%)
Changes to the examination design brief
Section/s renamed
 Document study has been re-named as Source analysis and moved from Section one to
Section two
Section/s format or
weighting
 Two of the weightings have been changed:
o Short answer - 25% (new)
o Source analysis - 25% (previously in Stage 3: Document study -50%).
Sections removed
Nil
Sections added
 Short answer has been added to the examination
Other changes
 The number of sources to be used in the Source analysis has been reduced to two only
(previously three sources were used for Unit 3A and two sources for Unit 3B)
 All questions in each section of the examination are elective specific (previously the
Document study questions and the Unit 3B essay questions were generic)
2014/10741
Ancient History | ATAR | a summary of syllabus changes