How to do- CREDIT KU questions
A Knowledge and Understanding (or KU for short) question will usually start
in one of these ways- ‘explain’, ‘describe’ or ‘why did’.
Here is an example of a KU question- “Describe conditions for soldiers in the
trenches on the Western Front”
These questions will come up in all three contexts of your History exam
paper and will be clearly labelled as SECTION A: KNOWLEDGE AND
UNDERSTANDING in each context.
In a Credit KU question you will be asked to use your RECALLED
KNOWLEDGE to answer the question
Unlike General level, there will be no source, you will have a PROMPT (a short
piece of information to help get you on track), you should not use the prompt
in your answer.
!! Remember !! You should always explain the information in your answers.
At Credit level a KU question can be worth 3, 4 or 5 marks you should always
make sure you have enough information to cover these marks.
Here are some hints to help you when you are answering these types of
questions:
- The question can be VERY specific, so if it asks you about the military
terms of the Treaty of Versailles, only talk about them, not territory,
finances etc.
- Remember that all of your points should be separated into clear
sentences. 1 sentance = 1 mark.
- Remember you have to answer the question.
- You do not need to use the phrase ‘from my own knowledge’ at this
level.
How to do- Credit Level ES1 questions
An Enquiry Skill 1 (or ES1 for short) will always start in one of these way“How Useful…” “How Valuable…” “How Reliable…”
Here is an example of an ES1 question- “How useful is Source C for
investigating the impact of railways in Scotland?”
These questions are the only Enquiry Skills questions which can come up in
any part of the exam.
To get marks for an ES1 question you should identify certain things about
the source. These are:
The Origin of the source (This means who wrote the source and why this
could be useful/valuable/reliable and when it was written- mention if it is a
primary source from the time of the event or a secondary source written
after the event).
The Purpose of the source (This means the reason why the source was
written, for example, is it trying to tell us about something?)
The Content of the source (This is what the source actually says- remember
when you are using the content of the source in your answer to “QUOTE”,
you must also remember at credit level to explain the quote)
The Evaluation of the source (This means any issues there may be with the
source, that could make it less useful. This could be things like: is the source
one-sided or biased? Is the source unreliable? Why? Do you know that
something has been missed out of the source?)
!! Remember!! You should always try to say why something could be
useful, for example by saying why the person who is writing it is
important.
At Credit level an ES 1 can be worth 3, 4 or 5 marks, although 4 marks is
most common
If it helps, every time you see one of these questions, write O P C E in
the margin so that you will remember all of the elements you are supposed to
include.
Finally and most importantly- ALWAYS SEPARATE YOUR POINTS!!!!!
How to do- Creit Level ES2 questions
An Enquiry Skill 2 question is also called a ‘source comparison’ question. This
is due to the fact that it will ask you to look at two sources and find whether
they agree or disagree. These questions will usually begin something like
this:
- To what extent do Sources A and B agree/disagree about…
- Compare the point of view expressed in Sources A and B…
- Does the writer of Source A agree/disagree with Source B about…
These questions can come up in Unit II (First World War) or Unit III
(Germany), but will NOT appear in Unit I (Scotland and Britain).
Firstly, you will have to read both sources. This will allow you to determine
whether they agree or not (This should be your opening sentence). Then you
are ready to make your comparisons, this can be done in two ways:
1. THE SIMPLE COMPARISON: This involves simply comparing the two
points as you would in a General Level answer, no explanation is
needed. This is worth 1 mark.
2. THE DEVELOPED COMPARISON: This is the method favoured at
Credit, you would compare the two points just like in a simple
comparison BUT you would then go on to explain what they mean. This
is worth 2 marks, 1 for the comparison, 1 for the explanation.
3. If you find yourself with not enough points of agreement or
disagreement (e.g. the question is worth 5 marks and you only find 4
points) then you have another option- you can find a point which is in
only one source but which agrees with the rest of your points.
Here is an example- lets say you found two developed comparisons
about the weapons of war, your last point could be this- Source A also
shows the two soldiers with grenades, however Source B does not
mention these weapons.
*PLEASE NOTE* you can only do step 3 ONCE per answer
REMEMBER! Put in the name of the source you are working
from, if you don’t NO MARKS!!!!
How to do- Credit Level ES3 questions
This type of question is designed to show an attitude and emotions in a
source. The most likely way this question will start is by saying
“Discuss/what is the attitude of the author of Source A to …”. Other
possible ways this question could start are; “What does the author of
source A think about…” or “What was the opinion about…… shown in
source A”.
These questions can come up in Unit II (First World War) or Unit III
(Germany), but will NOT appear in Unit I (Scotland and Britain).
To get marks for an ES3 question you must try to identify what the author
of the source thinks about the thing he is talking about.
- You should include an introductory sentence, which will indicate the
author’s overall emotion. This means you must show what they are
feeling (anger, fear, sadness etc) rather than if they are positive or
negative about the thing. (1 mark)
- You should then back up this emotion with a quote from the source
which backs it up. (1 mark)
- You should then show further examples of this emotion OR a further
emotion the author is displaying.
- This must also be backed up with an appropriate quote and explanation
from the source. (1 mark)
- If you need further marks then repeat the last step as many times as
necessary.
Again like with the other Enquiry Skills question, you must always remember
to SEPARATE YOUR POINTS. The easiest way to do this is to start a new
sentence for each point.
At Credit it can be worth 3,4 or 5 marks.
How to do- Credit Level ES4 questions
An ES4 question will ask you to put a source or sources in a wider Historical
context. This type of question is different from ES1, 2 and 3 questions as to
answer it you will have to use both information from the source and from
your own knowledge.
The most common way for this question to begin is for it to ask you “How
fully”. Here is an example from the 2002 General paper“How fully does Source E describe the use of tanks in the First World
War?”
These questions can come up in Unit II (First World War) or Unit III
(Germany), but will NOT appear in Unit I (Scotland and Britain).
This type of question is basically asking you to do two things:
1. You should look at the source and using information from it, say how
much the source is a full/accurate/balanced account. So you are
looking for relevant points, which describe something (e.g. a tank).
2. The second thing you should do is to use your own knowledge to say
what has been missed out of the source, which if it was included would
make the source more full/balanced/accurate.
Confused?? Don’t be! All this means is that if the source was about the use
of the tank and mentioned that a tank had a 6-pound gun and was driven on
Caterpillar tracks, then you would include this evidence in your answer
(remembering to quote and explain). Then what you would do is to think of
things that the source doesn’t tell you for example- that tanks were used to
smash through barbed wire or that the conditions for tank crews were very
difficult and include these things in your answer! The idea is for you to
balance the source out so that it gives as full a picture as possible.
One other thing to remember- in this type of question you will have to say
at the beginning of the answer that the source isn’t totally
full/balanced/accurate. So use a phrase such as- “Source E describes the
use of tanks in World War 1 quite fully/accurately” or “ Source E gives
quite a balanced account of the use of tanks in World War 1”.
How to do- ENQUIRY SKILL 5 questions
An ES5 question asks you to select evidence from a number of sources and
then include it in your answer. The number of source you will have to use at
Credit will be 3.
This type of question starts quite differently from other Enquiry Skills
questions, instead of asking you to look at one thing, it asks you to look at
two. Here is an example of a question- What evidence is the in Source A that …?
- What evidence is there in Source B that …?
This type of question will ONLY appear in Unit I (Scotland and Britain).
To answer this type of question you should always put your answer in the
form of a table, using an introductory sentence and bullet points. At credit
you should use all three sources in your answer.
Here are examples of a credit question:
What evidence is there in the sources that militant tactics damaged
women’s struggle for the vote?
What evidence is there in the sources that militant tactics helped women’s
struggle for the vote?
THERE ARE SEVERAL Dos AND DONTs FOR ES5
DO
-
Remember to say which source you are using in each bullet point (you
cant get marks otherwise)
- Remember to Quote from the sources directly
- Put in your introductory sentence (-1 mark for each one missed)
- Use ALL 3 sources at some point (-1 mark if you don’t)
DONT
- Use paragraphs, there is no need
- Use explanations, again there is no need
How to do- Credit Level ES6 questions
In an ES6 question the idea is to use evidence from a set of sources and
from your own recalled knowledge to answer a question and reach a
balanced conclusion.
This type of question will usually start something along these lines- “How far
do you agree that…?”, “To what extent…?” or “How true is it to say…”
This type of question will ONLY appear in Unit I (Scotland and Britain).
To answer this type of question you should make sure that:
- You use all of the sources within the Enquiry Skills section of Unit I
(this means 3 at Credit) to find relevant information about your
question. (to save time you can re-use your ES5 quotes)
- You should then add in your own knowledge to add in any information,
which you think has been missed out of the sources that will help you,
answer the question.
- You should also make sure that you include an introductory sentence,
which should include the question if possible.
- Your information should then be organized into a main body. This
should show the information which AGREES with the question and the
information which DISAGREES with the question. (This will help with
the next step)
- At the end you should write a short conclusion, which answers the
question.
- You should make sure that you write as balanced a conclusion as
possible.
At Credit level this will always be worth 5 marks.
!!! REMEMBER!!! You MUST use recalled knowledge as well to get full
marks.
How to do- 8 MARK ESSAY questions
This type of question will be found in Credit level papers as part of the
Knowledge and Understanding Section. It will come up only once, per paper
BUT can be in any of the three contexts. Due to the fact that it is worth
more marks than any other question in the paper, it is important that you try
to answer it correctly.
The 8-mark question will take the form of a short statement, which you will
then be asked to write a reply to in the form of a question. Here is an
example from the 2002 Credit paper.
The statement is:
This (1830-1930) was a period of significant improvement in the everyday
life of the British People.
The question is:
Explain fully the reasons why people’s lives got better between 1830 and
1930 as a result of EITHER
a) improvements in health
b) improvements in housing
You will then pick one of the options and answer the question. To get marks
in an 8-mark essay question you should always follow the same format and
should include an INTRODUCTION, MAIN BODY and CONCLUSION in
your short essay. The way the marks are awards are as follows:
- An Introduction = 1 mark
- A clearly planned main body with 5 developed points = 5marks
- A Conclusion = 1 mark
- A process mark for using the correct structure: intro-main body (in
paragraphs)-conclusion
Your introduction should set the scene for your question, this shows the
examiner you understand what the question is about. The conclusion should
sum up the main points and answer the question. The main body should
include developed points, to develop a point what you have to do is:
Make your point -> then go on to fully explain what this point is about. Don’t
just write a list of points in your main body, take each point in turn. The
easiest thing to do is to write a short paragraph for each key point.