AQA A-Level History exam and essay skills overview quiz quiz

2 hours for 50 marks in a single combined paper

3 hours for 80 marks, with no separate components

1 hour 30 minutes for 40 marks in each of the papers

2 hours 30 minutes for 60 marks

AO2, the evaluation of primary sources

AO1, analysis and judgement

AO3, the evaluation of interpretations

All three equally

AO2, primary sources

AO3, historians' interpretations

AO1, the candidate's own argument

None of these

The overall length of the source and how easy and pleasant it is to read

How closely the source happens to agree with accepted modern scholarly opinion

Value to a historian, using provenance and context

The sheer number of separate factual claims that the source manages to make

It is always completely factually accurate and gives a true record of the events

It cannot by its very nature be biased in any way and so is always fully reliable

It is the only kind of source that examiners will ever allow you to refer to in answers

It is strong evidence of what a regime wanted people to believe

Deploying precise own knowledge to support or challenge each claim

Carefully restating each extract in full and in the historian's own original words

Quoting the single longest passage you can find from each of the historians' extracts

Avoiding making any judgement at all so that the answer stays neutral and balanced

Introduce important new evidence that was deliberately held back from the main body

Deliver a substantiated judgement that follows from the argument

List every single point made in the essay again, one after another, in summary form

Sit firmly on the fence and refuse to decide in order to appear fair and balanced

About 1,000 to 1,500 words

About 8,000 to 10,000 words

About 3,500 to 4,500 words

There is no set length

AO1 only, the candidate's own argument

AO2 only, the evaluation of primary sources

AO3 only, the evaluation of interpretations

AO1, AO2 and AO3

Roughly a mark a minute plus reading time

Two minutes per mark

Spend most of the time on the first question

Write until you run out of ideas