OCR Ancient History essay and exam technique overview quiz quiz

2 hours 30 minutes, 98 marks

1 hour 30 minutes in total, worth 50 marks

2 hours exactly, worth 80 marks in total

3 hours in total, worth a full 100 marks

AO1 knowledge and recall on its own, with no analysis required

AO1, AO2 and AO3 together, built on the prescribed ancient sources

AO4 evaluation of modern scholarship and historians on its own

Short factual recall of names and dates with no sustained argument

A straightforward narrative retelling of the events in order

A descriptive summary of what each ancient source happens to say

Ranking the causes and judging the most important

A simple chronological list of the key dates of the period

Chronologically, telling the story in order

As a list of sources

As a single long paragraph

Thematically, one paragraph per factor

The utility of one to four ancient sources for a specific enquiry

The view of a single named modern historian on the debate

The overall structure and paragraphing of a well-built essay

The precise opening and closing dates of the whole prescribed period

Summarising the content of each source one after another in turn

Treating a source's limitations as evidence of an attitude or ideology

Listing the dates and authors of each of the named sources in turn

Dismissing any biased or hostile sources as completely useless evidence

The depth essay is simply somewhat shorter and worth rather fewer marks than the period essay set in that same paper section

The period essay is the one that mainly tests the evaluation of ancient sources under AO3

The depth essay must build its argument on and from the prescribed ancient sources, with source evaluation integrated

There is no real difference between them beyond the wording of the question stem itself

About 10 minutes, leaving most of the time for Section A

About 20 minutes, roughly the same as a short answer

Exactly the same length of time as each of the short answers

About 60 minutes, the largest single block

Building precise timelines and ranked factor lists from OCR's named content

Re-reading your existing notes passively from start to finish several times

Memorising the whole set textbook word for word, including every footnote

Reading modern historical novels set in the relevant ancient period for atmosphere

Because planning the essay first is formally required by the exam rules and is always compulsory

Because a planned, ranked, source-anchored essay scores far better than a longer unplanned one

Because using up time on a plan slows you down and so improves your final mark

Because the examiner reads and directly awards marks for the written plan itself