How do you structure the 12-mark source-utility question to evaluate one to four ancient sources for AO3?
The 12-mark source-utility question: reading the sources against the enquiry, weighing each source's provenance, grouping and comparing where there are several, testing against context, and reaching a judgement on usefulness for AO3.
An OCR A-Level Ancient History technique guide to the 12-mark source-utility question. Explains how to read the sources against the enquiry, weigh each source's provenance, group and compare several sources, test against contextual knowledge, and reach a judgement on usefulness for AO3, with a worked example transferable to the Greek and Roman topics.
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What this dot point is asking
The 12-mark source-utility question is the dedicated AO3 question in Section A, in which you assess the utility of one to four ancient sources for a stated enquiry. This page teaches the transferable structure: how to read the sources against the enquiry, weigh each source's provenance, group and compare where there are several, test against context, and reach a judgement on usefulness. The skill transfers to every Greek and Roman source.
The answer
Read the sources against the enquiry
The first move is always content for the enquiry, but it must lead into evaluation, not stop at paraphrase.
Weigh the provenance
Provenance is where the marks are: it turns the source's nature and purpose into a judgement about what it can and cannot tell you.
Group, test against context, and judge
Where there are several sources, group and compare them by what they reveal (for example those supporting one view against those supporting another), rather than summarising each in turn. Then test the sources against your contextual knowledge (does the source fit what you know?), and reach a judgement on usefulness for the exact enquiry. The decisive move is to treat a source's limitations as evidence: a propagandist or hostile source is often the best evidence of an ideology or attitude.
Examples in context
A model answer evaluates rather than summarises, and treats the source's bias and purpose as evidence.
Try this
Q1. Outline how you would structure a 12-mark answer on the usefulness of two contrasting sources for the same enquiry. [10 marks, technique style]
- What the marker wants. A structure that reads each source against the enquiry, weighs each one's provenance, groups and compares them by what they reveal, tests against context, and judges which is more useful for the enquiry.
Q2. What is the decisive habit that lifts a source-utility answer into the top band? [2 marks]
- Cue. Treating a source's limitations as evidence: a propagandist or hostile source is often the best evidence of an ideology or attitude, precisely because of its purpose.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR H407 202012 marksHow useful is the named ancient source for understanding a stated enquiry? [generic 12-mark source-utility question]Show worked answer →
A generic AO3 source-utility question, applicable to any topic.
Structure. Read the source against the enquiry (content); weigh its provenance (nature, origin and purpose); test it against contextual knowledge; and judge its usefulness for the specific enquiry.
Top-level move. Treat the source's limitations as evidence (a propagandist or hostile source is valuable for the attitude or ideology it reveals) and conclude on value for the question, not on reliability in the abstract.
OCR H407 202212 marksHow useful are these sources, taken together, for the stated enquiry? [generic 12-mark source-utility question on several sources]Show worked answer →
A generic AO3 source-utility question on several sources.
Structure. Group the sources by what they reveal (for example those supporting one view against those supporting another), compare what each is valuable for given its provenance, and test against context.
Judgement. Conclude on how useful the set is for the enquiry and which sources add most, using their limitations as evidence. The top level evaluates value for the question rather than summarising each source in turn.
Related dot points
- The 20-mark period-study essay: decoding the command, selecting and ranking the relevant factors, organising thematically, supporting with precise ancient detail, and structuring towards a substantiated judgement for AO1 and AO2.
An OCR A-Level Ancient History technique guide to the 20-mark period-study essay. Explains how to decode the command, select and rank the relevant factors, organise thematically, support with precise ancient detail, and structure the essay towards a substantiated judgement for AO1 and AO2, with a worked example transferable to the Greek and Roman period studies.
- The 36-mark depth-study essay: building a sustained argument on and from the prescribed ancient sources, integrating source evaluation with analysis, ranking factors, and reaching a substantiated judgement that weighs the evidence.
An OCR A-Level Ancient History technique guide to the 36-mark depth-study essay. Explains how to build a sustained argument on and from the prescribed ancient sources, integrate source evaluation with analysis (AO1, AO2 and AO3), rank factors, and reach a substantiated judgement that weighs the evidence, with a worked example transferable to the Sparta and Late Republic depth studies.
- Exam timing and revision: how to divide the 2 hour 30 minute paper across the short answers, the 20-mark essay, the 12-mark source question and the 36-mark depth essay, and how to revise the content, the prescribed sources and the exam skills.
An OCR A-Level Ancient History technique guide to exam timing and revision. Explains how to divide the 2 hour 30 minute paper across the short answers, the 20-mark period essay, the 12-mark source-utility question and the 36-mark depth essay, and how to revise the content, the prescribed ancient sources and the exam skills efficiently.
- AO3 source skills: evaluating ancient sources for their utility to a stated enquiry, using content, provenance (nature, origin and purpose) and contextual knowledge, and reaching a judgement on usefulness rather than labelling a source reliable or biased.
An OCR A-Level Ancient History skills guide to evaluating ancient sources for the AO3 source-utility question. Explains how to judge a source's value for a stated enquiry using content, provenance and contextual knowledge, why utility is not the same as reliability, and how to reach a judgement, with a worked example transferable to Greek and Roman topics.
- The four assessment objectives: AO1 knowledge, AO2 analysis using second-order concepts, AO3 the use and evaluation of ancient sources, and AO4 the evaluation of modern interpretations, and how each question type in H407 targets them.
An OCR A-Level Ancient History skills guide to the four assessment objectives. Explains AO1 (knowledge), AO2 (analysis with second-order concepts), AO3 (the use and evaluation of ancient sources) and AO4 (the evaluation of modern interpretations), which AO each H407 question type targets, and how knowing the target AO shapes your answer.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level Ancient History H407 specification — OCR (2017)