OCR GCSE Ancient History exam skills overview quiz quiz

By two written papers, each with a period study and a depth study

By a coursework portfolio only, with no written examination at the end of the course

By a single three-hour written paper covering both Greece and Rome together in one sitting

By one paper made up only of sources and a second paper made up only of essays

Accurate factual knowledge of the events and people you have studied

The analysis and evaluation of ancient sources

Spelling, punctuation and grammar across the whole of your answer

Knowing the precise dates of every event covered in the period study

Usefulness means exactly the same thing as the source being completely reliable on the facts

Only contemporary sources written at the time of the events can ever be useful as evidence

Usefulness is value for a specific enquiry, and a biased source can still be very useful

Useful sources are always neutral and never show any bias from the writer at all

There is none at all, because the two words mean exactly the same thing in every history answer

An inference simply copies the source out word for word without adding anything of your own

A description is what judges the usefulness of the source for a particular enquiry question

An inference says what the source shows or suggests; a description just repeats what it says

Causation

Spelling

Source provenance

The price of grain

List every cause flatly and treat all of them as being equally important to the outcome

Separate long-term causes from the trigger, rank them and explain how they combined

Give only the immediate trigger and leave out all of the longer-term causes completely

Describe the events in the order that they happened without explaining why they happened

0

5

10

20

Up to 10 marks

Just 5 marks

Up to 25 marks

As many as 40 marks

Source-inference questions about a single named source

Short factual recall questions worth only a mark or two

Comparison questions asking which of two sources is better

'How far do you agree' balanced-argument questions

The prescribed sources and the exam technique

Only the dates of the major events you have studied

Nothing else at all beyond the events themselves

Only the two judgement essays at the end of each paper

Spend an exactly equal amount of time on every single question regardless of its tariff

Spend all of the available time on the very first question and rush everything after it

About a mark a minute, spending least on short questions and most on the essays

Spend half of the whole paper on the 2-mark recall questions at the start of the paper

It is not necessary at all, since every single question is really asking for the same thing

To save paper by writing a shorter answer than you otherwise would have written out

Because all of the questions are marked in exactly the same way as one another anyway

Because each objective is marked differently, so it tells you what your answer must do