Source-handling skills overview: SQA Advanced Higher History

Part B of the Advanced Higher History question paper is a three-part source exercise worth 40 marks, and a single skill, historiography, runs through it and the essays. This guide maps the three questions and the historiographical skill; the module dot points take each in detail.

The 12-mark source evaluation

You judge how useful a single source is for an enquiry: establish the provenance (origin and purpose), interpret two or three points of content, then develop the evaluation with detailed own knowledge and historiography. Most of the marks are in the contextual development, so do not stop at provenance.

The 12-mark how fully question

You judge how fully a source explains an issue: establish and interpret the source's view, then develop the answer with your own knowledge of what it covers and, crucially, what it omits, with reference to historians. The judgement must name what the source explains and what it leaves out.

The 16-mark two-source comparison

The largest source question. Establish each source's overall view, then make detailed paired points of agreement and difference, develop them with knowledge, and relate the disagreement to the historiography. Comparing claim against claim, not source after source, is the skill that scores.

The historiographical skill

Historiography, the differing interpretations of historians, is rewarded in all three source questions, both essays and the dissertation. Identify the schools of thought, set out what historians argue, and evaluate them against the evidence so the debate sharpens your judgement. Use historians; do not name-drop.

How to use this module

Work through the three source questions and the historiographical skill, then drill them on your field's sources using SQA past papers and the marking instructions.