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ScotlandHistory

Source-Handling Skills

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you answer the 12-mark source evaluation question in Advanced Higher History using provenance, content and context?

The 12-mark source evaluation: judging a single source through its provenance (origin and purpose), its content, and developed contextual and historiographical knowledge, and how the marks are split.
How to answer the SQA Advanced Higher History 12-mark source evaluation. Covers provenance (origin and purpose), interpretation of the content, the contextual development that earns most of the marks, and how reference to historians' views lifts the answer.
12 min answer →

How do you answer the 12-mark how fully contextual question in Advanced Higher History?

The 12-mark how fully question: establishing and interpreting the view of a source, then developing it with contextual knowledge and historiography to judge how fully it explains an issue.
How to answer the SQA Advanced Higher History 12-mark how fully question. Covers establishing the source's view, interpreting its points, the wider contextual development that earns most marks, the use of historians' interpretations, and reaching a how fully judgement.
12 min answer →

How do you answer the 16-mark two-source comparison in Advanced Higher History?

The 16-mark two-source comparison: establishing the overall view of each source, comparing detailed points of agreement and disagreement, developing them with context, and relating the views to the historiography.
How to answer the SQA Advanced Higher History 16-mark two-source comparison. Covers establishing each source's overall view, comparing detailed points of agreement and disagreement, developing them with contextual knowledge, and relating the sources to historians' interpretations.
13 min answer →

What is historiography in Advanced Higher History, and how do you use historians' interpretations across the source questions and essays?

The historiographical skill: identifying the schools of interpretation in a field, setting out and evaluating historians' views, and using them to develop source answers, essays and the dissertation rather than name-dropping.
How to use historiography across SQA Advanced Higher History. Explains what historiography is, the schools of interpretation in a field, how to set out and evaluate historians' views, and how to weave them into source answers, essays and the dissertation rather than name-drop.
12 min answer →