Every distinction begins with one topic at a time.- start now
History is not a memory test, it is an argument test. The marks go to the learner who can prove a point, not the one who can list the most facts.- read the blueprint before you revise a single topic
This is your map of the whole History exam, not a re-teach of the content. Read it once, slowly, then use it to decide where every remaining revision hour goes. History rewards two skills far more than raw recall: reading a source like a detective, and building a sustained argument in an essay. This guide has a dedicated section on each. Everything here answers one question: where do the marks actually live, and how do I capture them?
| Symbol | Label | What it flags for you |
|---|---|---|
| ⭐ | EXAM FAVOURITE | A question type that shows up in almost every sitting. Rehearse it until it is automatic. |
| 🔥 | FREQUENTLY TESTED | A high-yield skill or concept the paper returns to again and again. Never leave it half-learnt. |
| ⚠️ | COMMON MISTAKE | The exact slip markers penalise. Reading it now stops you repeating it under pressure. |
| 💡 | EASY MARK | A low-effort 1 to 2 mark grab. These are the marks weak candidates leave on the table. |
| 🧠 | ACTIVE RECALL | A self-test block. Answer it from memory first, then check. Recall beats re-reading. |
| 📖 | KEY DEFINITION | A term the marker wants stated precisely. Loose wording loses the mark. |
| ⚡ | MUST MEMORISE | A structure, list or date you should be able to write with your eyes shut. |
The real exam paper structure. History is written as two separate papers, each worth 150 marks and each 3 hours long, for a combined 300 marks. They are written on different days, so you can peak twice. Both papers have the identical shape:
| Section | Questions | Marks | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| A (source-based) | Q1 to Q3, one per topic | 50 each | Four short sources (A to D): written extracts, a cartoon or photograph, sometimes a table. A run of sub-questions worth 1 to 5 marks each (define a term, quote or identify evidence, explain with your own knowledge, judge a source's reliability or usefulness), then one 4-mark cross-source comparison, closing with an 8-mark paragraph in your own words and own knowledge. |
| B (essay) | Q4 to Q6, one per topic | 50 each | A single judgement statement to agree with, disagree with, or discuss "to what extent". One long essay, marked holistically as a whole rather than point by point. |
You answer THREE of the six questions in each paper: at least one source-based, at least one essay, and the third from either section, your free choice. That floor matters, you may not answer three essays or three source-based questions. Three answers of 50 marks each is your 150.
The 4 Golden Rules, apply them to every single question:
Here is the structural fact that should shape your whole revision plan. Each topic splits into two named case studies, and the same one is set as the source-based question and the same one as the essay every sitting. The slot never swaps. What rotates is only the exact event tested inside the slot, and the stance an essay statement takes. So you prepare each topic's source-based half for interrogation and its essay half for argument, never the other way round.
| Topic | Always Section A (source-based) | Always Section B (essay) |
|---|---|---|
| PAPER 1 | ||
| The Cold War | Origins of the Cold War (Berlin crises, Truman Doctrine) | Vietnam, the extension of the Cold War |
| Independent Africa | Angola | The Congo |
| Civil society protests, 1950s to 1970s | The US Civil Rights Movement | The Black Power Movement |
| PAPER 2 | ||
| Civil resistance in South Africa, 1970s to 1980s | Trade union and civic-front resistance to apartheid reforms | Black Consciousness and Steve Biko, the crisis of apartheid in the 1980s |
| The coming of democracy and coming to terms with the past | The Truth and Reconciliation Commission | The negotiated settlement, the road to 1994 and the Government of National Unity |
| The end of the Cold War and a new world order, 1989 to today | Globalisation and the international financial institutions | Gorbachev's reforms and the events of 1989 |
How the 50 marks of every source-based question are shared by thinking level. The marking policy fixes the same split for all three Section A questions, so you can plan your effort against it:
| Level | Skill it tests | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Lower order | Extract, select and organise evidence from the sources; define terms | about 30 percent, near 15 marks |
| Middle order | Interpret, explain and analyse the evidence in the sources | about 40 percent, near 20 marks |
| Higher order | Evaluate reliability, usefulness, bias and limitations; compare sources; draw your own conclusion | about 30 percent, near 15 marks |
Nearly a third of every source-based question is guaranteed lower-order evidence-spotting. Those are the marks weak candidates skip in a rush. Slow down and bank them first.
| Phase | Time | What you are doing |
|---|---|---|
| Read and choose | first 10 to 15 min | Read all six questions, then commit to your three: one source-based, one essay, one free. Do not change your mind halfway. |
| Three answers | about 50 min each | Roughly 50 marks in 50 minutes. Keep to the clock even if a question is going well, an unfinished third answer costs more than a slightly shorter second one. |
| Check | last 10 min | Reread your source answers against the mark values in brackets, and check your essay actually reaches a verdict. |
Warm your memory up with these five. No answers given, that is deliberate. If any of them make you hesitate, that is where tonight's revision starts.
Every source-based question is worth 50 marks, and the skill it tests is identical whichever topic sits in the slot. Learn the machine once and it pays out on all six source questions across both papers. The examiner is not asking whether you have memorised the topic, they are asking whether you can read a source like a detective: who made it, what it says, whether you can trust it, and how it fits with the others. This section drills that machine.
Four sources labelled A to D, then a ladder of sub-questions that climbs from spotting to judging. It always ends the same way, with a mini-essay that pulls everything together.
| Rung | Typical marks | What it asks | What wins the marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Define / identify | 1 to 2 | "What is meant by...", "Name two...", "Quote a sentence that shows..." | Lift the exact words or give a clean one-line meaning. Do not over-write a one-mark answer. |
| Explain with own knowledge | 2 to 4 | "Explain why...", "Comment on the meaning of..." | Take a point from the source, then add a fact from outside the source to show you understand it. |
| Evaluate the source | 2 to 4 | "How reliable is this source?", "How useful is this source to a historian?" | Judge from the origin: who, when, why. Give both a strength and a limitation. |
| Compare sources | 4 | "Compare how Source A and Source C portray..." | Say explicitly where they agree and where they differ. Both halves, or you cap at 2. |
| Closing paragraph | 8 | "Using all the sources and your own knowledge, explain... (about eight lines)" | A short structured argument in your own words that uses the sources as evidence, not a copy-out. |
Attribution is the line printed above or below a source telling you its origin: who produced it, what kind of source it is (a speech, a letter, a newspaper report, a cartoon, a memoir written years later), and when. Read the attribution before the source itself. It is the single most powerful clue in the whole question, and most learners skip straight past it to the text.
Every source-based question ends with an 8-mark paragraph of about eight lines, "using the sources and your own knowledge". It is a mini-essay, not a copy-out, and it carries more marks than any single earlier sub-question. Build it in four moves:
A paragraph that only stitches source quotes together, with no outside knowledge and no position, stalls in the middle band however neat it looks.
Source (invented): Extract adapted from a radio broadcast by a government minister, delivered during a period of mass protest.
"These so-called peaceful marchers are the tools of foreign agitators. The state has shown great patience, but order will be restored, by whatever means the situation demands."
Sub-question (4): How reliable is this source as evidence of why the protests were happening?
Model answer: The source is of limited reliability on the causes of the protest, because it is an official government broadcast whose purpose is to justify a crackdown, not to explain the protesters' real grievances, so it dismisses them as "tools of foreign agitators" rather than engaging with their demands. It is, however, useful in a different way: it is reliable evidence of the government's own attitude and of the threat of force it was prepared to use, since a minister speaking on state radio is a direct voice of official policy. Reliability here depends entirely on the question you are asking the source.
Read the attribution first, always: who, when, why. Bank the low-order quote and identify marks by matching the mark value exactly. Judge reliability and usefulness from the origin, never the content alone, and remember a biased source can still be useful. In the 4-mark comparison give both agreement and difference. Decode visual sources by message and technique. Then close with the 8-mark paragraph: take a position, use at least two sources plus your own knowledge, and reach a verdict.
This is a free preview of Topic 1. The full guide has every topic, the self-marking quizzes, mock exams, planner, journal and wellbeing tools.
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