SOURCE BASED PAPER HISTORY

Which of the type of source questions in particular? There are four questions contained within the source paper on Edexcel history. 1. 2. 3. 4. What can you learn from source A about x (4) Does source C support the evidence of sources A and B about x (6) How useful are sources D and E as evidence of x (8) "Statement" - Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view. (12)

This is not really the way I did the source paper at GCSE back when i was young and naive about history (must've done something right as I still got an A*) but mainly focussed on what I have learnt from source based questions at AS level (not just for history). For question 1 you really just need to find some key points that source A (or whatever) gives you about an event. For four marks you probably want to find four decent points about the situation or the effects of whatever it is they question you on. For the second type of question you should probably divide it up into different key issues relating to the question. E.g. when I sat the paper I had a question about the reasons for US involvement in South Vietnam in the early 1960s so you would take this and divide it into several issues such as the failure of the French and the rising threat of communism and then deal with how source C agrees with each on this point (if it does) and then go on to look at how source C disagrees with A and B on issues. NOTE: It can agree with one and not the other a lot of the time. You probably want a conclusion relating to what extent source C supports A and B. For the third question you really need to look at things like the content, origin and purpose. E.g. is the source biased - is it a scathing condemnation of US intervention in Vietnam meant the turn people against the war (PURPOSE). Where the source comes from because that grants it bias and so whether it is useful (ORIGIN) - e.g. if it is a piece of propaganda. This is also useful if you are given a question relating to the attitudes of someone towards something as if it is a piece of their own writing it is useful in demonstrating directly their opinion, but limited as only portrays what they want people to think. You also have to look at what exactly the source contains as if the question is about something which the source doesn't pay much attention too then it is highly limited (CONTENT). A SOURCE IS ALWAYS USEFUL. They don't give you sources that have no use whatsoever, while they may be limited in their utility, there is always some use in them. 4. This is simply look at the factors to support the statement and then look at those against using the sources to back up whatever argument they support. So for example I had a question regarding the main reason for US armed intervention in Vietnam being to protect the people at South Vietnam, I make points relating to that and use the sources to back up points and then look at other reasons, e.g. to prevent the spread of communism and use any sources that support that to back it up. Try not to use the same source for both sides of the argument as it is a way of undermining your argument. Make sure you use all the sources for this exam.