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OCR AS History 14th May

Anyone else doing it?

How do you get the top marks for the thirty marker?

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Reply 1
Yeah I've got it tomorrow, I'm really worried though as I've done little to no revision for it. Luckily it's source based so tou can blag through it and come out with fairly high marks as long as you have basic knowledge and maybe bits of specific own knowledge to back up your comparisons. Most of the marks come from how you structure your essay. Here's how I've been taught to do it and I've generally been getting B grades in mocks:
COMPARE CONTENT ON BOTH SOURCES
Choose quotes from one source that you can link to a quote from another, link them and then explain them together as a pose to using one quote, explaining it and then adding another at the end so the examiner can see you have clear purpose and structure.
COMPARE PROVENANCE ON BOTH SOURCES
Look at who wrote the sources, when they were published and were and talk about it, this is where specific own knowledge can come into play.
CONCLUSION
Decide which source is the strongest between the two in terms of evidence towards whatever the question is asking and give a final decision, don't use your own opinion on how much of something there was, make sure your basing it off what the sources are saying.
Reply 2
Cheers for that. I'm doing US containment of Asia, what's everyone else doing?

Really hope Vietnam comes up, although has done for almost every paper apparently.
Reply 3
Original post by angelfox
Cheers for that. I'm doing US containment of Asia, what's everyone else doing?

Really hope Vietnam comes up, although has done for almost every paper apparently.


I'm doing dictatorship in Germany which is basically nazi Germany and then Germany after the Second World War
Reply 4
Original post by jake_c
I'm doing dictatorship in Germany which is basically nazi Germany and then Germany after the Second World War


Sounds waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more interesting than our unit.
I'm doing british history and i have to say it is soooooo dull- ive barely revised it as it just doesn't stick in my head.
I'm doing Churchill and it is incredibly boring.
Reply 7
Original post by angelfox
Anyone else doing it?

How do you get the top marks for the thirty marker?


30 marks checklist:

Immediately state whether the sources agree or disagree in their views regarding what is being asked in the question

Include at least 3 direct comparisons of content (quotes) to support your assertion

Assess and compare the strength of opinion/tone with examples (look at language)

Assess and compare the typicality of the sources (e.g. who said them, what circumstances they were said in- election etc.)

Assessed and compared accuracy of each source (this requires own knowledge but NOT explicitly stated. I.e. say 'this is a valid assertion...')

Assess and compare reliability through provenance

Assess and compare the UTILITY of the sources through provenance- anything that it neglects to mention?

Make a judgement about which source is better overall for answering the question/statement

Judge the sources a pair- can they fully answer the question between them?



Hope this helps, if anyone wants to improve that or whatever, please do:colondollar:
Reply 8
I've got British history in the other paper. Hate it but find it easy.
Reply 9
Is anyone else doing French Revolution for this paper? There's so much which could come up!- praying for easy sources which are actually understandable!
Reply 10
Original post by Natally
Is anyone else doing French Revolution for this paper? There's so much which could come up!- praying for easy sources which are actually understandable!


I'm doing french rev, so scared for it, I always find it so hard to group them into interpretations for part b!
The source based paper is horrific - far too short and 'Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany 1933-63' I find quite dull and sometime hard to analyse the sources for. It's also annoying that Nazi Germany is very unlikely to come up this year, because they tend to be the easier questions.

The essay paper, on the other hand, is fantastic! 'Britain 1951-94' is fantastic, intriguing and the structure is so much better.
Are you guys doing spec A? I'm doing Spec B.

My first exam, 'Using Historical Evidence', is tomorrow. I'm doing British History - Radicalism, Popular Politics and Control (1780-1880s). Not looking forward to it!
Does anyone know what they'll be going over before the exam? For me it's the dates and events but does anyone know how to prepare for actually using the sources? I'm finding that part of the exam quite hard to revise for
hi im doing the same Germany exam tomorrow.. do you have any guesses as to what could come up?
It's 35 marks, not 30... unless it's different on History A? I have the sources paper tomorrow too. Italian Renaissance 1420-1550. Feel as though our school is the only one that does this, haha.
Original post by amelia1767
hi im doing the same Germany exam tomorrow.. do you have any guesses as to what could come up?


1933-63? I don't like to speculate but the FRG hasn't come up as it's own set of questions ever so there's a chance of that.
Any predictions for the Churchill source paper? - I think its likely to be either 1920-1924 Churchill's colonial effort, or Churchill's relationship with Stalin in the grand alliance during the war.
Thought the exam was pretty decent!
Did anyone do the German reformation exam?

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