how to answer gcse history questions

I'm having trouble understanding how gcse history exam answers are marker, especially the 7 and 8 mark questions. The exam board is OCR and the topic is Medicine through time/American west

I don't know what to believe when I try and find out how to write the answers. We are told at school to go into lots of detail and be careful to explain, not describe on the 7/8 mark questions.

So I do this (explain 3 reasons in detail is what we are told to do) on exams and still don't get full marks. Teachers don't really tell me how to improve, just say stuff like include an introduction and a conclusion in your answer. This seems impossible to me given the time limit we have, the detail they want us to go into means writing at least a side of A4- so I always run out of time in exams.

But then I bought a new textbook recently and it has example answers in it, and the full mark answers seem to go into much less detail, and are much shorter, than the answers I do. I found this
http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/sm/ocr_33228_sm_gcse_hist_a_a97113_csa.pdf
http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/sm/ocr_33223_sm_gcse_hist_a_a97112_dev_csa.pdf
on the OCR website which confirms what the textbook seems to be saying. It's really the 7/8mk Qs I have most problems with.

bump

bump again

So absoutely no one has a clue? I was wondering this myself...

Reply 4

historyman123

4 marker - 4 points
6 marker - 3 paragraphs
10 marker - intro, para 1 agree, para 2 disagree and conclusion

7 marker - is a source question which requires you to use CCC comment on the source (what is it trying to show) content (how does the source show this) and context (historical knowledge)