Get some
general revision advice to begin with. I wrote this
'top 10 tips' for IB
students a few years ago and much of what I say applies to you.
Similarly the great John D Clare wrote
these detailed guidelines for his English GCSE historians.
In Year 7 the exam is four periods long. The exam is divided into two sections. In
the first section you will be expected to analyse 5 sources, in
the second section you will write an essay.
Begin by looking at past papers:
Pre-Bac 2011
exam and
markscheme
Pre-Bac 2012
exam and
markscheme
The sources
In the pre-Bac and in the final Bac exam the
topic for the source analysis is
Europe : between unity and
disunity (from 1945 to 1957) .
The first questions check your comprehension
of key terms and your ability to understand and interpret the
sources.
In the next question you will be expected to
compare and contrast two or three of the sources. This means you should
identify similarities and differences between the sources, where
they agree and disagree or where one source provides no evidence
in support of another.
Next you will be expected to evaluate
the usefulness of two of the sources. You do not need to
compare the sources. Usefulness means, how useful the
source is as evidence about a particular event in the
past. You should identify both strengths and weaknesses
of the source. For example, how relevant is the source?
Does the source contain a lot of useful information or
information that helps us understand the past event?
Does the source provide reliable information about the
past? Can it be trusted to tell the truth? The
three Rs model should
remind you of the sort of things you need to consider. These
PowerPoint
presentations explain the various strengths and
weaknesses of common types of sources.
Finally, you will asked to use all the sources
and your own knowledge to answer an essay style question about
World War 1. Your job is to use the sources - making sure to
refer to them in your answer - and use your own knowledge to
support your answer. This is an opportunity to show what you
know in addition to the information contained in the five
sources.
The essays
You will write one essay from a choice of
three
The topics are:
1. The Cold War 1945-1960
2. The USA 1945-1960
3. China 1945-1960
Students can expect questions to be more
open-ended than those answered in the summer. For example,
questions are likely to expect knowledge of the whole period.
On China not 'why did the CCP win the civil war in China' but rather 'why
was the CCP attitude to peasants so important to their success
in taking and consolidating their power in the period 1945-60?'
On the Cold War, not 'Examine the causes and
consequences of the Berlin Airlift' but 'Examine the view that
the Cold War was caused by power politics rather than ideology'.
On the USA, not 'how did the Civil Rights
movement develop in the 1950s' but 'to what extent was 1950s USA
really a golden age?'.
The knowledge
Test your factual knowledge in quizzes that
cover all the work covered in the first semester.
