The 8 Mark "How Useful" Question: Migration, Empires & the People (Q1) (AQA GCSE History)

Summary of Question One 

• Question One requires you to evaluate how useful one source is for a historian about the issue outlined

• You should: 

  • Refer to the content and provenance of the source 

  • Analyse two parts of the source in your answer

  • Include knowledge that is relevant to the source 

  • Make a judgement on how useful the source is for the given issue in the question

• An example of the type of question you may encounter can be seen below:

• In previous years, this question has focused on: 

Using the Content & Provenance of a Source

• A historical source is made up of two sections: 

  • The provenance 

  • The content 

Provenance 

• Provenance is the background information of a source 

• The provenance can be found at the top of each source

• The provenance usually tells you

  • Who created the source

  • What  type of source it is, for example, a newspaper article

  • When the source was made

  • Where the source was created 

• For the example question, here is a breakdown of the provenance of Source A:

• In this question, you should use the provenance of the source to:

  • Help you to analyse the source

  • Gain valuable or first-hand information about the question topic

    • For the example question, a photograph is useful for capturing a moment in time

Content 

• The content is the information presented in the source

• The content could be a variety of different types of sources such as:

  • A picture 

  • A photograph

  • An extract from a book 

  • A speech 

  • A political cartoon 

  • A letter 

• In this question, you should use the content of the source to: 

  • Show what you know about the question topic

    • For the example question, you need to have an understanding of who Gandhi was and why he was visiting England in 1931

Making Judgements in an 8 Mark “How Useful” Question

• The “How Useful” question requires you to make a judgement

  • If you do not say how useful the source is, you cannot get more than one mark

• The common mistakes that students make when making a judgement are: 

  • Not giving a clear judgement. Students do this by: 

    • Explaining that the source is both useful and not useful

    • Failing to decide how useful the source is

    • Using language in their answer which is not decisive e.g. “kind of” or “maybe”  

  • Focusing on reliability rather than how useful the source is. Students do this by: 

    • Not making any judgement about the source’s usefulness

    • Stating that, because the source is unreliable, the source is not useful to a historian

      • All sources are useful for a historian but not all sources are reliable

      • Unreliable sources can be very useful. For example, a diary extract from Cecil Rhodes is likely to be biased or contain inaccurate information. However, it tells historians about the perspectives of Britons involved in colonialisation

• Good judgements are made by considering:

  • Specific content from the source

  • The source’s provenance

  • Your knowledge of the time period

    • This will help you to see if the source is accurate or typical for the period

• Good judgements will also keep going back to the focus of the question

  • For the example question, you must only talk about how useful the source is for studying Mahatma Gandhi

• Your judgement does not need to include limitations and you can receive full marks without one

  • Students’ responses are often given higher marks if they only focus on the source's strengths. This is because the question wants you to pick parts of the source that are useful

• However, if you include a limitation you will be credited, you must make sure the limitation is: 

  • Supported by knowledge 

  • Focused on the question 

  • Relevant to your answer  

“How Useful” Question Structure

• You will find the source in an insert

  • An insert is an additional booklet to your answer paper. It provides key sources or interpretations needed to answer specific questions in the exam

• Your answer should consist of: 

  • How useful is the source to the given issue in the question 

  • Content from the source

  • Comments about the provenance of the source

  • Specific relevant knowledge

• Your answer could be written in PEE paragraphs

  • P- Make a point about the question

    • Make it clear how useful the source is

    • Use the source to make an inference about the issue in the question

  • E- Use information from the source and knowledge to support the point you have made

    • Your knowledge should be specific 

    • Focus on the content and provenance of the source

  • E- Explain why this shows that the source is useful 

    • Focus on the given issue in the question 

    • For top marks, your judgement about the source’s usefulness will combine the content of the source, the provenance of the source and your own knowledge of the issue in the question

• To achieve full marks, you need to repeat this twice 

Worked Example of a “How Useful" Question