The 12 Mark "How Useful" Question: The Inter-War Years (Q2) (AQA GCSE History)

Summary of Question Two

• Question Two requires you to evaluate how useful two sources are for a historian about the issue outlined

• You should:

  • Refer to the content and provenance of the sources 

  • 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 the following topics:

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 B:

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

  • Help you explain the usefulness of a source

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: 

  • Help you explain the usefulness of the source

Making judgements in a 12 Mark "How Useful" Question 

• The 12-mark "How Useful” question requires you to make a judgement

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

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

    • Explaining that neither of the sources is useful to a historian 

    • Failing to decide how useful the sources are

    • Not addressing the sources together

    • 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 German political cartoon on the reactions to the Treaty of Versailles might have biased or inaccurate information. However, it tells historians about the German perspective

• Good judgements will include:

  • Specific content from the sources

  • 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 sources are for the Nazi-Soviet Pact

• 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  

• Unlike the 8-mark "How Useful" questions, to achieve full marks you need to make a complex evaluation of the sources together by addressing them in combination or as a pair

  • The best place to do this is in your conclusion at the end of your answer

  • Historical sources are always more useful together as they may show 

    • A change in perspective over time 

    • How different people viewed an event or person in history 

    • How an event or person affected different people in the same country or place

"How Useful" Question Structure 

• You need two paragraphs, one for each source, and a conclusion 

• 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, a paragraph for each source

• For the 12-mark "How Useful" question, you need a conclusion

• Your conclusion should: 

  • Include both of the sources

  • Address how the sources are more useful together 

  • Be brief 

Worked Example of a "How Useful" Question