[Crazy-Fish]

I've just got a few questions, re. said paper two which is tomorrow. . .

1) If you don't know dates, places and names, is it possible to pass?
2) What are the rough grade boundaries and how difficult is it to get and a*?
3) How much should you write for the 15mk question?

Please help! Anything will help, my teacher will slaughter me if I don't get at least an a, (not hyperbole - he's pretty much told me), he hates kids and people who panic. . . Thank you for any help you can give!!

[MrJohnDClare]

Crazy-Fish, on Jan 7 2009, 08:45 PM, said:

1) If you don't know dates, places and names, is it possible to pass?

It's not the dates, places and names which get you the marks in Paper 2, but the skills which the questions require you to demonstrate:
In Part A: inference from a source, validity of an interpretation, comparison of sources, utility of a source, explain why.
In part B: extraction from a source, describe, explain why, analysis of an historical situation
HOWEVER, you wont do very well answering these questions if you don't use dates, places and names to prove that your ideas and arguments are correct.

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2) What are the rough grade boundaries and how difficult is it to get and a*?

The Grade boundaries are roughly:
a* - 80%
A - 70%
B - 60%
C - 50%
D - 42%
E - 35%
F - 27%
G - 20%
Actually, it is a lot easier to get a high grade than you might think. Has your teacher told you about levels of answer? To get an A* you do not have to get to Level 4 all the time - technically, you could get an A* by geting the top mark at Level 3 in every question.
Similarly, if you can consistently operate towards the top of Level 2 in every question, you will get a C grade.

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3) How much should you write for the 15mk question?

Enough to get to the top of Level 3!
There were two 15-mark questions on the paper om 2007.

An 'explain why' question in Section A.
To get to Level 3 here you needed to write a 'Developed multicausal answer, e.g. several points are developed to explain why'
And an 'analysis' question in Section B
To get to Level 3 here you needed to write a 'Multifactorial answer in which a number of ideas were discussed in detail.'

The key thing in both is to give and explain a NUMBER of ideas (take a paragraph for each)

One thing I always tell my pupils to do in these questions is to try and find TWO ideas for their explanations/discussions.
For example, if you're explaining how the Schlieffen Plan caused WWI, it's good to explain that it did so by going though Belgium and binging Britain into the war (single explanation). But even better if you can then write: 'And a second war the Schlieffen Plan caused the war was because...' and add a second way (e.g. because it was a plan of attack, it started the actual fighting) = 'double explanation'

So your essay will have to be long enough to give and provide double-explanations for 4 or 5 ideas in answer to the question. Again, as for dates and facts above, it not simply mechanically how much you write, but whether you demonstrate the skills required by the question.


One useful way to approach the exam is not by amount of writing, but amount of time.
In Paper 2 you have questions worth 75 marks, and you have 105 minutes to answer them in, which works out at just under one-and-a-half minutes a mark, including thinking time.
So if the question is worth 10 marks, you have 14 minutes to think about it and write it.
If the question is worth 15 marks, you have 21 minutes to think about it and write it.
If the question is worth 5 marks, you have 7 minutes to think about it and write it.
and so on.

[Crazy-Fish]

Thank you very much. I tried to think of this in the exam. My timings were off by a mile. . . Spent half an hour on a ten mark question and 5 minutes on the 15 mark question. . . I suppose though, it is only a practice. . .

[MrJohnDClare]

Crazy-Fish, on Jan 8 2009, 05:35 PM, said:

I suppose though, it is only a practice. . .

Well exactly, and as I ways say to my pupils, better mess up on the internal practice exam than on the real things ... THAT is why HAVE practice exams!!!

You have to be tough with yourself early on in the exam - get the small ones out of the way as quickly as possible (e.g. the 3-markers should simply be 3 bullet points and then move on).
Then you will leave enough time to spend on the higher-mark quesitons.

If you find yourself running out of time in the real exam, rather than write to the end and stopping halfway through a question, give yourself the last 10 minutes and - instead of writing proper essays - put the title 'Notes because running our of time' - and finish as much as you can of the work in notes form.

Finally, instead of thinking 'whole exam' as a timing exercise, think question-by-question.
e.g., on Paper One you have 3 questions to do, all of equal marks, 35 minutes each.
So instead of aiming for the end of the exam, aim to finish Qu1 on 35 minutes - and hurry at the end a stop writing and move on, and then do the same for Qu2 and Qu3.
That way, you will stop a situation where you have 5 minutes to write the last big question of all.

[jhyzone]

Sorry to eavesdrop but I would like to ask some questions regarding this:

MrJohnDClare, on Jan 7 2009, 11:33 PM, said:

Crazy-Fish, on Jan 7 2009, 08:45 PM, said:

1) If you don't know dates, places and names, is it possible to pass?

It's not the dates, places and names which get you the marks in Paper 2, but the skills which the questions require you to demonstrate:
In Part A: inference from a source, validity of an interpretation, comparison of sources, utility of a source, explain why.
In part B: extraction from a source, describe, explain why, analysis of an historical situation
HOWEVER, you wont do very well answering these questions if you don't use dates, places and names to prove that your ideas and arguments are correct.

Does that mean there is different types of Question in Paper 2?

I just want to clarify some things, if I am doing Germany and America for Paper 2, I can choose which part I would like to do, e.g Part A - Germany and Part B - America?

I would also like to know why Part A and Part B has different question structure arent they the same?

[MrJohnDClare]

jhyzone, on Feb 25 2009, 07:10 PM, said:

Does that mean there is different types of Question in Paper 2?

yes (as above)

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I just want to clarify some things, if I am doing Germany and America for Paper 2, I can choose which part I would like to do, e.g Part A - Germany and Part B - America?

yes,or you could do Part A- America and Part B- Germany. You MUST do two different countries.

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I would also like to know why Part A and Part B has different question structure arent they the same?

The range of questions is different (as above). Check it out with your teacher, and look at some past papers and markschemes.

[Crazy-Fish]

"You MUST do two different countries"

Unlike about 18 people in my year. . . And the other 3 who did a country we were never taught about. . .

[MrJohnDClare]

Crazy-Fish, on Feb 28 2009, 04:56 PM, said:

"You MUST do two different countries"

Unlike about 18 people in my year. . . And the other 3 who did a country we were never taught about. . .

What idiots they were!

ALWAYS read the rubric on the question paper:

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SECTION A
Answer one question from this section, chosen from Questions 1 to 4 on pages 2–9.
The question you choose in Section A must be on a different country from the one
chosen in Section B.

Remember - you heard it first on this website!

[Crazy-Fish]

MrJohnDClare, on Feb 28 2009, 06:25 PM, said:

ALWAYS read the rubric on the question paper

I did ask them whether they'd bothered reading it and they all said there was no point. . . Until they got there mark back that is. . .