GCSE & IGCSE History source paper - top tips for exam revision DBQ

Every exam board will ask you to demonstrate source analysis skills on at least one of your exam papers. Lots of students tell me that they find source analysis a particularly difficult part of the exam, and so this video is intended to help you demonstrate your source skills and achieve the grade you deserve.

Try as I might, I’ve so far been unable to successfully look into the future and find out exactly which topics are going to come up on the exam. Therefore this video is going to instead focus on the main five types of source question:

* Comprehension
* Comprehension in Context
* Reliability, usefulness and the reliability of sources
* Source comparisons
* And, finally, the interpretation of sources

Don’t worry if you don’t know what these terms mean, or if you haven’t used these exact terms in your lessons. This guide will help you recognise the type of question being asked and help you approach it in a way that will maximise your mark.

Before we start looking at these types of questions though, there’s a few general tips and tricks I’d like to share with you that always come in handy when working with sources. The first one is to make sure that you read the questions – and their corresponding sources – carefully. This will help you relate your answer to the question and avoid getting bogged down writing about everything you can remember on that particular topic. You should only include information that is relevant to that exact question.

Secondly, make sure that you read and use the captions that often appear at the bottom of cartoons. These are massively – hugely – helpful in helping you to interpret the cartoon.

Third, be careful about the amount of time you spend on each question. Look at how many marks a question is worth as this will give you an idea of how much time you should spend on answering it. If a question is only worth a few marks, for example, you shouldn’t spend as long as one that is worth more. Remember also, however, that the number of marks does not necessarily correlate to the number of points you are expected to write. Marks are awarded according to Mark Bands and Level Descriptors that are linked to the standard of the analysis in your answer.

These general tips apply to every question that you will come across in your exam. Now it’s time to look at the specific types of question you might face. You’ll find separate videos for each of the five different types – click the links to go to each one.

[maxroads]

I am a student in Switzerland and find all your lessons very helpful, thank you so much for making life easier for us other students around the world

[mrwafflesplays]

Thank you for making these videos. I have a History exam tomorrow and these are really useful. 😀

[HattieMcDanielonaMoon]

I love your website! I even listen to podcasts about things I'm not even studying in school!

[sherylmuzondi]

Last minute revision 😭😭my exam is in a few hours

[mohamedmahmoud]

Hi does this apply for CIE IGCSE as well?

[justin-gkkx]

what if i don't understand the source? Especially the speeches

[rudhrika]

sir can u say which to a topic I have to force on .. as tomm is my exma paper 2