How to answer short answer, type

1
How to answer short answer, type c and type d
questions in the Year 11 Exam.

• Castro says Relax. Youll be fine.

2
Short answer questions I

• Remember that you have to answer two of these
  questions in 30 minutes (15 minutes each)
• There are twenty lines allocated for each
  question (10 - 12 words per line 200 220
  words per question).
• Read the question carefully. Underline/highlight
  key terms and ensure you know what the question
  is asking you.
• If a time frame is given (eg. between 1945 and
  1962) stick to it. If you stray, you pay.
• The first sentence must answer the question.
  Often this involves an explanation of how
  something came about. It acts in the same way as
  a topic sentence.

3
Short answer questions II

• The following sentences should offer a point to
  support your argument. This should be following
  by a detailed explanation.
• Precise historical knowledge should be
  demonstrated in these questions (cause, effect,
  events, dates, places, groups, individuals etc)
• The final sentence should summarise your answer
  in a clear statement.
• Use signposting to indicate your points (Eg.
  Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, Finally,).

4
Visual Source Churchill peaks under the Iron
Curtain
5
Type c questions

• The first sentence MUST answer the question
  rather than simply repeat it.
• The next few sentences should expand upon the
  first by using three or four examples.
• Be as specific as possible in the demonstration
  of your historical knowledge (dates etc).
• The final sentence must briefly summarise your
  findings.

6
Type c questions contd

• Use signposting clearly and effectively to
  differentiate between your points and to help the
  assessor allocate marks.
• It is imperative that you refer directly to the
  extract at some point. Quote written sources or
  describe a particular element of a visual source.
• Highlight/underline key words in the question.
• You MUST stay within the time frame of the
  question. If you stray, you pay.
• Word limit approx 120 140 words (12 lines for
  about 10 - 12 words per line).

7
For example

• c. Using your own knowledge and the
  representation, explain the concerns that
  motivated Stalin and Soviet Union at the end of
  the Second World War.
• The primary motivating factor behind Russian
  actions and decisions in the immediate post-war
  period was the desire to avoid another invasion
  from the west. Firstly, Russia had borne the
  brunt of two German invasions in thirty years,
  and the country and people had suffered terribly.
  Secondly, Stalin also feared that the Soviet
  Union would, in its weakened condition, fall prey
  to American colonisation as, from Stalins
  perspective, Western Europe had. Thirdly, Stalin
  responded by establishing communist regimes in
  the countries of Eastern Europe liberated by
  the Red Army during the war. Travel and
  information into and out of this zone was
  strictly limited, as depicted by the impregnable
  iron curtain in the cartoon. Hence, it was
  Stalins fears of economic and military
  domination from the west that prompted his
  virtual take-over of the countries of Eastern
  Europe.
• (137 words)

8
Type d questions

• After studying / analysing the source, decide
  whether you think it is reliable/accurate or not.
  This will be based on your understanding of the
  topic or event
• The first sentence MUST comment on the
  reliability, accuracy or usefulness of the
  source.
• Explain briefly what the source says about the
  particular topic or event.
• Bring up historians viewpoints that agree with
  the source.

9
Type d questions contd

• Discuss historians who disagree with the
  viewpoint offered by the source.
• Use signposting throughout to indicate where
  viewpoints differ or concur (Similarly on the
  other hand however).
• Summarise your findings in the final sentence.
• Highlight/underline key words in the
  question/prompt.
• You MUST stay within the time frame of the
  question. If you stray, you pay.
• Word limit approx 200 220 words (20 lines for
  about 10 - 12 words per line).

10
For example

• d. Evaluate to what extent this representation
  presents a reliable view of the origins of the
  Cold War. Refer to other views in your response.
• This political cartoon presents a typically
  Western, and therefore biased, interpretation of
  the origins of the Cold War. It suggests that,
  with the fall of the Iron Curtain across
  Eastern Europe, Stalin had effectively divided
  the continent in two. The factories behind the
  curtain hint at the industrialised might of the
  Soviet Union, surely a threat in the future.
  Former US Secretary of State Dean Rusk would
  agree with this view. He argued that Communism
  was an aggressive, expansionist power that the US
  needed to check. Similarly, US ambassador to the
  Soviet Union George Kennan believed that
  suspicious, paranoid Russia would seek to utterly
  destroy any perceived threat to their security.
  Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
  predictably claimed that the US was set on world
  domination and wanted to reduce all other power
  blocs to mere puppets of its will. A more
  balanced point of view, however, is offered by
  Noam Chomsky. He blames both sides for inventing
  the threat of the other, whether it be
  communism or imperialism, in order to suppress
  opposition at home. Similarly, Ambrose argues
  that the development of nuclear and rocket
  technology on both sides accelerated the Cold War
  and raised tensions to a point where neither side
  could back down. This cartoon does not
  acknowledge the roll the West played in
  initiating and propagating the Cold War, and is
  therefore of little use to the historian in this
  regard.
• (235 words)