This document provides guidance on how to answer source-based questions in history exams. It outlines the main types of source questions as extract, accuracy/utility, conclusions, purpose, and compare/difference. It emphasizes identifying the question type and then answering directly based on the source(s) and your own knowledge. The document also recommends analyzing any sources using the Five Ws - who wrote it, when, what it is, why it was written, and how it fits with your existing knowledge. A sample question is provided to demonstrate how to integrate a source, your own knowledge, and directly answer the question being asked. Scoring criteria are outlined to assess responses based on their depth and use of evidence.

1. SAUCY QUESTIONS ?!
REVISION – How to answer source questions!

2. Types of Source questions
1. Extract – Where you simply have to say what is in
the source.
2. Accuracy/Utility– You need to say how truthful a
source is: content/origin/purpose .
3. Conclusions: Use the sources to debate a
particular issue.
4. Purpose – You need to say why the source was
written and who for.
5. Compare/ Difference – This might be to your own
knowledge or to anther source.

3. Spot the question type!
For each of these questions work out what type of question it is (they are
alongside to remind you):
QUESTIONS
1) What does source A tell us about the reasons why Britain went to war in
1914? (3 marks)
• Extract
2) Why was the poster in source O distributed in Britain in 1915? Use information
Source O and your own knowledge to answer the question (6 marks)
3) How Accurate is the view in Source F of Hitler’s aims of foreign policy? • Accuracy /
Explain your answer by referring to the purpose of the source as well as Utility
using its content and your own knowledge. (6 marks)
4) How useful is Source P to an historian studying the Western front in
WW1? Use Source P and your own knowledge. (6 marks)
• Conclusions
5) How does the content of Source C and D differ? (6 marks) • Purpose
6) Do you agree with the interpretation given in Source K about the life of
Black Americans in the 1920s? Explain your answer by referring to the • Comparison /
purpose of the source as well as using its content and your own
knowledge. (10 marks) Similarity

4. The Five Ws
As soon as you get any sources you should do the
following to each of them (write on the question paper):
 WHO – Who wrote the source (nationality)
 WHEN – When was the source written? (Primary or
Secondary?)
 WHAT – What is the source (textbook, letter, speech?)
 WHY – Why was it written? (Purpose of the Source)
 WHERE – Where does the source fit into what you
know? Does it agree with what you know or is it bias?

5. SAMPLE QUESTION
Question
How useful is Source A to
an historian studying the
causes of World War 2? Use
Source A and your own
knowledge. (6 marks)
Start with the five W! Then write
your answer (for six marks you
should be aiming for about ½ to ¾
of a side in 6-7 minutes!
 ALWAYS use a quote/ facts from
the Sources.
 ALWAYS use your own
knowledge/ FACTS - esp. when it
says ‘use your own knowledge’
 ATBQ (= 'answer the bloody Source A – A political cartoon appearing in a British
question') newspaper of 1935 during the Ethiopian Crisis. The man
lifting the lid to the world is the Italian dictator Mussolini.

6. How the examiner marks it!
Level 1: EITHER Accepts the content of the source at face value
OR Generalised or learned response which could apply to any
source (1-2)
Level 2: EITHER Simple comments on the usefulness or the
limitations of the source based on information in the source
and/or own knowledge
OR Simple comments on the usefulness or the limitations of the
source in terms of provenance or reliability or bias
(NB – Use 5 th mark for answers that attempt several aspects -
usefulness, limitations, own knowledge – but at undeveloped
level) ( 3-5)
Level 3: Develops an argument about the usefulness/limitations of
the source using the source and/or own knowledge (6-7)