Every card in Interpretations and significance, Year 11: significance, comparison, weighing factors and reading a site
The whole deck, in order — so you can read it through before your child ever sees it.
- AQA describes significance as importance in two time-frames. What are they?
At the time, and over time
HintOne looks at people living then; the other looks ahead.
WhyA full answer looks at what difference a person, event or development made to people living then, and at what it led to in later years or centuries.
- How many marks is the 'Explain the significance of…' question worth? (number only)
8
HintThe same as each of the first three questions of the thematic study.
WhyIt is the second question of the thematic study in Paper 2. Two of its marks are for knowledge and six are for explanation.
- Jenner's vaccination met strong opposition when he published it in 1798, yet smallpox was declared wiped out worldwide in 1980. Which of these two facts shows significance over time?
The eradication of smallpox in 1980
HintLook for the later effect.
WhyThe opposition belongs to the story of its impact at the time. An answer on Jenner's significance would use both: limited acceptance at first, enormous consequences later.
- A significance answer should not just tell the story of a person's life. What should each paragraph show?
What changed because of them
HintAsk how things were different afterwards.
WhyUseful questions are: how many people were affected, how deeply, for how long, and did it lead on to other developments? Each paragraph should make one such point and support it.
- How many ways in which two events were similar or different does the comparison question ask you to explain?
Two
HintThe number is printed in the question itself.
WhyThe question is worth eight marks, four for knowledge and four for explanation. It may ask for similarities or for differences, and the two things compared may come from different centuries.
- Which makes a valid point of similarity: describing each event in turn, or naming a feature they share and showing it in both?
Naming a shared feature and showing it in both
HintThe comparison has to be made by you, not left to the reader.
WhyA good pattern is: 'Both X and Y… In X, … Similarly, in Y, …'. For a difference: 'X… whereas Y…'. Each event needs its own precise detail.
- During both the Black Death of 1348 and the Great Plague of 1665, many people blamed bad air. Is this a similarity in beliefs about cause, in treatment, or in government action?
In beliefs about cause
HintAsk what kind of thing 'blaming' is.
WhyNaming the category sharpens the point: 'One similarity is in beliefs about cause. In 1348 people carried sweet herbs against bad air; in 1665 they still did.'
- In 1665 the authorities in London ordered infected houses to be shut up and had searchers record the cause of each death. In 1348 there was no such organised response. This is a difference in what?
Government action
HintWho is doing the ordering and the paying?
WhyThe same pair of events can be alike in one respect and unlike in another. Read carefully whether the question asks for similarities or for differences.
- AQA's factor essay may name war, religion, chance, government, communication, or science and technology. Which remaining factor is about what one person contributed?
The role of the individual
HintThink of Jenner, Pasteur or Fleming.
WhyThe essay states one factor and asks whether it was the main one. The exact list of factors differs a little between the three thematic studies.
- The factor essay names one factor in its statement. What must you weigh it against?
Other factors
HintThe question asks whether it was the main one.
WhyShow what the named factor achieved, with examples from different periods. Then do the same for at least one or two others, and decide which mattered most, or how they worked together.
- Fleming noticed mould killing bacteria on a dish he had left out while he was away. Which factor is this an example of?
Chance
HintNobody planned it.
WhyThe same story also shows the role of the individual, because it took a trained scientist to see what the accident meant. Most developments involve more than one factor.
- During the Second World War the American government funded the mass production of penicillin to treat wounded soldiers. Which two factors worked together here?
War and government
HintOne created the need; the other paid.
WhyShowing how factors combined is often the strongest part of a factor essay. Here science had made the discovery, but it took a war to give a government the reason to spend the money.
- How many of the four parts of the thematic study's content does the factor essay draw on?
All four
HintThink how long a stretch of history the essay ranges over.
WhySo the examples in the essay should come from different centuries, not from one period only. The essay is worth sixteen marks, with four more for spelling, punctuation and grammar.
- What share of the whole GCSE History course is the study of the historic environment?
10 per cent
HintAQA says it works out at about twelve hours of teaching.
WhyIt is examined by the last question of the British depth study, an essay worth sixteen marks.
- How often does AQA change the specified site for each British depth study?
Every year
HintEach exam series has its own.
WhyThe site is published three years in advance. This is why you should learn how to study a site, and check with your teacher which one applies to your exam year.
- AQA lists aspects of a site to consider: location, ____, the structure, the people connected with it, and its ____.
function; design
HintOne is what the place was for; the other is how it was planned to look and work.
WhyThe list goes on to ask how the design reflects the culture, values and fashions of the time, and how important events of the depth study are connected to the site.
- The site essay asks you to connect the features of the site to what?
The wider events and developments of the period
HintThe place is evidence for the age it belongs to.
WhyA strong answer moves between the two: a feature of the site, then what it shows about how people lived, were governed or believed, then back to the site. Knowledge of the site alone is not enough.
- A country house of the 1590s has huge glass windows and a long gallery, but no moat, battlements or gatehouse. What does the lack of defences suggest about the period?
The country was peaceful enough for the rich to build for show, not for safety
HintAsk what its owner no longer feared.
WhyThis is the kind of reasoning the site question rewards: from a feature you can see, to a conclusion about the values and conditions of the time.
1★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0040
2★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0041
3★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0042
4★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0043
5★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0044
6★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0045
7★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0046
8★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0047
9★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0048
10★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0049
11★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0050
12★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0051
13★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0052
14★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0053
15★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0054
16★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0055
17★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0056
18★ GCSE-HIST-INT-0057
Keep what you learn
Here, nothing is saved. In your child’s own sky every card is scheduled — it comes back just before they’d forget it — and the professor who wrote it is one tap away.