Interpretations and significance, Year 11: significance, comparison, weighing factors and reading a site

At the time, and over time

提示One looks at people living then; the other looks ahead.

为什么A 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.

8

提示The same as each of the first three questions of the thematic study.

为什么It is the second question of the thematic study in Paper 2. Two of its marks are for knowledge and six are for explanation.

The eradication of smallpox in 1980

提示Look for the later effect.

为什么The 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.

What changed because of them

提示Ask how things were different afterwards.

为什么Useful 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.

Two

提示The number is printed in the question itself.

为什么The 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.

Naming a shared feature and showing it in both

提示The comparison has to be made by you, not left to the reader.

为什么A 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.

In beliefs about cause

提示Ask what kind of thing 'blaming' is.

为什么Naming 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.'

Government action

提示Who is doing the ordering and the paying?

为什么The 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.

The role of the individual

提示Think of Jenner, Pasteur or Fleming.

为什么The 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.

Other factors

提示The question asks whether it was the main one.

为什么Show 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.

Chance

提示Nobody planned it.

为什么The 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.

War and government

提示One created the need; the other paid.

为什么Showing 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.

All four

提示Think how long a stretch of history the essay ranges over.

为什么So 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.

10 per cent

提示AQA says it works out at about twelve hours of teaching.

为什么It is examined by the last question of the British depth study, an essay worth sixteen marks.

Every year

提示Each exam series has its own.

为什么The 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.

function; design

提示One is what the place was for; the other is how it was planned to look and work.

为什么The 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 wider events and developments of the period

提示The place is evidence for the age it belongs to.

为什么A 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.

The country was peaceful enough for the rich to build for show, not for safety

提示Ask what its owner no longer feared.

为什么This 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.