This summer some students will be assessed for the old A Level, by linear format or modular format, some will be assessed for the new AS modular exam. The main variation will be the amount of one or two years’ work that will be assessed in the summer. If the exam specifications are modular, is exam preparation and good answer production easier? Are the principles and procedures for effective preparation different to linear exam preparation? The only way that preparation for modular exams is easier is the reduced extent of content that will be assessed. The key is to master the module topic really thoroughly, in great detail, and to practice the skills and answer techniques required.

However high your grades for your course work you now need to learn - so that you can answer exam questions quickly to make good use of the limited exam time. You will be aware that there is more content for an advanced History course than in earlier courses you took, and because of this you didn’t need to develop exam skills to a great extent before you began advanced History. By a few procedures, carefully undertaken, you can become an effective performer and achiever just as an athlete, by a programme of training, can prepare for high performance in a competition.

There is no such thing as a person with a bad memory. Have you ever wondered why you can remember some occasion when you were very young, years and years ago, but cannot remember something from last week. If you understand how this can happen you will know how to be a skilled learner with a powerful memory. Your very early memories are of occasions which were very important or particularly interesting to you. If you achieve the same mind-set with your History learning, you will be an effective student. One good way to increase interest is to discuss your work with a friend. If she/he is a History student both the speaker and the listener benefit. See The Good History Students’ Handbook, Sempringham, 1993, pp 66-7 for more details.

Write a summary of all your information for a topic on two sides of A4. Write, in summary form, both information (facts, events, dates) and ideas and explanations. Give prominence and emphasis to key points by the way you lay out your notes.

If you try to remember notes on a topic by just reading them, you will find you gain little reward for the time you put in. The key is to be active. Pick out the six key points from one of your sides of A4 and memorise them. To do this use the 3Rs: Read the six points; Repeat them several times by speaking or writing them; Recall, that is, write them from memory to test they are remembered. The trying to remember fixes information in your mind. When the six are securely remembered choose one or two points between the ones already remembered and repeat the process. You have now memorised about 18 points from your revision page. The remaining information and ideas you will remember by their association and relationship with the 18 or so remembered core points. History students are helped because events are in sequence, connected to one another.

To be effective with learning follow a sequence for any topic. Learn on, say, Monday (day 1); repeat the same learning on Wednesday (day 3) - it will take less time - and again the following Thursday (day 11). You will now have a firm foundation of information and you will be able to use this to answer a question in exam conditions. If you forget details of the information you learned with your summary sheets, look up your notes: because you have learned the core information the details will stick in your mind.

If you have exams in June you have 10 or so weeks left for revision. It is not too early to begin your consolidation and revision programme now. This will give you time for two cycles of revision. Your programme should be planned so that learning is completed before your first exam in any subject - because learning is arguably the hardest study task and will be out of the way before you give most effort to sitting your exams. Even if your aim to finish revision and learning before the first exam is not fulfilled you will have achieved more than if you drift towards June with weeks wasted and little achieved. Your self-directed programme should initially include at least one topic for each of your advanced subjects per week and time allowed for holidays, weekends off, etc. and continued work for your teachers. As you become more efficient you will be able to increase the amount you achieve per week. As advanced students it is for you to take control and responsibility, and even if you slip behind with your programme you will still have time during the examination period to make good gaps you left. The rest of the time will be free for relaxation and genuine revision - that is, looking at your summary sheets and skeleton answers again.

Once a topic is learned find time to apply it to past questions. With the new AS/A exam taught since September 2000 this will not be easy but your teachers will help with specimen papers and other questions to guide you. The questions you will have in your June papers will be very similar, but seldom identical, to past questions. Well prepared candidates are never surprised by their exam question papers. Not withstanding the new exam, that relates to some of you, overall questions from the past three, four or five years are the surest guide to the questions you will have on exam day (unless there has been substantial syllabus change). So find past papers and apply your considered and learned topic to these past questions in the way outlined in the answer preparation section outlined later in these pages.

The comments on essay questions that follow apply to structured questions. There are, in addition, particular points to bear in mind with structured questions. (a) Note the allocation of marks for each part of the question. Use the marks as a guide to the length of answer required and the time to spend on it. (b) Take great care to notice the exact wording of the question so that you refer to the correct sources and answer what is asked. (c) Read the sources with care: you will have enough time for this and unhurried reading will be repaid by a more accurate answer. (d) If a question asks you to write with reference to sources and your own knowledge be sure to draw on anything you have studied for your answer. (e) Plan answers to the latter question(s), which carry over half the marks, in the way you would plan an essay answer.

In general terms, there are four types of question.

A Description questions which require you to narrate (describe) the history, i.e. the events.

B ‘How far …?’ and ‘To what extent …?’ questions.

C ‘Why? …’ questions that require you to give reasons, influences, factors or causes.

D ‘Discuss …’ questions which ask you to discuss a statement or quotation.

Now look at these questions. To which of the four types does each of the following questions belong?

1 Why was there so little opposition to Hitler’s regime, 1933-41?

2 Was Italian Fascism anything more than a cloak for Mussolini’s personal dictatorship?

3 ‘Distrust between the USSR and the Western powers was the single most important factor in bringing about the outbreak of war in 1939.’ Discuss.

4 How far were the Liberal governments, 1906-1914, the ‘true heirs’ of ‘Gladstonian Liberalism’?

5 How complete was Hitler’s control of the Third Reich?

6 Discuss the career and achievements of MacDonald.

Question 1 is type C; 2 is mostly type B but partly type A; 3 is not type D but type B; 4 is type B; 5 is a mix of types A and B; 6 is type D.

Type D is the hardest question to organise an answer to because the question gives no help with the content for an answer. Type B may look difficult but if you have identified the main influences, you need only decide which is the more important, give more space to that in your answer, and also mention the less important influences. The influences provide the themes of your paragraphs. Type C questions are, seemingly, more straightforward but take care to add information to support or illustrate your reasons, etc. Types A and D require you to arrange your paragraphs in order of importance of influence.

The greatest reason why students do not gain as good a reward as they should deserve for their answers is that part or much of their answers is irrelevant to the questions asked. So before you plan and write an answer take care to understand the question that is asked. This is how to do it.

Underline the key words and rephrase the question in your own words so that you understand its meaning. Keep this meaning in your mind all the time as you scribble the key ideas and information that are relevant to a longer answer that carries more marks. Review your rough notes and decide on a conclusion or theme to your answer: now order your ideas to effectively support your conclusion or theme. Congratulations! You have prepared your answer and are free to concentrate on writing it clearly. This is the procedure for a course essay. It is exactly the same for an exam answer except you have to rely on your memory for ideas, arguments and information (but see the ‘answer planning and revision’ section on the next page) and you will have limited time in which to write it.

With your essay plan structure your answer, that is put in the order for greatest effect. Summarise your argument or theme by a short introduction. Readers will, thereby, know straight away where your answer will lead. Aim to have only one idea or argument in each paragraph and write that idea or argument in the first sentence of the paragraph, but the paragraph will not be just one sentence in length because after your idea or argument add the history, the events, which support or illustrate your idea or argument. Repeat this with all your paragraphs and put the stronger arguments before the less strong. With some answers you may need to have paragraphs with arguments that amend earlier points you made - history answers are often in ‘shades of grey’.

An answer writer can be likened to a lawyer in a trial. The lawyer must master the case (understand it and have all the details) and present it in an ordered and tellingly persuasive way. Even a weak case persuasively presented and supported by evidence can ‘win’ against a stronger case poorly presented and poorly expressed. Examiners expect answers in formal English: this is not the way we talk day to day. Here are a few simple rules to follow. Don’t use slang or colloquialisms (such as ‘Gladstone lost out at the 1874 election’, write ‘Gladstone was defeated …’), aim to use active verbs (such as ‘Hitler was supported by …’ rather than ‘Hitler was getting support from …’), write in sensible length sentences with capital letters in the correct place - at the start of sentences and for names and don’t use contractions (such as ‘don’t’, write ‘do not’ … [this is not a formal essay if you think the writer a hypocrite]).

As mentioned earlier, when you have consolidated and learned a topic apply that to past questions. Analyse the question and write skeleton answers (they are much quicker than answers in longhand) to several questions. Thereby you will have prepared conclusions, themes and arguments and you will have listed key, telling, evidence (events, facts …) which support your conclusions and arguments. Thereby you gain answer-writing practice. In your timed and busy period in the examination room you need only modify and apply pre-thought out arguments, ideas and judgements to the exam questions you are asked.

Examiners look for four features in exam answers. Argument or theme focused to the question; evidence to support the argument; clear and persuasive expression and understanding of the topic. Your understanding of your period of history will have increased throughout your course and it is implied by how you think and write about the period. Discussion, in class or with friends, can help a great deal to extend your understanding. And remember, your English should be correct, clear and persuasive to the reader. Month by month, during the course, your English expression will improve. Take care to make your argument clear (but not exaggerated) and choose your words with care.

Skills required with document questions are separate from core course work skills and you will have practised these with your teachers but a few points can- not be made too often. It is a mistake to assume that source-based questions are easier. Success with these questions require a thorough knowledge and understanding of the whole topic and particular care with the wording of the questions. Note, in particular:

Context. Place the source in the context of what happened before and the events which occurred afterwards.

Understanding. You do need to know the meaning of the key ideas, words and phrases.

Comparison of two or more documents may be required. Have a check list of questions to ask of the document in order to develop an answer. Do the documents contradict each other? If so, how far, and in what ways? Do they support one another? Are there inconsistencies within a document?

Evaluation. This is a more demanding task and it will be based on an assessment of authorship, bias, extent of information/misinformation and degree of corroboration. Successful evaluation is possible only with some knowledge of the author, the history of the document, the purpose of the document when written and some appreciation of its language and tone.

So good luck with your exam preparation and when you tackle the question papers, especially if you are in the final year - not that you will need much luck if you have completed a fair amount of the programme outlined here.