History lessons
History: source skills, causation, change and continuity, interpretations, and essay technique that work across any period.
Key topics
- Source skills
- Causation & consequence
- Change & continuity
- Essay skills
- Depth-study skills
- Exam technique
Lesson course
Work through each lesson, run the interactive practice, and tick it off as you go.
1. Source skills
Skills
Using sources
Analyse content, origin, purpose and context.
Analyse sources for content, origin, purpose and context; provenance (who made it, when and why) affects reliability.
Analyse one source for provenance.
Reliability & utility
Judge how trustworthy and useful a source is.
Reliability asks how trustworthy a source is; utility asks how useful it is for a specific enquiry — a biased source can still be useful.
Assess one source's utility for an enquiry.
Comparing sources
Cross-reference sources.
Cross-reference sources, weighing where they agree and differ, supported by your own knowledge.
Cross-reference two sources on one event.
2. Causation & consequence
Concepts
Causes
Identify and rank causes.
Identify long-term and short-term causes and the trigger of an event, then rank their importance.
Sort causes into long-term, short-term and trigger.
Consequences
Distinguish types of consequence.
Distinguish short-term and long-term consequences of events and judge their significance.
Classify consequences as short- or long-term.
Significance
Judge historical significance.
Significance judges how important an event or person was — both at the time and in the longer term.
Judge the significance of one event.
3. Change & continuity
Concepts
Change over time
Track change and turning points.
Track how things changed across a period and identify turning points — moments of decisive change.
Identify the main turning point in a period.
Continuity
Identify what stayed the same.
Continuity is what stayed the same; analyse the pace and extent of change against continuity.
Compare the pace of change and continuity.
Interpretations
Explain why interpretations differ.
Historians interpret the past differently depending on the evidence available, their focus and their context.
Explain two reasons historians disagree.
4. Essay skills
Skills
Planning essays
Plan an argument-led essay.
Turn the question into an argument; plan balanced points with evidence that build to a clear judgement.
Plan a balanced essay with a judgement.
Using evidence
Support points with precise detail.
Support each point with precise factual detail — dates, names, figures — not vague generalisation.
Add precise evidence to one paragraph.
Reaching judgement
Weigh factors to conclude.
Weigh factors against each other and justify which mattered most to reach a supported judgement.
Write a conclusion weighing two factors.
5. Depth-study skills
Skills
Analysing a period
Build detailed period knowledge.
In a depth study, build detailed knowledge of the events, people and themes within a short period.
Summarise key events of a short period.
Key individuals
Assess the role of individuals.
Assess the role and impact of key individuals within the context of their time, avoiding hindsight.
Assess one individual's impact in context.
Themes & links
Link events thematically.
Link events thematically — politics, economy, society — to see the bigger picture across a period.
Connect three events under one theme.
6. Exam technique
Skills
Command words
Decode command words.
Decode command words (describe, explain, assess, 'how far') so you answer precisely what is asked.
Match command words to what they require.
Timing & structure
Manage time and structure answers.
Allocate time according to marks; structure answers with clear paragraphs (PEEL) and a conclusion.
Allocate exam time across questions by marks.
Mock exam
Sit and review a timed paper.
Sit a timed paper, then review it against the mark scheme by skill to target improvements.
Mark one answer against the mark scheme.
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