OCR A972 British Depth Study

So here are my top tips for the British Depth Study : -

1.  Be calm and relaxed, a panicky mind can make bad decisions.
2.  As the exam starts it is a good idea to spend the first 5 minutes looking at the exam paper.
3.  In these 5 mins you should study the sources carefully, especially the provenance, underlining key words, dates, names etc.
4.  It is also important to read through the ALL questions carefully before you start writing.  Again you should underline key words such as reliable/trustworthy, useful etc.
5.  You know have 85 mins left and you should leave 25 mins to answer the last 12 mark question.
6.  So in a 6 question exam you have 12 mins each for Qs 1-5.  In a 7 question exam you have only 10 mins each for Qs 1-6.
7.  Remember the difference between usefulness and reliability/trustworthiness.  Reliable sources tend NOT to be biased, whereas unreliable sources are biased to one particular view.  However unreliable and biased sources can be extremely useful to the historian.
8. For each and every answer you need to use both the content of the sources as well as your own knowledge.  YOU WILL LOSE MARKS IF YOU DON'T.
9.  Before you start you answer for the last question, you should have planned out which sources agree with the statement and which sources don't.  You need to use ALL the sources in this answer and the more detail from the sources you use to explain your judgement the better.  A good way to show you are using a written source is to quote parts of it in your answer where appropriate.  Your answer should be balanced (evaluates both sides of the question) and you need to write a detailed conclusion. This conclusion can include key words/phrases such as "on balance", "minority", "majority", "to a small extent", "to a large extent".
10.  You will also be marked out of 3 for spelling, punctuation and grammar on the last 12 mark question.  You will also be given up to 2 extra marks for the quality of your use of ALL the sources in the final answer.  You should finish WITH ONLY SECONDS TO SPARE.

Good luck

S.J. Emm

11.  Oh and remember you have worked really hard and you have performed really well in your other modules.  So be confident in your own ability to perform equally well in this exam and achieve NOT your target grade, but your challenge grade.