- Define and explain Sources in Exam Answers in your own words
- Use key terms such as Secondary source accurately
- Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
- Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic
This lesson focuses on Sources in Exam Answers: how to quote, compare and evaluate sources in GCSE answers.
How to quote, compare and evaluate sources in GCSE answers.
Key ideas
Strong answers weigh sources
In exams, top answers do more than describe sources: they compare them, note agreements and disagreements, and judge usefulness using provenance. Saying 'Source A is useful because it is a primary source' is weak; saying 'Source A is useful for showing X, but limited because...' is strong.
Every source has a maker
A source was created by a real person with reasons of their own: to persuade, to record, to celebrate, to complain. A government poster and a soldier's diary describe the same war very differently because their purposes differ. Always ask: who made this, and why?
Key term — Secondary source: An account made later, using primary sources — for example, a modern textbook about the Victorians.
Improve this sentence: 'Source A is useful because it is primary.'.
For example: 'Source A is useful for showing soldiers' daily conditions because it is a diary written at the front, but limited because one soldier's experience may not be typical.'.
Answer: For example: 'Source A is useful for showing soldiers' daily conditions because it is a diary written at the front, but limited because one soldier's experience may not be typical.'.
- Writing 'the source is biased so it is useless' Bias does not make a source useless. Explain what the bias reveals and what the source cannot show, instead of dismissing it.
- Calling every old source a primary source A primary source must come from the time studied. A 1990s documentary about the Victorians is secondary, however old it looks.
Practice
A primary source comes from the time studied; a secondary source is made later, using primary sources.
Who made the source, when and where — its origin.
It was made to persuade people to one side, e.g. propaganda or a campaign leaflet.
Purpose shapes content: a recruitment poster persuades while a diary records, so the same event looks different in each.
Quick check
Which of these best defines "Secondary source"?
A suffragette newspaper supports votes for women. Is it useless to a historian?
- Sources in Exam Answers: how to quote, compare and evaluate sources in GCSE answers.
- Strong answers weigh sources: In exams, top answers do more than describe sources: they compare them, note agreements and disagreements, and judge usefulness using provenance.
- Primary source: Material from the time being studied, such as a letter written in 1916 or a photograph of a Victorian street.
- Watch out for: writing 'the source is biased so it is useless'