Assessment and exam practice.

Try this with History Extension

1. Check the task format, time limit and permitted materials with your school.
2. Start with one timed section or task and record where you spent the most time.
3. Review errors before attempting another section. Separate missing knowledge from timing problems.

View History Extension resources on ATARMAXXING ↗

Practice paper focus areas

• Exam 1 — Section I: History as science or literary art (How has history been constructed?); Section I: two unseen passages (A and B) plus at least ONE other source; Section II: how the contexts of historians shape interpretations (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 2 — Section I: Truth and objectivity: can historians be certain about the past?; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: new evidence and changing interpretations (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 3 — Section I: The use and misuse of history (What are the purposes of history?); Section I: one unseen passage plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: the purposes of historians (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 4 — Section I: Who are historians? Academic and popular producers; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: the influence of the form of communication (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 5 — Section I: Changing technology and digital history; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: historians' methods (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 6 — Section I: Causation in history; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: the weighting of different kinds of evidence (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 7 — Section I: Changing philosophies of history; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: ideology and interpretation (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 8 — Section I: History as a source of lessons (the role of history); Section I: one unseen passage plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: the use of the past in later politics (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 9 — Section I: Ancient producers of history and their legacy; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: ancient versus modern historians (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 10 — Section I: The availability of evidence: silences and marginalised voices; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: recovering the perspectives of the colonised (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 11 — Section I: Changing audiences and consumers of history; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: popular versus academic interpretations (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 12 — Section I: Postmodernism and its critics; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: how certain historians can be (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 13 — Section I: Types of history: microhistory and macrohistory; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: the scale of historical inquiry (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 14 — Section I: Identity of historians: values, beliefs, gender, class, ethnicity; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: historians' identities and political allegiances (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 15 — Section I: History, the state and political legitimacy; Section I: one unseen passage plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: politicisation of interpretation (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 16 — Section I: Counterfactual history and determinism; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: the role of individuals in interpretations (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 17 — Section I: Memory, oral history and testimony; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: memory, trauma and commemoration (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 18 — Section I: Revision and historiographical debate; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least ONE other source; Section II: myth-making and revisionism (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 19 — Section I: Science, interdisciplinary methods and new evidence; Section I: two unseen passages plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: new technologies and changing interpretations (at least ONE area of debate)
• Exam 20 — Section I: Whether history can ever be finished; Section I: one unseen passage plus at least TWO other sources; Section II: definitions and terminology in historical debate (at least ONE area of debate)