Assessment and exam practice.

Try this with Modern History

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 Modern History resources on ATARMAXXING ↗

Practice paper focus areas

• Exam 1 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): a historian's verdict that a single crisis (war, defeat or depression) was the main driver of change — test it against other drivers; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): internal divisions versus external threats — which shaped the nation more?; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): ideology as the main cause and sustaining force of the Cold War
• Exam 2 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): whether change left the nation stronger or weaker by the end of the chosen period; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): whether the nation's challenges were mainly of its own making; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the Revisionist interpretation of origins and course
• Exam 3 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): ideology as the chief driver of change versus economic and social pressures; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the role and impact of at least two significant individuals and/or groups; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the orthodox (traditionalist) interpretation tested against three incidents
• Exam 4 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): the experiences of different groups (workers, women, minorities, rural people) as the measure of change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): how ideology and the political system shaped responses to threats; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): post-revisionism as the most convincing account of origins
• Exam 5 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): the role and impact of leaders: did individuals drive change or ride it?; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): nationalism as both a unifying force and a source of internal division; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the Cold War as a fluid, evolving contest rather than a fixed structure
• Exam 6 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): continuity versus change: how much really changed for ordinary people?; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the consequences of the nation's responses to its challenges; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): security fears rather than ideology as the driver of Soviet policy
• Exam 7 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): economic crisis as the engine of political change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): a leader's impact versus the external threats of the period; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the role of individual leaders in starting and ending the Cold War
• Exam 8 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): how far governments managed the significant divisions within society; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): whether responses to threats were inevitable given history and culture; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the Global Cold War: the Third World and proxy conflicts
• Exam 9 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): war (WWI legacy or WWII) as the decisive driver of social, economic and political change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the success of the nation in meeting its internal and external challenges; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): nuclear weapons and the 'long peace' interpretation
• Exam 10 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): a contemporary's promise or slogan judged against what the period delivered; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): how external threats intensified internal divisions (and vice versa); Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): economic power and the Western 'victory'
• Exam 11 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): the nature of the political system (democracy or totalitarianism) and how it shaped change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): economic weakness as an internal threat to stability; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): détente as an interlude or a turning point
• Exam 12 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): nationalism and national identity as drivers of change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the Cold War superpowers as external threats or opportunities; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): Europe (Germany and Berlin) as the centre of the Cold War
• Exam 13 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): the gap between official aims and real outcomes of key policies; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): minority, religious or regional divisions as threats to national unity; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the Cold War as an imperial contest between two empires
• Exam 14 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): fear (of communism, of disorder, of enemies) as a driver of change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the military's role in responding to internal and external threats; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): how archival openings after 1991 changed interpretations
• Exam 15 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): the impact of change on the relationship between state and citizen; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): a constructed statement that strategic location made external threats decisive; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): Australia's Cold War: alliance, Maralinga and Vietnam
• Exam 16 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): whether economic modernisation came at too high a social cost; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): what leaders could have done differently, judged against the evidence; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the end of the Cold War: Reagan's pressure or Gorbachev's reforms?
• Exam 17 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): a newspaper or propaganda stimulus read critically as evidence of drivers of change; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the relative significance of the most serious internal threat; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): Asia as a Cold War battleground: Korea, China and Vietnam
• Exam 18 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): the relative significance of social, economic and political change — which mattered most?; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): how colonial legacies shaped later internal divisions and external threats; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): miscalculation and mutual misperception as the cause of crises
• Exam 19 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): turning points: identify and justify the most significant turning point in the chosen period; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): the balance between repression and reform in meeting internal threats; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): the Cold War as a contest of systems and ways of life
• Exam 20 — Section A Q1–Q4 (USA, Australia, Germany, Russia/USSR; earlier OR later period): an interpretation that the period's change was more apparent than real; Section B Q5–Q8 (Japan, India, Indonesia, China; earlier OR later period): a constructed claim that internal chaos had far more impact than external threats; Section C Q9 The Cold War (origins plus at least three specific incidents, named historians): whether the Cold War was inevitable after 1945