Hi ATAR Notes,
I wanted to practise answering some short answer questions for Ancient History and got a little confused as to how many sources to include depending on the amount of marks the question is worth... Do you have to include any sources for a 3 mark or 4 mark question? And for 6 markers and 8 markers, how many sources do you need?
Thanks
Hi there!
This is an excellent question and it was something I struggled with a lot during my HSC! I think this kind of thing is intuitive and totally depends on the question. For example, a Core question could ask you to specifically use two/three/four sources or it could also ask you to use one and your own knowledge, which obviously require different amounts of sources.
Generally speaking, a 3 marker requires you to make three points and a 4 marker requires four, etc. Each time you make a new point you need a source to back it up. That being said, you can also use the same source to make several points. In addition, you could also use a source to corroborate another which obviously leads to more sources being used but not necessarily more points being proven.
Honestly, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but there is no exact formula for Ancient History as the questions can vary greatly. Just make sure that for each new point you use at least one source and you should be fine! Try doing a few more short answer questions and get a feel of where you could possibly put them in.
Feel free to send me a practice response and I can review it for you and suggest where I'd put in the sources.
Darcy