Britain, 1951 - 2007
BRITAIN 1945–2007
Answering Questions at AS Level
When you are preparing for the AS examination, remember that you will be asked to engage in extended writing. For AQA and Edexcel, you will be expected to produce an answer that evaluate sources and also produce answers that incorporate your own knowledge. For OCR A, you will be expected to produce an essay-style answer based on your own knowledge.
The differences and similarities between GCSE and AS History are explained on pages 4 and 5 of your Britain 1945–2007 textbook.
Here are three examples of AS examination questions, one each in the style of Edexcel, AQA and OCR A.
In each case, an example answer is given. Within the body of the answer, there are comments that highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the answer.
At the end of each answer a mark is awarded.
Edexcel
Unit 2
E1 British Political History 1945–1990: Consensus and Conflict
The examination time is 1 hour 20 minutes.
Study Sources 1–6.
Answer Question 1, parts (a) and (b).
Source 1
The 5.6% national swing from Labour to the Conservatives was the largest achieved by either party since 1945. The biggest swing was among skilled workers. These were precisely the people we had to win over from their lifelong socialist allegiances. They were confronted by the fundamental dilemma which faced Britain as a whole: whether to accept an ever greater role for government in the life of the nation, or to break free in a new direction.
From Path to Power by Margaret Thatcher, published in 1995. This was part of Mrs Thatcher’s memoirs
Source 2
The Conservative victory of 1979 was won against a background of a decade of recession in which materialistic expectations were disappointed, and in four years out of ten, average real living standards did not rise at all. Labour suffered a massive haemorrhage of working class votes. Labour’s policies were out of tune with the aspiration of a significant section of its natural
Answering Questions at AS Level
When you are preparing for the AS examination, remember that you will be asked to engage in extended writing. For AQA and Edexcel, you will be expected to produce an answer that evaluate sources and also produce answers that incorporate your own knowledge. For OCR A, you will be expected to produce an essay-style answer based on your own knowledge.
The differences and similarities between GCSE and AS History are explained on pages 4 and 5 of your Britain 1945–2007 textbook.
Here are three examples of AS examination questions, one each in the style of Edexcel, AQA and OCR A.
In each case, an example answer is given. Within the body of the answer, there are comments that highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the answer.
At the end of each answer a mark is awarded.
Edexcel
Unit 2
E1 British Political History 1945–1990: Consensus and Conflict
The examination time is 1 hour 20 minutes.
Study Sources 1–6.
Answer Question 1, parts (a) and (b).
Source 1
The 5.6% national swing from Labour to the Conservatives was the largest achieved by either party since 1945. The biggest swing was among skilled workers. These were precisely the people we had to win over from their lifelong socialist allegiances. They were confronted by the fundamental dilemma which faced Britain as a whole: whether to accept an ever greater role for government in the life of the nation, or to break free in a new direction.
From Path to Power by Margaret Thatcher, published in 1995. This was part of Mrs Thatcher’s memoirs
Source 2
The Conservative victory of 1979 was won against a background of a decade of recession in which materialistic expectations were disappointed, and in four years out of ten, average real living standards did not rise at all. Labour suffered a massive haemorrhage of working class votes. Labour’s policies were out of tune with the aspiration of a significant section of its natural