📚 AO1: Knowledge
Show knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the periods you studied. This is your facts: names, dates, events and details.
How the Exam Works » What Examiners Reward: Assessment Objectives and Levels
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Assessment objectives
- The four assessment objectives (AO1 to AO4) and what each one rewards
- How much each objective is worth, and which paper tests it
- The second-order concepts that History questions are built on
- How levels marking works, shown by improving one paragraph step by step
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Unlock This CourseThe four things examiners mark
Every mark in your History exam is given for one of four assessment objectives (AOs). They tell you what examiners are looking for, so they tell you what to practise.
Key terms:
- Assessment objective (AO): a skill that the exam rewards. Each question is marked for one or two of them.
- Second-order concept: an idea we use to ask questions about the past, such as cause or change.
- Level: a band of marks. Your answer is placed in the level that best fits it, then given a mark inside that level.
🧠 AO2: Explain and judge
Explain, analyse and make judgements about events and periods, using second-order concepts. This is what you do with your facts.
📜 AO3: Sources
Use a range of source material: understand it, interpret it and cross-refer it (compare one source with another).
💬 AO4: Interpretations
Analyse and evaluate interpretations, which are later views of the past, in the context of the events you studied.
How many marks each one is worth
The percentages are shares of your whole International GCSE.
📝 Paper 1
- AO1: 18%
- AO2: 22%
- AO3: 0%
- AO4: 10%
📄 Paper 2
- AO1: 16%
- AO2: 14%
- AO3: 15%
- AO4: 5%
Add the two papers together and you get AO1 34%, AO2 36%, AO3 15% and AO4 15%. Each paper adds up to 50%.
What the numbers tell you
AO1 and AO2 together are 70% of the whole qualification. Knowledge matters, but AO2 is the biggest single objective, so facts that are not explained earn far less than facts used to answer the question. Source skills (AO3) are only tested on Paper 2.
Second-order concepts
AO2 questions are built on a small set of concepts. If you can spot which one a question is asking about, you know what kind of explanation to write.
- Cause: why something happened.
- Consequence: what happened as a result, also called an effect.
- Change: how things became different over time.
- Continuity: what stayed the same.
- Significance: how much something mattered, and to whom.
- Similarity and difference: how two periods, people or events compare.
How levels marking works
Your answers are marked by levels, not by ticking off points. Examiners read the whole answer and decide which level it fits best. In plain words, as you move up:
- Bottom level: simple statements. Some may be true, but they are general and nothing is explained.
- Middle level: some explanation, backed by accurate, specific facts.
- Top level: developed, sustained explanation that stays on the question and shows how one thing led to another. On the long essays, you also reach a clear judgement and say why it is the right one.
The 6-mark questions have three levels (1-2, 3-4, 5-6). The 8-mark questions also have three levels (1-2, 3-5, 6-8). The 16-mark questions have four levels (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16).
Worked example: one paragraph, three levels
The Great Depression in Germany, 1929-32, is used here only as an example. You may never study it, so here is a fact file.
Fact file: the Great Depression in Germany
- In the 1920s, German businesses relied on loans from the USA.
- After the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, American lenders called in those loans.
- Industrial production in Germany fell by about 40% between 1929 and 1932.
- Unemployment rose from about 1.3 million in September 1929 to just over 6 million in early 1932.
- In March 1930 the government of Hermann Müller resigned after its parties could not agree how to pay for unemployment insurance.
- The Nazi Party won 12 seats in 1928, 107 in September 1930 and 230 in July 1932.
Here is one paragraph about one effect of the Great Depression on Germany. In the real (b) question you need two such paragraphs, but first look at how a single paragraph gets better.
Level 1: simple statement
The Depression was very bad for Germany. Lots of people lost their jobs and life was hard for everyone.
What lifts it
This is true but general. It names no figures, dates or details, and it does not explain anything. Add specific facts.
Level 2: specific facts
One effect was unemployment. It rose from about 1.3 million in September 1929 to just over 6 million in early 1932. Industrial production also fell by about 40%.
What lifts it
Now the facts are accurate and precise. But the paragraph only lists them. It does not show how the Depression produced the effect. Add the link.
Level 3: developed explanation
One effect was mass unemployment. German businesses had relied on American loans, and after the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 the lenders called them in. Firms no longer had the money to carry on, so industrial production fell by about 40% and they sacked workers. As a result, unemployment rose from about 1.3 million in September 1929 to just over 6 million in early 1932.
Why it works
The paragraph names the effect, gives precise evidence, and connects the cause (loans called in) to the effect step by step. Each sentence leads to the next.
Common mistakes
- Writing a list of facts and hoping the examiner joins them up. They will not. You must explain.
- Describing the event instead of the effect. "The Crash happened in 1929" is not an effect.
- Giving only one effect when the question says two. That caps the answer at half marks.
- On a 16-mark essay, using only the two bullet prompts. Add a point of your own, or you cannot reach the top level.
Exam-style question
This is a Paper 1 (b) question, worth 8 marks (AO1 and AO2). Use the fact file above.
Explain TWO effects of the Great Depression on Germany. [8 marks]
Model answer
One effect was mass unemployment. German businesses had relied on American loans, and after the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 the lenders called them in. Firms no longer had the money to carry on, so industrial production fell by about 40% and workers were sacked. As a result, unemployment rose from about 1.3 million in September 1929 to just over 6 million in early 1932.
A second effect was political. Unemployment split the government. In March 1930 Hermann Müller's coalition resigned after its parties could not agree how to pay for unemployment insurance, so the political system was weakened just as the crisis grew. Many frightened voters turned to extreme parties that promised answers, and the Nazi Party rose from 12 seats in 1928 to 107 in September 1930, and then to 230 in July 1932.
Exam tip
For an "Explain TWO effects" question, write two paragraphs. In each, name the effect, give precise evidence, then show how the event led to it. Use the words "so", "because" and "as a result" to link your steps.