School-based Assessment: SACs, Source Analysis and the Essay
What this domain demands
School-based assessment in Units 3 and 4 tests whether you can apply historical skills under timed conditions. You will typically face source-analysis tasks and extended-response essays. Success depends on understanding what each task type rewards: source analysis rewards close reading and evaluation; essays reward a sustained, evidenced argument.
Concepts to master
- Source evaluation: identify the source type, author, date, audience and purpose before judging reliability.
- Corroboration: compare sources to detect agreement, tension or silence.
- Essay structure: introduction stating a clear contention, body paragraphs with evidence, conclusion that resolves the proposition.
- Command words: 'evaluate', 'to what extent', 'analyse' and 'discuss' each demand different treatment.
Traps in questions
- Describing instead of evaluating - saying what a source says without assessing its value or limits.
- Ignoring provenance - missing that a propaganda poster, memoir or official report has a purpose shaping its content.
- Unbalanced essays - spending three paragraphs on one side and one sentence on the other.
- Vague evidence - using 'many people' or 'the government' instead of named policies, dates and figures.
- Misreading command words - treating 'to what extent' as a simple yes/no question.
Worked example
Given a 1917 conscription referendum pamphlet, a strong answer notes its origin (a campaign body), purpose (to persuade voters), value (reveals the rhetoric and anxieties of the debate) and limitation (not evidence of actual voting behaviour or of the opposing case). It then corroborates against a contrasting source to reach a judgement.
Rule of thumb
For every source, ask 'Who made this, why, for whom, and what does it leave out?' - then link that judgement explicitly back to the question asked.