Social Science: History and Geography of Kiribati
What the paper tests
Social Science combines History and Geography. It tests chronology, cause and consequence, source evaluation, map skills, and understanding of Kiribati's atoll environment and Pacific connections.
Core rules
- History: distinguish long-term causes from triggers; a consequence is what follows, not what preceded.
- Source questions: comment on origin, purpose, audience and reliability, not just content.
- Geography: atolls are low-lying coral islands with a freshwater lens; map scale converts map distance to real distance.
- Use specific place names: Banaba (Ocean Island), Tarawa, and the Gilbert Islands are not interchangeable.
Worked example
A map has scale 1:25,000. A road measures 6 cm on the map. Real distance = 6 x 25,000 cm = 150,000 cm. Convert to metres by dividing by 100: 1,500 m. Convert to kilometres by dividing by 1,000: 1.5 km. The reasoning is to multiply by the scale factor first, then convert units in a clear chain.
Traps
- Calling a trigger a cause, or listing events without linking them.
- Confusing Banaba with Tarawa.
- Forgetting to convert centimetres to kilometres.
- Describing what a map shows instead of explaining it.
- Treating a source as automatically reliable because it is old.