GCE O/L History case studies
GCE O/L History · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The GCE Ordinary Level History examination is a school-leaving subject examination taken by Sri Lankan students at the end of their junior secondary years, and it also matters to private candidates, repeat candidates and anyone whose higher-level subject choices depend on a solid O/L record. It is a subject examination, not a professional licence: it demonstrates that you can recall, organise and interpret historical material across Sri Lankan and world history. The GCE O/L History case studies are 5 cases and about 2,321 words.
1The Koravala Tank: Chronicle, Inscription and Survey
A candidate is asked to judge a claim that a third-century BCE king built the Koravala irrigation tank. The workbook supplies three items.
501 words, about 3 min2The 1918 Port Petition: Blaming 'Outside Agitators'
In a Ceylon port town in 1918, a crowd attacked 26 liquor shops after a rice price rise. The governor receives a petition signed by 18 merchants.
473 words, about 2 min3The 1956 Language Bill: Election Results and Intent
A candidate studies a 1956 election in Ceylon. The governing coalition campaigned on making Sinhala the sole official language.
435 words, about 2 min4The 1942 Recruitment Poster and the Censored Letter
In a British colony in Asia in 1942, a recruitment poster claims: 'Thousands have volunteered; the army pays 30 rupees a month and feeds every soldier.' A letter from a recruit to his brother, passed by a censor, says: 'We are 40 in a hut built for 25; two meals of rice and dhal; pay is 22 rupees after deductions.' A district officer's report notes 1,200 enlisted from the district, but 180 desertions in three months and a labour shortage on rubber estates. The candidate must judge whether the poster or the letter is more reliable about conditions, and what the desertion figure adds.
435 words, about 2 min5Dating the Abandonment of a Hill Capital
A candidate is asked to date the abandonment of a dry-zone hill capital. Source A is a chronicle compiled about 200 years later: 'In the year of the great drought, the king abandoned the city and went to the coast.' Source B is a coin hoard from a house floor: the latest coin is dated 1214.
477 words, about 2 min