Humanities and Social Sciences (History, Geography, Economics)
STPM History, Geography and Economics test explanation, source or data use, and structured argument. You are expected to move beyond narrative: History asks for causation and source evaluation, Geography for spatial patterns and fieldwork, Economics for diagrammatic and numerical reasoning.
Core methods
- History: establish chronology, distinguish long- and short-term causes, and evaluate a source's provenance and purpose.
- Geography: read maps and graphs with scale and units; link physical processes to human responses; use case studies.
- Economics: use demand and supply diagrams; distinguish movements along a curve from shifts; calculate elasticity and multipliers; evaluate policy with costs and benefits.
Worked example
A product's price rises from RM10 to RM12 and quantity demanded falls from 100 to 80 units. Calculate price elasticity of demand. Percentage change in quantity = (80 − 100)/100 × 100 = −20%. Percentage change in price = (12 − 10)/10 × 100 = +20%. PED = −20%/20% = −1. Demand is unit elastic. The reasoning mark is for using the initial values and interpreting the negative sign as the inverse relationship, not as a mistake.
Traps
Confusing a shift of the demand curve with a movement along it; ignoring the sign of elasticity; in History, judging a source only by its date; in Geography, misreading scale or mixing units; writing all you know instead of answering the directive word.