How to Answer Structure Questions?
Section A of the Structured Questions paper examines the Core Content and consists of
structured essay questions.
Structured essay questions usually have a similar structure and require you to describe, explain
and reach a supported judgement.
Description means giving an account from your own knowledge.
Explanation means using your own knowledge to- explain why or how something
happened.
A supported judgement means your own opinion about something based on relevant
contextual knowledge. It is important to be balanced - i.e. to examine different points of
view before reaching a judgement.
The tasks in this book will have developed the skills and knowledge for you to do all these
things.
Section A questions usually have a similar structure: You are given a simple statement -
however, you are not asked questions on this; it is simply intended to focus your thinking.
Then there are three sub-questions testing different skills:
a) A knowledge or description question. This will often begin 'describe' or 'what'.
b) An explanation question. This will begin with 'why'.
c) A judgement question. One common type of question gives you a statement to agree
or disagree with. You need to make a judgement and back up your judgement with
evidence and argument.
For example:
a) What were Germany's main territorial losses under the Treaty of Versailles?
b) Why did Clemenceau and Lloyd George disagree about how to treat Germany at the
Paris Peace Conference?
c) 'The Treaty of Versailles was a fair settlement.' How far do you agree with this
statement? Explain your answer.
The information in this section is based on the Cambridge The inftional syllabus. You should
always refer to the appropriate syllabus document for the year of examination appronfirm the
details and for more information. The syllabus to coment is available on the Cambridge
International website at www.cambridgeinternational.org.
Think before you write
It is a common mistake for students to launch straight into writing as soon as they see the
question, but our advice is that you spend some time thinking before you do so.
1. Choose your question carefully
Read all questions carefully before you decide which to answer. You should have revised
enough to give you a choice of questions, but don't immediately opt for your favourite topic.
Sometimes your less favoured topic might have a question which is easier to answer or which
suits you better.
2. Read the questions carefully
This might sound obvious but there is a skill to it.
Look for command words such as 'describe' or 'explain' which let you know what type of skills
you have to use.
■ Identify the topic and the sub-topic. Questions will often focus on an event, individual or
historical issue. Look for dates. If dates are given they will be important.
3 Plan your answer
If you think through your answer first, then writing it is easy. If you skip the thinking and just
start writing, the risks are:
■Your writing will be muddled.
You will write in an illogical order.
Your points won't lead to your conclusion.
Even more likely, you will keep thinking of something more to say and will run out of time.
4 Plan your time
Running out of time is not unlucky, it is a mistake! The marks for each sub-questlucky it yours to
how long to spend.
Common errors
1. Writing too much for a four mark questions (a)- this will waste time
2. For 'Why' questions, trying to describe the incidents: Please focus to the question
3. For Judgemental Questions: to only give your own view without considering another or
giving it little or no explanation.
Never use words like B/C, B/n ...
