Short Answer Responses

Short Answer Responses for Ancient History

Short answer responses are undoubtedly a major part of any HSC Ancient History assessment task or exam. While essay questions are the ones which are worth the bulk of the marks, nailing short answers will go a long way to you gaining that extra few marks.

Step 1: Pay Close Attention to the Key Verb

This is something that is overlooked by many HSC Ancient History students. It’s natural to skim-read a question when under exam pressure, but by doing so you’re placing yourself at a massive disadvantage. The key verb provides you with valuable information on how to answer a question. It tells you in what form you structure the response and how detailed the response should be.

HSC VERBS

Identify: you must simply state. No explanation or detail needed for identify questions

Describe: you must go through the main features and characteristics of a particular thing. Often used in questions where there are ancient buildings or artefacts involved. Since there are many buildings and artefacts in the course, you’ll see this key verb a lot!

Compare: you must analyse both sides of an argument and highlight the similarities and differences. A table is a great way to answer compare questions

Explain / Outline: you must analyse thoroughly and put in a fair amount of detail into the answer. Be as thorough as you can.

Assess / evaluate: requires a detailed response but more importantly, you must make a judgement at the end of it. If you do not, you’ll lose marks as the question isn’t answered

Step 2: Use of Given Sources in the Response

Sources are to HSC Ancient History what techniques are to English. The use of sources is absolutely vital in HSC Ancient History and they must be highlighted and used effectively. You must ensure that you extensively use the source specified by the question. No matter how knowledgeable you might be on the topic, never make the mistake of neglecting the given source.

For example, consider the following question :

“Outline the purposes of amphitheatres in Ancient Rome. Refer to Source A and your own knowledge of specific buildings.”

As you can see, the question specifically states that you must refer to Source A. This is independent from your “own knowledge”, which could include other sources.

There is also a specific way to introduce the given source.

Introduce the given source first and foremost. Also provide a description of what is actually in source A.

Examples:

“…as shown by Source A . . . "

"Source A shows an image of the amphitheatre in Rome known as the Colosseum . . . "

Using the given source(s) effectively is vital to getting full marks in an HSC Ancient History response.

Step 3: Use Your Own Knowledge

As stated, you must pay attention and give respect to the given sources. They’re there for a reason and must be analysed as much as possible. For questions that require you to also use your own knowledge, use any other source(s) that you think will contribute to the response and add in relevant historical facts and/or information.

Note that not all questions require you to use your own knowledge. Some questions purely just need you to answer using just the given source.

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