Year 12 Modern - Exam Advice

Modern History will have their next major assessment on Tuesday afternoon, in the double. The format will be as follows:

Time Allowed: 70 minutes

Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes)
Essay question on Conflict in Europe, using 'assess' or 'evaluate'.

Assess = make a judgement of value
Explain = make a judgement based on criteria

So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the background to WW2. You should definitely revise the following points:

• the dictatorships in Italy and Germany
• the foreign policy actions of Mussolini (e.g. Abyssinia) and Hitler (LA-SCRAMCUP - League of Nations, Austrian coup, Saar plebiscite, Conscription, Rearmament, Anschluss, Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, USSR-Nazi Pact, Poland)
• the failure of the League of Nations (especially in the Abyssinia crisis, and the Spanish Civil War)
• the policy of appeasement, followed by Britain and France until 1939
• the Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed in August 1939

I have provided some revision sites below.

Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes)
25-mark question assessing/evaluating the life of Albert Speer

Make sure you know:

• his personal background, and the main events in his life/career
• his main achievements (as an architect, as Minister of Armaments, as a Nazi, as a repentant war criminal, as a historical figure)
• his main failures
• the major controversies about Speer: did he know about the Holocaust? To what extent did he use slave labour? Was he complicit in demolishing Jewish residences? Was he a willing Nazi, or a man thrust into an important position by Hitler? Was he really sorry for what he did? Did his work as Armaments Minister make the war last longer than it would have?

The key to this question is to have an opinion, as you will be making a judgement about Speer. Make sure you back your opinion up with real evidence!!

Revision Links:

Causes of WW2:

http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII7a.htm
http://www.johndclare.net/causes_of_world_war_two_revision.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/causes_of_WW2.htm
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/causes.htm

Albert Speer:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2318929114565469665 (Video about Speer)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/speera1.shtml (Audio interviews with Speer himself)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/speer.html (Speer's own sworn testimony at Nuremberg)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Speer1.html (Short bio of Speer)