History inference questions practice

[LiveLifeWithPassion]

Can anyone suggest any good books or sites to practice inference questions for history please? Ds just finds them really hard.

Which exam board?

I think it’s OCR. He’s starting yr9 in September.

Has he chosen History as an option? If so then his history department must have confidence in him.

My experience of History GCSE (one child just finishing year 10 and the other just about to start studying it for GCSE in year 9) is that a lot of history is technique and the school will teach him specifically how to approach different types of questions.

By inference questions do you mean ones analysing sources? If so then tge school will have a specific format to use so maybe speak to them.

In my opinion history requires a certain maturity of thought to access the highest grades and some of that comes with age - my ds at the end of year 10 is writing with much more sophistication then at the start of year 9.

I do also think that reading a wide range of both fiction and non fiction helps - it extends vocabulary and with fiction will develop analytical skills when it comes to inference.

Genuinely though if the department have accepted him onto the course they believe he has / or will develop the requisite skills.

Thank you. He really likes history and he will be accepted as his grades are good enough but he’ll never get the best grades as he really has difficulty in the picture inference.
There’s always one question showing a picture and asking what you can tell from that picture and how it differs from another source. He has normally just left them out.
I just think he needs the confidence to just write what he sees as a start then make deductions. I want him to practice a few over the summer.
I’ve looked at some past papers So I think he can have a go at those though he’ll have limited knowledge. But I guess that will be ok as a starting point?
He does read a lot already.

Honestly I wouldn’t worry about it - they will do lots of stuff like that at school.

I wouldn’t do past papers. The sources will be specific to modules they are studying eg my children are doing Cold War, Germany 1890-1945 among other things.

With sources it is a question of looking at it - what is it? What does it show? Primary (of tge time) or secondary (produced later on Eg modern documentaries about WW2), Usefulness, Reliability and so on and then it’s a question of comparing. BUT school will teach him this and the specific way to approach for his exam board. Most importantly they will teach him the topics which are covered - eg for Cold War sources you need to first of all understand about the Cold War.

I wouldn’t worry about it in the slightest at tge moment- he has 3 years till GCSEs and will be sick of tge sight of practice questions and past papers by the time he sits his GCSEs!

Maybe look at him reading some more challenging fiction and then discussing them with him.