Answering AS-Level Questions on the Henrician Reformation
John Matusiak explains how to tackle typical questions successfully.
One of the most regrettable paradoxes of history teaching is that not all thoroughly good history students are thoroughly successful in terms of their final examination grades. The reason for this exasperating discrepancy is that while all good history students know their chosen period well, they do not always fully understand the habits and behaviour of the examination beast that lurks hungrily in wait for them at the end of their studies. What follows is an attempt to help tame one particular variant of the AS-Level examination and, at the same time, to deal briefly with some specific examples of actual questions on the Henrician Reformation. The comments are especially relevant to Edexcel's AS paper entitled, 'A Very English Reformation: Henry VIII and the English Reformation,1529-47', but they are valid for a wide range of similar syllabuses.
Making Inferences from Sources