Source skills (all papers)
Edexcel GCSE History revision on Source skills (all papers). Aligned to the Pearson Edexcel GCSE History 1HI0 specification. This bank has 80 practice questions on this topic.
Sample questions (3 of 80)
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Question 1
What does 'provenance' mean when analysing a historical source?
- A) What the source physically looks like
- B) Where, when, and by whom the source was made
- C) The accuracy of the source
- D) How well-preserved the source is
Show answer
Answer: Where, when, and by whom the source was made
Provenance is the gold-standard concept for source questions. The exam expects you to use provenance (author + date + purpose + audience) to judge usefulness — NOT just describe what the source says. Example: a 1940 Nazi poster is useful for studying propaganda techniques, less useful for actual battle casualties.
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Question 2
A primary source is one that was created...
- A) By a famous person
- B) About the most important events
- C) At the time the events took place
- D) After the events being studied
Show answer
Answer: At the time the events took place
Primary sources: diaries, photographs, newspapers, letters, government documents from the time. Secondary sources: textbooks, documentaries, historians' books that analyse primary sources. Primary doesn't automatically mean MORE reliable — a propaganda poster is primary but heavily biased.
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Question 3
Which would be the MOST RELIABLE source for understanding daily life in trenches?
- A) A 2010 Hollywood film about WWI
- B) A soldier's diary written in 1916
- C) A Nazi propaganda poster
- D) A textbook from 2025
Show answer
Answer: A soldier's diary written in 1916
Caveats: even a diary can have bias (one man's experience, censorship, post-war revision). 'Reliable' depends on the question — that diary is great for personal experience, less useful for overall casualty figures (where official records win). Always evaluate purpose + audience.
Want to test yourself on the remaining cards for this topic?
77 more questions on Source skills (all papers) — plus mistakes tracking and spaced repetition across the whole History spec.
More Edexcel History topics
- Paper 1 — Thematic: Medicine in Britain, c1250–present
- Paper 1 — Thematic: Migrants in Britain, c800–present
- Paper 2B — British depth: Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88
- Paper 2B — British depth: Early Elizabethan England, 1558–1588
- Paper 2P — Period study: Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941–91
- Paper 2P — Period study: The American West, c1835–c1895
- Paper 3 — Modern depth: Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917–41
- Paper 3 — Modern depth: USA 1954–75, Conflict at home and abroad
- Paper 3 — Modern depth: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39
- Wider — Britain: Power and the people, c1170–present
- Wider — WWI 1894–1918 (general context)