Year 12: Key questions (2024 syllabus)

2 dot points across 2 inquiry questions, in syllabus order. Each dot point has a focused answer, with exam-style questions and worked answers where available.

What is history, and how have its nature, aims, claims to truth and uses been understood in different eras?

What is history? The nature, role and status of history in different eras; differing interpretations and perspectives of the aims and purposes of history; issues of truth, objectivity and causation; the use and misuse of history

2024 syllabus, first examined in 2027. The new first key question of HSC History Extension from 2027: what history is, what it is for, whether it can be true or objective, how historians explain causation, and how it is used and misused in different eras, with a plan for building an era-based argument.

7 min read →

Who are the producers of history in different eras, and what makes their work credible, legitimate and shaped by its context?

Who are the producers of history in different eras? The credibility and legitimacy of producers; the identity of particular producers; the context in which they worked; their aims and purposes and the works they produced

2024 syllabus, first examined in 2027. The reworded second key question of HSC History Extension from 2027: why the syllabus now says producers of history rather than historians, and how to argue about credibility, legitimacy, context and purpose with named producers from different eras.

7 min read →