Social Sciences and History / Unit 16 SSH 1530 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
One Event, Four Questions: Deciding Which Band Is Asking
The idea
The exam mixes four bands in one sitting, and a stem's subject alone does not say which discipline's answer it wants; the verbs do. A history stem asks what happened, who did it, and what resulted: a fact in sequence or a result matched to a cause, as sample questions one, two, four, eight, nine and ten do. A political science stem asks how a rule works or what a theory claims: question five wants a rule applied. A geography stem asks where, why there, or what a program did to a place: question six wants a purpose. An economics stem asks what a term measures or which way a curve moves: question seven wants a definition. The same subject points differently by band: the Cold War is containment's events in history and realism's theory in political science; GDP is a definition in economics and a ranking in geography.
In practice
Given "the most commonly used single measure of output", economics, a definition. Given "how would electoral votes be apportioned", political science, a rule. Given "programs designed to", geography, a purpose. Ask what kind of answer the verb wants: a fact, a rule, a place, or a measure.
Where people slip
The trap is answering the subject instead of the question. The second trap is that the exam does not label its questions by discipline, so the learner must.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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