Ordinary Levels

The syllabus aims:

• to stimulate interest in and enthusiasm for the study of the past;
• to promote the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of human activity in the past, linking it, as appropriate, with the present;
• to ensure that candidates' knowledge is rooted in an understanding of the nature and the use of historical evidence;
• to help pupils towards an understanding of the development over time of social and cultural values;
• to promote an understanding of the nature of cause and consequence, continuity and change, similarity and difference;
• to develop essential historical skills.
• to provide an appropriate integration of our national history within a wider international context.

Scheme of Assessment

The scheme of assessment comprises two written papers. Candidates may answer in English or in Maltese.

Paper I - Two hours

This paper will be weighed at 50% of the total subject marks. This will be based on evidence questions. A variety of historical sources will be used. Questions will be based not exclusively on the evidence given but also on the candidate's wider knowledge and understanding of the topic and/or on the candidate's ability to place the evidence in a historical context or to comment on the value or otherwise of the evidence to the historian.

Paper II - Two hours

This paper will be weighed at 50% of the total subject marks. It comprises essay questions. There will be two versions of this paper, IIA and IIB. Paper IIA is the more demanding one. Essay questions in this paper will normally be of the synoptic, argumentative and analytical kind. Paper IIB comprises easier essay questions than those in Paper IIA. Essay questions in this paper will normally not be synoptic and the emphasis will be on the purely descriptive rather than the argumentative and analytical.

(Based on the Matsec Syllabus History O Level)

Explore the entire syllabus (topics in detail, pre-requisites, specimen paper and grade descriptors here): http://www.um.edu.mt/matsec

To apply for History O Level course call 21227799 or email us for more information.