Exam Preparation: Paper 1 Option 13 — Timing, Structure and Worked Answers

Strong content without a clear sense of exam structure produces, at best, the mid-levels of the mark scheme. This lesson brings together the full Paper 1 Option 13 structure, the timing required for each question, the Edexcel level language (basic → simple → explained → developed → analytical), and three worked answers — at Grade 4, Grade 6 and Grade 9 — on two representative questions. Use this lesson as your final revision checklist and as a model for your own timed practice.

The paper: structure, marks and focus

Paper 1 Option 13 runs for 1 hour 15 minutes and is worth 52 marks in total, which represents 30% of the full GCSE. It is divided into two sections.

• Section A: Historic Environment — Notting Hill c1948–c1970 (20 marks). Two source-based questions.
• Section B: Thematic Study — Migrants in Britain c800–present (32 marks). Three or four thematic questions covering causation, similarity and extended judgement.

Q	Section	Focus	Marks	AOs	Recommended time
1	A	Source inference	4	AO3	5 minutes
2	A	Source utility (NOP + content)	8	AO3	15 minutes
3	B	Thematic — similarities	8	AO1, AO2	10 minutes
4	B	Thematic — "explain why" (causation)	12	AO1, AO2	15 minutes
5 or 6	B	Thematic — judgement with SPaG	16 + 4 SPaG	AO1, AO2, AO4	25 minutes
Total	—	—	52 + 4 SPaG	—	70 minutes plus 5 to check

Questions 5 and 6 are alternatives; you choose one. Both are judgement questions ("How far do you agree…") on the thematic study. Section B questions are tagged to bullet prompts, and you should use the prompts as a scaffolding rather than a cage.

Plan your timing on paper from the first minute. Most mid-range performances lose marks by spending too long on Q1 and Q2 and running short on Q5/6.

flowchart LR
  A[Read paper 3 min] --> B[Q1 - 5 min]
  B --> C[Q2 - 15 min]
  C --> D[Q3 - 10 min]
  D --> E[Q4 - 15 min]
  E --> F[Q5 or Q6 - 25 min]
  F --> G[Check 5 min]

The assessment objectives

Three AOs are tested on Paper 1, with AO4 appearing on Q5/6.

• AO1 — Knowledge and understanding of key features. Specific facts, dates, names, events.
• AO2 — Historical concepts and second-order thinking. Cause, consequence, change, continuity, similarity, difference, significance.
• AO3 — Analysis and evaluation of source material. Assessed only on Questions 1 and 2.
• AO4 — Judgement and argument. Assessed on Q5/6 — sustained argument, substantiated, reaching an overall conclusion.

Q3 balances AO1 and AO2. Q4 balances AO1 and AO2. Q5/6 combines AO1, AO2 and AO4.

Level language: from basic to analytical

Edexcel's mark schemes move through five rungs. You should be able to identify these rungs in your own practice answers.

Level	Language	Typical feature
Basic	"Some describe but do not explain"	General or stereotyped points
Simple	Identifies reasons/features	One-sentence points without elaboration
Explained	Links reason to outcome	Paragraph structure visible
Developed	Precise supporting detail	Specific facts, dates, quantities, names
Analytical	Sustains an argument to a judgement	Comparative evaluation, prioritised reasons

Target: every paragraph at least developed; in Q5/6 the answer as a whole must be analytical.

Question 1: inference (4 marks)

Format: "Give two things you can infer from Source A about…"

Strategy: Write two short, labelled inferences, each followed by "I can infer this because the source shows/says that…". Do not describe the source; infer from it. Do not write a long paragraph; five minutes is plenty.

Model answer skeleton (worth all 4 marks):

Inference 1: That Caribbean migrants in Notting Hill maintained community dignity in the face of poor housing. I can infer this because the source shows a smartly dressed couple in front of a clearly subdivided and poorly maintained Victorian terraced house.

Inference 2: That Notting Hill was undergoing rapid demographic change. I can infer this because the source shows Black residents confidently occupying a street that, from the 1951 census, had been overwhelmingly white working-class only ten years earlier.

Question 2: source utility (8 marks) — worked answer

Format: "How useful is Source B for an enquiry into [a specified question]?"

Strategy: evaluate content (what the source shows, how detailed, how accurate) and provenance (Nature, Origin, Purpose — NOP) and use contextual knowledge to corroborate or challenge. End with an explicit judgement.

Source and enquiry

Source B: An extract from the Kensington Post dated Friday 5 September 1958, reporting on "the worst week of racial disturbances ever seen in West London". The article describes crowds of "several hundred" gathering on Bramley Road, petrol bombs thrown at Black residents' houses, and quotes from local residents and from a Metropolitan Police inspector. The article also prints a photograph of a smashed front door on Blechynden Street.

Enquiry: How useful is Source B for an enquiry into the causes and experience of the Notting Hill riots of 1958?

Worked answer — Grade 4 (Level 2, simple)

Source B is useful because it is from the time of the riots. It says there were crowds of several hundred and that petrol bombs were thrown. This tells us that the riots were violent and that lots of people were involved. But it is a newspaper so it might not be completely fair, because newspapers sometimes exaggerate things.

(Feedback: identifies one content point and one basic provenance point; no NOP framework, no contextual knowledge, no judgement. Around 2/8.*)

Worked answer — Grade 6 (Level 3, explained/developed)

Source B is useful for an enquiry into the 1958 Notting Hill riots because it is a contemporary local newspaper report dated within days of the events. The content tells us that crowds of "several hundred" gathered on Bramley Road, that petrol bombs were thrown, and that houses were attacked — this matches what I know from other sources, because the Metropolitan Police recorded that 108 people were charged after a week of disturbances between 29 August and 5 September 1958. The photograph of the smashed front door on Blechynden Street is useful because it gives a specific location that is already known to have been a flashpoint.

In terms of provenance, the Kensington Post was the main local paper for the borough, writing for a largely white middle-class Kensington readership. Its editorial framing may have emphasised shock and "racial disturbance" rather than the systematic nature of the attacks on Black residents. The source is therefore useful for the scale and location of the violence but should be combined with community sources such as the West Indian Gazette for the Caribbean community's experience.

Overall, Source B is useful for understanding where and how the riots took place, but partial in perspective.

(Feedback: NOP implicit, contextual knowledge present, clear content/provenance split, explicit judgement. Around 6/8.*)

Worked answer — Grade 9 (Level 4, analytical)