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Source analysis is one of the most important skills in GCSE History. AQA regularly asks you to evaluate the utility (usefulness) of historical sources. This lesson teaches you how to analyse sources systematically, considering their content, provenance, and limitations.
Utility means usefulness. When an exam question asks "How useful is Source A for an enquiry into...?", it is asking you to evaluate what the source can tell us about a particular topic and how reliable or representative it is.
Exam Tip: No source is completely useless. Even a biased, inaccurate, or one-sided source can be useful — it tells us about the attitudes, beliefs, or propaganda of the time. The key is to explain what the source is useful for and why, using your own knowledge.
A useful framework for analysing source utility is NOP: Nature, Origin, and Purpose.
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