Scholarship History

History Scholarship is an exciting opportunity to broaden your understanding of key timeframes in history and how they influenced people's lives over time and even today.  By doing History Scholarship you are engaging in critical thinking, detailed analysis, and synthesis of complex material that allows you to make informed judgments about the past.  These skills are transferable in all facets of further education and the workforce.  By taking History Scholarship, you are not only learning about the past, you are also preparing yourself for the future. 

The scholarship course would take place outside of normal class time to be determined by the staff and students involved.  Students need to attend regularly in order to reap the benefits of the preparation programme as well as making sure they are doing the extended learning for the theme provided.

The History Scholarship exam for 2023 is on Tuesday 21 November at 9.30am.

Format of the assessment

Candidates will be required to answer three questions in an exam booklet, using an extended response format.

Candidates will be provided with a resource booklet containing a variety of historical sources, primary and secondary, based on a theme.

The theme for the 2023 examination is communism as a historical force. The Aotearoa New Zealand context is “New Zealand in the years 1950 to 1954”.

The theme will shape the questions and sources:

• Questions One and Two will reflect the theme but not necessarily within a specific Aotearoa New Zealand context.
• Question One will focus on historical narratives and Question Two will focus on historical relationships.
• Question Three will provide a specific Aotearoa New Zealand context related to the theme.

Candidates will be expected to respond to each question by constructing a substantiated argument that synthesises the source material, as well as their own understanding and knowledge, to evaluate the theme.

Candidates must demonstrate their ability to:

• use highly developed knowledge to analyse and think critically about key ideas relevant to the historical context and setting
• synthesise a highly developed understanding of the context, with ideas drawn from both the resource booklet provided and their own knowledge of complex historical contexts
• evaluate historical relationships such as cause and effect, continuity and change, past and present, specific and general, patterns and trends, and differing perspectives
• judge the reliability and usefulness of historical evidence and evaluate the strengths and limitations of historians’ narratives connected to the theme
• evaluate a specific event / period / idea connected to the theme within an Aotearoa New Zealand context.