Source Based Questions

Often students are confused by Source Based Questions (SBQ) as it is new to them. In particular, lower secondary students sometimes they give up on the SBQ section, trying to compensate by doing better on other sections e.g. those requiring you to memorize facts.

Don't do this! It is rarely a wise strategy. In upper secondary history, SBQ will comprise 30 marks out of 50. That's a whopping 60% of your grade. Even if you decide not to take history, you will still have to take Social Studies. There, source based questions will comprise 70% of your total grade.

Therefore, you should be spending more time on source based questions, not less. How then can you master SBQ? Below is what I find most students forget:

Golden Rule: Marks are given on quality, not just quantity

You can write as long as you want, but if your answer doesn't have a certain quality, you won't be scoring high marks.

Take a look at page 65 of this document issued by MOE. (If you are looking at the page numbers, it's page 54).

Question 1(a) reads: "Study Source A. What can you infer..."

Notice that to score 4 marks, all you have to do is to write three high-quality sentences.
Sentence 1: Something you can infer from the picture (Europeans lived comfortably)
Sentence 2 and 3: Describe details in the picture which allow you to make the inference (e.g. huge house)

In contrast, you can describe the photo as much as you want and only get 2 marks.

This brings me to my next point:

Understand what kinds of questions that can be asked, and how to get to the highest level

There are different types of source based questions. If you are a lower secondary student, note that the kinds of questions you may get asked at the lower secondary level differ from school to school. (However, differences are slight, and once you reach the upper secondary level, you will all be preparing for the national examination.)

These kinds of questions generally revolve around the following:

• Inference
• Similarity/Differences
• Utility (How useful is the source...)
• Reliability (How reliable is the source...)
• Study all sources. To what extent do...
• Sources A and B differ. Is one of them wrong?

All (or almost all) schools will require you to learn inference, similarity and differences at the lower secondary level. Some schools may want you to learn how to answer utility, reliability, and "study all sources" questions. If you are in such schools, try to do your best as it is good preparation for O levels. If you master them in lower secondary, it will certainly make Secondary 3 and 4 easier. But if you can't master such questions at the end of Secondary 2, don't panic.

In subsequent posts, I will give tips as well as a general strategy on how to answer some of these questions. There is a general strategy to attempt such questions.

(Comment: The hyperlinks in the bullet points above will bring you to posts which talk about such strategies).

Update: Click here for a structured essay question guide for upper secondary students

The legacy of Lee Kuan Yew

Shortly after Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, a young person shrugged his death off. "What has Lee Kuan Yew done for me?"

Well, you may not realize it, but your life has been affected in many ways by him. Whether you like him or not, your life has been undeniably shaped by him. Take a look at your Secondary Two history textbook or syllabus. (http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/humanities/files/history-lower-secondary-2014.pdf)

Perhaps an illustration of his impact on your daily life may help too.

1. You wake up in the morning in your HDB flat. Hmm... HDB? In 1960, Mr Lee Kuan Yew deployed Mr Lim Kim San to build public housing for all. Previous attempts at public housing in the form of SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust) was nowhere as successful.
2. You have a glass of water with breakfast. Don't take the drinkable tap water and reliable electricity supply for granted! (http://www.eco-business.com/news/lee-kuan-yew-the-architect-of-singapores-water-story/)
3. Next, you walk out of the HDB flat and greet your neighbours. Are all of your neighbours the same race as you? No. You get to encounter Chinese, Malay, and Indian neighbours due to Lee Kuan Yew's policy of preventing racial enclaves. For example, in a HDB neighbourhood, a maximum of 84% can be Chinese, and a maximum of 22% can be Malay. See http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10296p.nsf/PressReleases/C515273FA068DD58482576DD00169155?OpenDocument
4. You take the public transport to school. Lee Kuan Yew realized that an all-bus system was inadequate, and decided to start the MRT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_%28Singapore%29)
5. Next, you're at school. Who made Singapore's schools so good that they are a magnet for foreign students from all over the region? Take a look at this article: http://sekolahsg.com/lee-kuan-yew-meant-foreign-students-singapore/
And so on and so forth...

All this is not to say that Mr Lee's rule was without controversy. Indeed, there were some questionable policies such as the Graduate Mothers policy. However, do not forget his long lasting legacy, and the many good things he has done for us.

Excavation in downtown Singapore yields wartime artefacts

Straits Times, 18 January 2010

NO ONE would bat an eyelid at demolition works in Singapore, so a torn-up carpark between City Hall and the old Supreme Court has probably drawn few curious gazes.

But it happens to be the site of a rare downtown archaeological dig, which has yielded precious secrets about the island’s past.

Click here for the full story.

Singapore History Tour

Singapore's city centre has an amazing amount of history sites to visit. Here's a suggested route (click to enlarge):




This tour should take around two hours at a comfortable walking pace.

Start: City Hall MRT

#1: Fort Canning

Before the 1500s, those who stayed in Singapore did not want to climb this hill as it was the site of palaces built by their ancestral kings. Indeed, archaeologist John Miskic has dug out artefacts that shown that a Malay kingdom could have been based on the hill.

Visit the Keramat Iskandar Shah at the foot of the hill. It is believed to be the resting place of Singapore's last Malay king (who ruled over 600 years ago).

Raffles also stayed on Fort Canning for a while. Check out Raffles terrace, the house where he lived in.

Fort Canning also has several cannons, built by the British to defend against attack. However, the cannons were never used for this purpose. They were only used to tell the time.



Also check out Battle Box, where British General Percival established his command post. The Japanese also used the fort for its military until 1945.

#2: Civic District

Visit:
- The Treasury: where Singapore's money is kept.
- The Supreme Court: Singapore's highest court.
- Parliament House: where Singapore's laws are made.

More importantly:
- City Hall. This was where the British accepted the Japanese surrender in 1945.
- Old Parliament House: the oldest existing government building in Singapore (built in 1827). It has a bronze elephant statue donated by the King of Thailand. The King of Thailand donated the statue to Singapore, as Singapore was the first foreign land to be visited by a Thai King.

#3: Singapore River

- Raffles' Landing Site: This is the spot where Raffles landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819. Look out for the white statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles



- various sculptures: several local artists have placed sculptures, to show how life in early Singapore was like. Look out for these.

#4: War memorials

- Lim Bo Seng memorial: remembers an anti-Japanese freedom fighter
- Cenotaph: remembers those who fought in World War I and World War II
- War Memorial Park: remembers the civilians that died during World War II under Japanese rule. The memorial is also known as "four chopsticks" due to its shape.

End: City Hall MRT station.

Bold look at Singapore's origins

There is a new book "A 700-Year History: From Early Emporium To World City" about Singapore" history. It debunks the notion that Singapore's history truly began only when Sir Stamford Raffles docked at the banks of the Singapore River in 1819.

There is a bold attempt by the authors to pull back another 500 years of Singapore's history. The authors say Singapore did not merely take a back seat to history between its heyday as a trading emporium in the 14th century, and the time Raffles set up a trading post at the Singapore River.

Take a look at the full article on the Straits Times.


Questions:
1. What was Singapore's history before 1819 like?
(you can refer to your textbook)

2. What is the purpose of knowing Singapore's history before 1819?

3. Lets say there is no evidence of Singapore's history before 1819. History is the record of past events. Can we say that because there is no record of anything, Singapore does not have a history before 1819?

Maria Hertogh dies

Friday, July 10 (The Straits Times)

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: The young Dutch girl at the centre of a highly publicised custody battle that sparked the 1950 Maria Hertogh riots has died, Bernama reported yesterday.

Ms Hertogh died of leukaemia in Huijbergen, the Netherlands, on Wednesday. She was 72.

In 1950, when the High Court in Singapore awarded custody of the 13-year-old girl back to her biological Catholic Dutch parents, the ruling ignited three days of riots.

Talking Cock on the Founding of Singapore

Here is a short comedy on the founding of Singapore:



Note: Not all the events are real.

This is from TalkingCock the Movie

Sang Nila Utama

Here is the story of Sang Nila Utama:

I Live in Singapura

For a humorous summary on what Sec 2 History is all about:



Enjoy!

How did WW2 affect Singapore?

1. Why did the Japanese invade Singapore?
2. How was Japanese rule compared to British rule?

Discovery Channel on Singapore's History

Here's a 2005 Discovery Channel documentary on the History of Singapore:



Somewhere in the videos, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew says:

"Unless you know where you came from, unless you know what your ancestors had been through, you have no reference point. What makes us different from the Thais, Filipinos, or the Sri Lankans? The difference is how we came here, how we developed, and that requires a sense of History."

1. What does Lee Kuan Yew mean?
2. Do you agree with what Lee Kuan Yew says? Why?

Also,
3. What was Raffles' role in the founding of Singapore?
4. Whose role do you think was more important, Raffles or Farquhar?


Part 2 of the video:

Maria Hertogh Riots: Sec 2 Chapter 7

Here's a video on the Maria Hertogh riots:



1. What caused the Maria Hertogh riots?
2. What can we learn from this episode?


For some fun, laughter, peace and joy, watch some Sec 2's re-enact the riots: