The Credibility of Evidence paper lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes. It is marked out of 80, and counts for 40% of your AS grade (20% of your final grade if you go on to take the A2 course). Candidates will be provided with an answer booklet, containing questions and spaces for your answers, and a resource booklet containing about 3 A4 sides of documents on which most of the questions will be based.

Able students shouldn’t find the paper too challenging if they are properly prepared, but without adequate preparation can really struggle to pick up marks. This guide should help students to know exactly how to approach the exam.

The format of the exam has been very consistent in the past. With the exception of about 15% of the exam paper, and minor variations in the wording of questions, all that changes from year to year is the documents in the resource booklet. If you prepare properly for this exam then you should be able to do very well indeed (but please read the disclaimer).

Throughout the exam, you are expected to make use of the criteria of credibility; you need to memorise these, and practice applying them. How you are expected to use them varies depending on the question. Below is a question-by-question guide to the exam paper:

Section A: Assessing the Credibility of Documents

Section B: Assessing the Credibility of Evidence

Section C: Coming to a Reasoned Judgement