CBSE Class XII board examination 2019-20: History; how to prepare & score well

History is often seen as a subject of remembering facts, but when attempting Central Board Secondary School (CBSE) board examinations, students are expected to learn from facts.

Students are expected store/relate/compare developments in different situations, analyze connections between similar processes located in different time periods, and discover the relationship between different methods of enquiry within history and the allied disciplines.

Students should not only to know about these events and processes, but also to discover the excitement of reading history.

While it often appears that one needs to be abstract to score well in History, it just requires students to develop the right skills to score well in every section of the examination.

Guiding students on how they can score and learn from historical events, history teacher Hemendra Singh Bawal suggests the following tips for examination.

Pattern changes
Central Board of Secondary Education, this year, has made changes in the examination pattern. Question paper will have more number of objective type questions (20 questions). This is to discourage students from rote learning and develop analytical skills, reasoning abilities. Under it, there will be multiple choice questions, one word or single statement answer, fill up the blanks, assertion/reason, identification of picture etc.
• Short answer type questions now carry 3 marks in place of 4. One question each from book 1 & 2. And 2 questions from book 3. 
• Source based questions carry 6 marks in place of 7 marks.
• Internal choice in map based question would also be given.
Section-wise break-up
Question number 1 to 20 (Part-A): Objective type questions carrying 1 mark. Answer should be in one word or one sentence each.
Answer to questions carrying 3 marks (Part-B: Question 21 to 24) should not exceed 100 words.
Answer to questions carrying 8 marks (Part-C: Question 25 to 27) should not exceed 350 words.
Question numbers 28 to 30 (Part -D) are source based questions and will carry 6 marks each.
Question number 31 (Part-E) is a map question that includes identification and location of significant places. Attach the map with the answer book.
Section-wise mark allotment
Section A: Early Societies: 19 marks
Section B: Empires: 19 marks
Section C: Changing traditions: 19 marks
Section D: Paths to modernidation: 19 marks
Map work (units 1-11): 4 marks
Project work: 20 marks
Skills needed for exam
Remembering facts                  25%
Understanding and interpretation          25%
Application of knowledge to new situations 23%
High order thinking skills (analysis & synthesis) 9%
Evaluation (appraises, criticise & justify) 13%
Map skills                  5%
How to prepare?
• Read the chapters thoroughly, any line can be converted into an objective type question.
• Make notes/flash cards of key terms, people  and dates.
• Use headings for points, flow charts, diagram to make answer more attractive and meaningful.
Important topics 
• Partition of India
• Framing of Constitution
• Zamindari system
• Mughal chronicles
• Traveller’s account
• Indus valley civilisation
• Buddhism and Jainism
How to score well?
• Make right use of reading time (15 mins), use to it make strategy for writing answer or source based questions.
• Set the priority, first attempt the questions you are more confident about.
• Write to the point answers.
• Follow word limit, avoid short forms, use keywords, space out your words, avoid cutting and over writing .
• Don’t panic at any point of time and check answer sheet at the end before submitting.