AQA 7042 · C3.15 - AO1 across approximately 100 years: concepts, change and continuity
Learn how to analyse change and continuity across approximately 100 years, using precise knowledge, meaningful phases and a judgement supported by evidence. You will practise with a wholly fictional period; the chronology, evidence and argument for a live Historical Investigation must remain your own.
What AO1 rewards
AO1 is not a reward for collecting the largest number of facts. It asks you to demonstrate, organise and communicate knowledge and understanding so that you can analyse key features, evaluate their importance, explore relevant historical concepts and make judgements supported by evidence.
Substantiated judgement
A conclusion whose reasoning is supported by relevant, precise evidence and tested against a credible counterweight. It is more than an assertion such as “this was the greatest change”.
The concepts named in AO1 are cause, consequence, change, continuity, similarity, difference and significance. The phrase “as relevant” matters: select the concepts that help answer the question rather than forcing every concept into every section.
AQA's five AO1 levels describe increasing quality across several connected features:
| AO1 level | Marks | What the response demonstrates |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 1–4 | Limited understanding of change and continuity, little use of the approximately 100-year context, narrow or partly irrelevant information, and vague or unsupported comment. |
| Level 2 | 5–8 | Some understanding, but coverage of the period may be partial. Material may remain descriptive, inaccurate or generalised, and the full demands of the question may not be grasped. |
| Level 3 | 9–12 | A genuine understanding of change and continuity across the context, mostly accurate knowledge, effective organisation, some analysis and some balance, although detail or comment may lack precision. |
| Level 4 | 13–16 | Good period understanding, clear and specific support, conceptual awareness, a predominantly analytical response and a balanced judgement that may not be fully substantiated. |
| Level 5 | 17–20 | Very good understanding across the approximately 100-year context, precise and well-selected support, effective organisation, sustained analysis, balance and a well-substantiated judgement that meets the full demands of the question. |
These are levels of response, not a recipe in which one feature automatically earns a mark. Crucially, if an investigation does not show understanding of change and continuity within its approximately 100-year context, AO1 cannot rise above Level 2: a maximum of 8 marks.
Build genuine period coverage
“Approximately 100 years” does not mean that exactly 100 years always forms a valid context. The dates must make historical sense for the issue. AQA’s June 2025 moderator report regards 80–120 years as appropriate where the boundaries matter to the question; a number inside that range is not automatic approval. A significantly shorter or longer context should be discussed with the centre and NEA adviser. A centre and AQA approve the live title and range; your historical task is then to show understanding across that whole approved context.
Coverage is not achieved by writing one paragraph about the opening date and another about the closing date. That creates an endpoints-only comparison: it can show that two moments were different, but not when, why or how change occurred, whether it lasted, or what continued between them. A series of isolated “stepping stones” is also weak if it jumps over decades without explaining the process between them.
Use this invented record to practise the method. Norvia is fictional; none of these events or institutions is historical evidence.
Fictional practice record: public authority in Norvia, 1815–1915
| Phase | Supplied fictional evidence |
|---|---|
| 1815 | The Crown appoints every provincial governor. Local petitions may advise officials but have no binding power. |
| 1838 | Property-owning residents elect municipal councils. Crown-appointed governors retain a veto over council decisions. |
| 1864 | Elected regional assemblies receive authority to approve local taxation, and the municipal franchise widens. National ministers remain appointed by the Crown. |
| 1889 | During widespread unrest, the Interior Ministry suspends three regional assemblies. Elsewhere, elected bodies continue to set local budgets. |
| 1915 | National ministers are normally drawn from the assembly majority. The Crown retains an emergency power to issue temporary decrees. |
A workable coverage method has four moves:
- Establish the baseline. In 1815, authority is concentrated in appointed offices.
- Periodise the development. The evidence suggests early local participation, mid-period regional authority, a late reversal and a final shift at national level. Those phases are more meaningful than five disconnected dates.
- Track the same dimensions throughout. Here the useful dimensions are who selects office-holders, who controls taxation and which central powers survive.
- Explain the uneven path. The 1889 suspensions qualify any claim of smooth progress, while the surviving veto and emergency powers reveal continuity within change.
The aim is not to mention every year or give every phase equal space. It is to select enough evidence from the opening, development, complications and endpoint to explain the pattern across the full period.
Use concepts to explain the pattern
Change and continuity become analytical only when you compare evidence on a shared dimension and explain the pattern. “Things changed over time” is too broad; “control over taxation moved from appointed governors towards elected bodies, although central suspension powers survived” states both the dimension and the relationship.
Change and continuity
Change is a difference over time in a defined feature, such as authority, policy, experience or belief. Continuity is a feature or relationship that persists across some or all of the period, even while other features change.
The other AO1 concepts help deepen that account when they are relevant:
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