Stage 2 Modern History Subject Outline (version 1.2, for teaching from 2025)
School assessment contributes 70%: Historical Skills 50% (four or five tasks) and the Historical Study 20% (an individual inquiry into an aspect of the world since c.1750). The externally assessed examination contributes 30%, lasts 130 minutes with no separate reading period, and is an e-exam in two sections: Section 1 Essay, where students choose one proposition from their studied Modern Nations topic, and Section 2 Sources analysis, where students evaluate the origin, reliability, usefulness and limitations of a set of sources. The outline grades the examination against A–E performance standards and publishes no mark total. These original practice papers use a 35-mark model: one 15-mark essay chosen from three Germany propositions (45 marks offered, 15 attempted) and six compulsory sources-analysis parts worth 1, 2, 2, 4, 5 and 6 marks, the allocations shown on the official 2025 question screens. The 35 total is this resource's stated model, not a published SACE Board figure. Practice sources are original text-only reconstructions; the official e-exam may use audio or video and requires headphones.
Past papers on this subject span more than one subject outline. Papers written under an older one still work as practice, but the topics they test have changed — the index labels every paper with the subject outline it was set under.
Earlier e-exam years — check current requirements · 2023–2024Current outline (version 1.2, from 2025) — e-exam · 2025–present
The topics, one by one
Each area below lists the concepts named in the subject outline, what the SACE Board exam asks of them, and the mistake that most often costs marks.
- Germany (1918–48): background and the liberal experiment
- Germany (1918–48): creation and consolidation of a dictatorship
- Germany (1918–48): war, genocide, defeat and occupation
- The changing world order (1945– )
- Historical inquiry: sources analysis (Section 2)
Area 1 of 5
Germany (1918–48): background and the liberal experiment
Explain how defeat, revolution and the Versailles settlement shaped the Weimar Republic's constitution and legitimacy. Trace reparations, the Ruhr crisis and hyperinflation, the threats from left and right, and the qualified recovery, culture and diplomacy of 1924–29.
What the exam asks
Essay propositions on why the Republic was destabilised, whether recovery was real, and how far political, economic or external forces mattered. Strong answers take a clear position, weigh a counterargument and anchor claims in dated evidence.
Where marks go missing
Narrating the rise of the Nazis when the proposition is about the Republic's own weaknesses, or treating 1923 and 1929 as one continuous collapse without the stabilisation in between.
Area 2 of 5
Germany (1918–48): creation and consolidation of a dictatorship
Connect the Depression, presidential government and elite calculation to Hitler's appointment, then distinguish the stages of consolidation from the Reichstag Fire Decree and Enabling Act to the Night of the Long Knives and Hindenburg's death. Explain how propaganda, coercion, consent and institutionalised anti-Semitism operated in everyday life.
What the exam asks
Propositions asking which moment was decisive, how far the regime relied on terror rather than consent, and how policies affected women, youth, churches and minorities. Examiners reward precise legal and institutional detail and a judgement about relative importance.
Where marks go missing
Confusing the rise to power (to January 1933) with consolidation (1933–34), or describing the SA as a single event rather than an ongoing instrument of pressure.
Area 3 of 5
Germany (1918–48): war, genocide, defeat and occupation
Explain the radicalisation of terror in wartime, the escalation of racial persecution into the Holocaust, the scope and limits of resistance, and the transition from defeat to occupation zones, denazification and emerging division by 1948.
What the exam asks
Propositions on whether the Final Solution was the culmination of earlier policy, how German society experienced total war, and what occupation changed. Answers must respect the 1918–48 frame and distinguish earlier persecution from wartime genocide.
Where marks go missing
Extending the essay into 1949 state formation or Cold War Germany, or asserting that resistance was either negligible or widespread without evidence of who resisted and with what effect.
Area 4 of 5
The changing world order (1945– )
Trace the origins of superpower rivalry, containment and alliances, nuclear strategy and crisis, Cold War conflict alongside decolonisation, and the reform movements that ended the Cold War in 1989–91. Consider the consequences: reunification, European integration, the break-up of Yugoslavia, an emerging China and new nationalisms.
What the exam asks
In this bank the world-order topic is practised through notes, retrieval questions and flashcards, and it may inform sources analysis. The essay in these practice papers is written on Germany because the official essay is set on a Modern Nations topic.
Where marks go missing
Treating the Cold War as a single unchanging confrontation, or explaining its end by one leader alone without economic pressure, popular movements and alliance politics.
Area 5 of 5
Historical inquiry: sources analysis (Section 2)
Identify and infer from individual sources, draw supported conclusions, compare the extent to which sources agree, assess strengths and limitations with reference to origin and nature, and evaluate a statement using the whole set.
What the exam asks
Six compulsory parts marked 1, 2, 2, 4, 5 and 6 in the practice model. Each mark expects a specific move: a named feature, quoted or paraphrased evidence, an explicit link to the question and, in the longer parts, a balanced judgement.
Where marks go missing
Saying a source is 'biased' or 'limited' without explaining how its origin, purpose or nature creates that limitation, and answering the comparison part from one source only.
Common questions
Are the practice papers official past exams?
No. They are original ATARMAxxing questions, sources and worked responses. Official 2023–2025 e-exams and Subject Assessment Advice are linked separately; ATARMAxxing is not affiliated with the SACE Board or SATAC.
Why do the practice papers say 35 marks when each offers three essays?
The official 2025 e-exam offers three propositions per topic but a student answers one for 15 marks, then completes six sources parts worth 1, 2, 2, 4, 5 and 6 marks. Each practice paper therefore offers 65 marks and a candidate attempts 35. The outline itself grades the exam against A–E performance standards and publishes no mark total, so 35 is this resource's stated model.
Which topics does this resource cover?
Germany (1918–48) from Modern Nations, The changing world order (1945– ) from The world since 1945, and sources-analysis skills. The United States, Soviet Union, Indonesia, China and Australia topics and the other post-1945 options are not covered.
Does it reproduce the audio and video sources of the real e-exam?
No. Practice sources are original text-only reconstructions. The SACE Board requires headphones for the official e-exam; use the linked official e-exams to become familiar with media sources and the interface.
Can the sources in Section 2 be about a topic I have not studied?
Yes. Official source sets have covered punk rock (2025), the Trail of Tears (2024) and the Haitian Revolution (2023). The skills of origin, nature, comparison and evaluation transfer; the source set supplies the content.
Is there a multiple-choice section in the real exam?
No. The multiple-choice questions in this resource are retrieval practice for the notes; the official examination is an essay and a sources analysis.