Explore Modern History at accredited Level 3. Course level is distinct from the school year in which you study it.
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What will I learn?
Section A — Modern Western Nations in the 20th Century
Accredited course guide — check versionYou study one of the USA (1917–1945), Australia (1918–1949), Germany (1918–1945) or Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–1953), each split into an earlier and a later period. The focus is the drivers of social, economic and political change — war and its aftermath, economic crisis, ideology, leadership, fear and division — and the nature and impact of that change on different groups. You should be able to explain democracy and totalitarianism as political systems and at least one ideology as it played out in your country. Exam questions usually give a stimulus quotation and ask you to judge it, so the skill is building an argument about relative significance, not retelling events.
Section B — Modern Asian Nations in the 20th Century
Accredited course guide — check versionYou study one of Japan (1931–1952), India (1930–1984), Indonesia (1942–1975) or China (1935–1976), again in an earlier or later period. Every recent question asks you to describe the nation's internal divisions and external threats and then make a judgement: were the challenges self-made or external, which mattered more, what did leaders and groups contribute, and how did ideology, the political system and nationalism shape the responses? Strong answers keep internal and external threats distinct, explain why the nation responded as it did, and cover the whole chosen period.
Section C — The Changing World Order, 1945–2010
Accredited course guide — check versionA short overview of the post-1945 world (blocs, decolonisation, Asia's rise, globalisation, migration and refugee crises) frames a deep study of one topic: the Cold War, Australia's engagement with one Asian nation, the changing nature of terrorism, or patterns of migration. Criterion 7 makes this the historiography section: you must present the arguments of named historians and commentators, explain the evidence and context behind them, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. The course stops at 2010.
Historical skills and essay technique
Accredited course guide — check versionCriteria 3 and 4 apply in every section. TASC's assessment reports repeatedly reward a clear thesis that answers the question and stimulus, topic sentences that carry the argument, precise evidence (dates, events, statistics, sources) and historians' views woven into the reasoning. They penalise narrative recounts, pre-prepared answers, and essays organised mechanically into political, social and economic paragraphs. Formal conventions matter: third person, past tense, accurate names and spelling.
How will I be assessed?
School arrangements: TASC course assessment applies to the accredited course and level, whether you take it in Year 11 or Year 12. Check criteria, work requirements and any external assessment in the course document, plus your provider’s internal assessment outline.
Needs verification: Accredited course guide (Modern History Level 3 (HSM315117), Version 4a (accreditation renewed without amendment on 25 September 2025; re-accredited as ongoing from 1 January 2026 with no expiry date, so it applies in 2027), read with the External Assessment Specifications Version 1.3 (March 2023)): The external written examination runs for 3 hours of working time with 15 minutes of preparation time beforehand, during which you may take notes on the paper provided and highlight key words but may not start your answers. There is no information sheet. The paper has twelve questions in three sections and you answer one from each, as an extended essay in its own answer booklet, spending about 60 minutes on each. Section A (Questions 1–4) offers one question each on the USA, Australia, Germany and Russia/the Soviet Union, and Section B (Questions 5–8) one each on Japan, India, Indonesia and China; in both you write on either the earlier or the later period of your chosen country, not both. Section C (Questions 9–12) offers one question each on the Cold War, Australia's Engagement with Asia, Peace, Conflict and the Nature of Terrorism, and Patterns of Migration, and every question requires interpretations from named historians and commentators. Section A is rated on Criteria 3, 4 and 5, Section B on Criteria 3, 4 and 6, and Section C on Criteria 3, 4 and 7; the three sections carry equal weight. TASC does not publish a mark or percentage for the exam. ATARMAxxing's practice papers use an indicative 180-mark scheme (60 per section) purely as a study allocation mapped onto those criteria — it is not TASC's grading method, and every practice paper and marking guide says so. Confirm the syllabus and assessment schedule for your own completion year.
Progression and companion subjects
No complete companion or exclusion review is attached to this profile. Check the official course-entry conditions, language eligibility and your school’s sequence before enrolling. Links between resource hubs show related learning; they do not establish a compulsory prerequisite.
Will I find it hard?
Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.
- Try explaining a case, source or argument with evidence. Does this type of writing interest you?
- Look at the amount of terminology, examples and source material in the sample rather than assuming the subject is easy.
Does it scale up or down?
TASC awards and scaled TE scores are distinct. The old requirement for three final-year results was removed from 2025.
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Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.
Try a little of the subject
USA 1917–1932: divisions, the Twenties and the Crash
1. The USA in 1917 and how the early period is examined The earlier United States period in Section A runs from 1917 to 1932 : from entry into the First World War in April 1917 to Herbert Hoover's defeat in the presidential election of November 1932. It is a period of sharp swings. A nation that had mobilised for a European war in 1917–18 turned inward in 1919–20, enjoyed an uneven consumer boom through the 1920s and then fell into the deepest depression in its history after October 1929. Every one of those swings is a change , and Criterion 5 asks you to explain what drove each change, what kind of change it was and whom it affected. In 1917 the USA was already the world's largest industrial economy, but it was a deeply divided society. Roughly one in seven residents had been born overseas, most of them in southern and eastern Europe. About nine in ten African Americans still lived in the South under segregation laws. Farmers, who had prospered while the war lifted crop prices, made up a large share of the population, and the 1920 census was the first to record that a (narrow) majority of Americans lived in urban places. Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was president; he had won re-election in 1916 partly on the claim that he had kept the country out of the war. Use a three-part frame from the course document whenever you plan: Drivers — what caused change: the war economy, fear of radicalism, mass production and consumer credit, Republican economic policy, the Crash. Nature — what kind of change: sudden or gradual, imposed or popular, violent or peaceful (the course glossary uses exactly these dimensions). Impact — on whom, how far and for how long: industrial workers, farmers, African Americans, recent immigrants, Native Americans, women, industrialists. The TASC papers s
Original practice question: The proposition below is ORIGINAL and constructed for practice; it is not a quotation from any historian. 'The Treaty of Versailles was the main driver of political and economic change in Germany between 1918 and 1933.' Assess this proposition by writing (a) a thesis statement and (b) a paragraph-by-paragraph plan for a Section A essay on Germany 1918–1933. For each body paragraph, give the topic sentence, the key evidence and one historian's interpretation you would use.
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Worked solution
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Sources, versions and verification dates
Profile source metadata last checked: 2026-11-14. A source check is not an endorsement by the authority or confirmation that a future course version is unchanged.
- ATARMAxxing Modern History Level 3 (HSM315117), Version 4a (accreditation renewed without amendment on 25 September 2025; re-accredited as ongoing from 1 January 2026 with no expiry date, so it applies in 2027), read with the External Assessment Specifications Version 1.3 (March 2023) guide — ATARMAxxing; 2026-11-14. Original existing study guide, not an independent official verification or a forecast of a future syllabus.
- Modern History HSM315117 — Level 3 — TASC; 2026-11-12. Official source snapshot; Course span 2017 onwards. Check accreditation and school delivery for your cohort.