The syllabus is designed to be taught in a time allocation of 180 hours. The following suggestions are offered as a guide to the amount of time to be spent on the different sections of the syllabus.
| PARTS OF THE SYLLABUS | SUGGESTED TIME ALLOCATION | NUMBER OF 40 MINUTE CLASSES |
|---|
| I Working with evidence | | |
| Introduction: history and the historian | 6 hours | 9 classes |
| The documents-based study | [Additional 8 hours]* | [Additional 12 classes]* |
| The research study | 6 hours | 9 classes |
| II Topics for study | | |
| Standard topic | 40 hours | 60 classes |
| | 40 hours | 60 classes |
| | 40 hours | 60 classes |
| Topic for documents-based study | 48 hours* | 72 classes* |
| TOTALS | 180 hours | 270 classes |
Note: The asterisked [*] totals in the Topic for Study box include the asterisked [and bracketed] allocations indicated in the Working with Evidence box.
As indicated in the above table, an additional allocation of time to the topic prescribed for documents-based study is recommended. The reasoning here is that the teaching of this topic provides the primary focus for the development of evidence-handling skills, which are transferable to the study of other topics and to the research study. The extra time devoted to it should yield `knock-on' benefits when the student is learning about other topics and when the research study is undertaken. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that the documents-based study be undertaken prior to work on the research study.