PYQ Vault

IMAT Reading Skills and General Knowledge · Free notes

History: A Revision Checklist from Antiquity to the European Union

History has 23 past questions since 2011, and the ministry papers from 2023 on have asked 2 of them. There is no fixed syllabus, so every question is pure recall of something a European secondary school student is expected to know: a date, a name, a treaty, the author of a famous work. The ministry questions so far have been about ancient Rome and the late Middle Ages, while the older papers leaned heavily on the history of science and medicine. The difficulty is breadth, not depth: learn one anchor date and one fact per event in the tables, and use the dates to answer the ordering and odd-one-out questions.

The handout has every subtopic, worked example, formula and trap with answers shown. The formula sheet is the chapter’s formulas and traps alone, on one page.

Subtopic notes

Formula & revision sheet

0 formulas · 19 reference tables · 20 gotchas across all subtopics — the exam-eve cheat-sheet

The Ancient World: Early Civilisations, Greece and Rome

Reference tables (5)

Early civilisations and the birth of writing8 rows
Civilisation or objectWhere (modern country)Fact to remember
SumeriansSouthern IraqCuneiform, one of the first writing systems, about 3200 BC
Babylon under HammurabiIraqCode of Hammurabi, a written law code of about 1750 BC ("an eye for an eye")
Ancient EgyptEgypt, along the NileHieroglyphs; the pyramids of Giza, built about 2500 BC
Rosetta StoneFound in Egypt in 1799; now in the British MuseumOne decree in hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek; Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822
PhoeniciansLebanon coast; founded Carthage in TunisiaConsonant alphabet, ancestor of the Greek and Latin alphabets
MayaSouthern Mexico, GuatemalaHieroglyphic writing, precise calendar and astronomy
AztecsCentral Mexico; capital Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City)Conquered by Hernán Cortés in 1521
IncasAndes, centred on Peru; capital CuscoMachu Picchu; conquered by Francisco Pizarro from 1532
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World7 rows
WonderWhere (today)What happened to it
Great Pyramid of GizaEgyptStill standing: the only survivor
Hanging Gardens of BabylonIraqLost; some historians doubt they existed
Statue of Zeus at OlympiaGreeceDestroyed in late antiquity
Temple of Artemis at EphesusTurkeyBurnt and destroyed; a few ruins
Mausoleum at HalicarnassusBodrum, TurkeyDestroyed by earthquakes; gave us the word "mausoleum"
Colossus of RhodesGreeceBronze statue of the sun god Helios, fell in an earthquake soon after it was built
Lighthouse (Pharos) of AlexandriaEgyptDestroyed by earthquakes in the Middle Ages
Classical Greece: the polis, democracy and Alexander7 rows
Event or termDateWhat to remember
First Olympic Games776 BCHeld at Olympia in honour of Zeus
Reforms of Cleisthenes508 BCStart of democracy in Athens
Persian Wars490 to 479 BCGreek victories at Marathon (490), Salamis (480, at sea) and Plataea (479); the Spartans' last stand at Thermopylae (480)
Age of PericlesAbout 461 to 429 BCGolden age of Athens; the Parthenon built on the Acropolis
Peloponnesian War431 to 404 BCAthens against Sparta; Sparta won
Alexander the GreatReigned 336 to 323 BCKing of Macedon, pupil of Aristotle; conquered Persia and reached India; founded Alexandria in Egypt
Hellenistic age323 to 31 BCGreek culture across the East; ended when Rome took Egypt after the battle of Actium
Rome from foundation to fall: the key dates8 rows
DateEventWhy it matters
753 BCLegendary founding of Rome by RomulusRomans counted years from it (ab urbe condita)
509 BCLast king expelledThe Republic begins
264 to 146 BCThree Punic Wars against CarthageHannibal of Carthage crossed the Alps with elephants in 218 BC; Carthage destroyed in 146 BC
49 to 44 BCJulius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, becomes dictator, is murdered on the Ides of March (15 March 44 BC)The Republic collapses in civil war
27 BCOctavian receives the title AugustusFirst emperor; start of the Pax Romana
AD 79Vesuvius eruptsPompeii and Herculaneum buried
AD 313Edict of Milan by ConstantineChristianity tolerated; made the state religion by Theodosius in 380
AD 476Last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, deposed by OdoacerConventional end of the Western Empire and of antiquity
Latin authors and their major works10 rows
AuthorMain workWhat it is
Julius CaesarDe Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War)Caesar's own prose account of his conquest of Gaul, 58 to 50 BC, written in the third person
CiceroSpeeches against Catiline; De Re Publica; lettersOrator and statesman; the model of Latin prose style
LucretiusDe Rerum NaturaPoem explaining the Epicurean view that everything is made of atoms
VirgilAeneid; Georgics; EcloguesEpic of Aeneas, who flees Troy and founds the Roman line in Italy; Dante's guide in the Divine Comedy
HoraceOdes; Satires; Ars PoeticaLyric poet of the age of Augustus; source of "carpe diem"
OvidMetamorphosesPoem of myths about transformations; Ovid was exiled by Augustus
LivyAb Urbe ConditaHistory of Rome from its founding
SenecaLetters to Lucilius; tragediesStoic philosopher and tutor of the emperor Nero
Pliny the ElderNaturalis HistoriaEncyclopedia of the natural world; he died in the eruption of Vesuvius, AD 79
TacitusAnnals; Histories; GermaniaHistorian of the early emperors and of the Germanic peoples

Watch out for (6)

Middle Ages, Renaissance and the Age of Exploration

Reference tables (3)

Key events of the Middle Ages9 rows
DateEventFact to remember
622Muhammad moves from Mecca to Medina (the Hijra)Year 1 of the Islamic calendar
800Charlemagne, king of the Franks, crowned emperor in Rome on Christmas DayCrowned by Pope Leo III
1054Great SchismSplit between the Catholic Church (Rome) and the Orthodox Church (Constantinople)
1066Norman conquest of EnglandWilliam the Conqueror wins the battle of Hastings
1096 to 1291The CrusadesThe First Crusade took Jerusalem in 1099
1215Magna CartaKing John of England accepts that the king is under the law
1337 to 1453Hundred Years' WarEngland against France; Joan of Arc; France wins and England keeps only Calais
1347 to 1351Black DeathBubonic plague kills between a third and a half of Europe's people
1453Ottoman Turks capture ConstantinopleEnd of the Byzantine Empire; often used as the end of the Middle Ages
Renaissance and Reformation9 rows
DatePerson or eventFact to remember
About 1450Johannes Gutenberg in MainzPrinting with movable metal type; the Gutenberg Bible, about 1455
1469 to 1492Lorenzo de' Medici (il Magnifico) rules FlorencePatron of Botticelli and the young Michelangelo
About 1495 to 1519Leonardo da VinciThe Last Supper (Milan), the Mona Lisa, anatomical drawings
1508 to 1512Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceilingAlso the marble David (1504)
1513Machiavelli writes The PrincePublished in 1532, after his death
1517Martin Luther's 95 Theses, WittenbergAgainst the sale of indulgences; start of the Reformation
1534Act of SupremacyHenry VIII makes himself head of the Church of England
1545 to 1563Council of TrentCatholic Counter-Reformation
1618 to 1648Thirty Years' WarReligious and political war in Germany; ended by the Peace of Westphalia (1648)
The age of exploration and the conquest of the Americas7 rows
DateExplorer or eventAchievement
1488Bartolomeu Dias (Portugal)First to sail round the Cape of Good Hope
1492Christopher Columbus (for Spain)Reached the Caribbean (the Bahamas, then Cuba and Hispaniola)
1494Treaty of TordesillasDivided new lands between Spain and Portugal
1498Vasco da Gama (Portugal)First sea voyage from Europe to India, round Africa
1500Pedro Álvares Cabral (Portugal)Reached Brazil
1519 to 1522Ferdinand Magellan's expedition (for Spain)First circumnavigation of the globe; Magellan was killed in the Philippines and Elcano finished the voyage
1521 and 1532Hernán Cortés and Francisco PizarroSpanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires

Watch out for (3)

Enlightenment, Revolutions and the Unification of Italy and Germany

Reference tables (3)

The Enlightenment: thinkers and ideas7 rows
ThinkerCountryKey idea or work
John LockeEnglandNatural rights to life, liberty and property; government needs the consent of the governed (Two Treatises of Government, 1689)
MontesquieuFranceSeparation of legislative, executive and judicial powers (The Spirit of the Laws, 1748)
VoltaireFranceReligious tolerance and free speech; the satire Candide (1759)
Jean-Jacques RousseauBorn in Geneva, worked in FranceThe Social Contract (1762): sovereignty belongs to the people and their "general will"
Diderot and d'AlembertFranceThe Encyclopédie (from 1751), a summary of all knowledge
Cesare BeccariaMilanOn Crimes and Punishments (1764): against torture and the death penalty
Immanuel KantPrussiaEssay "What is Enlightenment?" (1784): "Sapere aude", dare to use your own reason
The age of revolutions, 1688 to 18489 rows
DateEventFact to remember
1688 to 1689Glorious Revolution, EnglandBill of Rights 1689: Parliament stands above the king
From about 1760Industrial Revolution begins in BritainJames Watt's improved steam engine (patented 1769)
4 July 1776American Declaration of IndependenceWritten mainly by Thomas Jefferson; US Constitution 1787; George Washington first president in 1789
14 July 1789Storming of the Bastille, ParisStart of the French Revolution; Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August 1789
1793 to 1794The TerrorLouis XVI executed in January 1793; Robespierre's rule
1804Napoleon crowned Emperor of the FrenchNapoleonic Civil Code the same year
1815Battle of Waterloo; Congress of Vienna (1814 to 1815)Napoleon exiled to Saint Helena; old monarchies restored
1848Revolutions across Europe ("Springtime of the Peoples")Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto
1861 to 1865American Civil WarAbraham Lincoln; slavery abolished in the USA in 1865
The unification of Italy and of Germany8 rows
DateEventKey figure
1848 to 1849First Italian War of Independence, lost to AustriaCharles Albert, king of Piedmont-Sardinia
1859Second War of Independence: Lombardy wonCavour, allied with Napoleon III of France
1860Expedition of the Thousand conquers the Kingdom of the Two SiciliesGiuseppe Garibaldi
17 March 1861Kingdom of Italy proclaimedVictor Emmanuel II, first king of Italy
1866Third War of Independence: Venetia joins ItalyItaly allied with Prussia against Austria
20 September 1870Rome taken (the breach of Porta Pia); capital from 1871End of the Pope's temporal power
1864 to 1871Prussian wars against Denmark, Austria and FranceOtto von Bismarck
18 January 1871German Empire proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at VersaillesWilhelm I of Prussia, first German Kaiser

Watch out for (3)

The World Wars, the Cold War and European Integration

Reference tables (4)

The First World War and the Russian Revolution7 rows
DateEventFact to remember
28 June 1914Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated in SarajevoThe trigger of the war
1914 to 1918First World WarTrench warfare on the Western Front
24 May 1915Italy enters the war against AustriaDefeat at Caporetto (1917); victory at Vittorio Veneto (1918)
1917February and October Revolutions in RussiaLenin and the Bolsheviks take power; the USSR is formed in 1922
1917USA enters the warPresident Woodrow Wilson
11 November 1918Armistice ends the fightingGermany signs in a railway carriage at Compiègne
1919Treaty of VersaillesGermany loses land and pays reparations; League of Nations founded (1920)
Between the wars and the Second World War9 rows
DateEventFact to remember
October 1922March on RomeMussolini becomes prime minister; dictatorship from 1925
October 1929Wall Street CrashStart of the Great Depression
January 1933Hitler becomes chancellor of GermanyNazi dictatorship follows within months
1 September 1939Germany invades PolandBritain and France declare war on 3 September
10 June 1940Italy enters the warFrance falls the same month
1941Germany invades the USSR (June); Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (7 December)The USSR and the USA enter the war
1943Allies land in Sicily; Mussolini removed on 25 July; armistice announced on 8 SeptemberGermany occupies northern and central Italy; the Resistance begins
6 June 1944D-Day: Allied landings in NormandyOpens the Western front in France
1945Liberation of Italy (25 April); German surrender (8 May); atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August); Japan surrenders (2 September)End of the war; the United Nations founded
The Cold War, the space race and decolonisation10 rows
DateEventFact to remember
1947India and Pakistan become independentGandhi is assassinated in January 1948
1949NATO founded; Germany divided; People's Republic of China proclaimed by MaoThe Cold War takes shape
October 1957USSR launches Sputnik 1First artificial satellite; start of the space race
12 April 1961Yuri Gagarin orbits the EarthFirst human in space (USSR)
August 1961Berlin Wall builtDivides East and West Berlin
October 1962Cuban Missile CrisisClosest the superpowers came to nuclear war
20 July 1969Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong walks on the MoonFirst humans on the Moon (USA)
9 November 1989Fall of the Berlin WallGermany reunited on 3 October 1990
December 1991USSR dissolvedEnd of the Cold War
1994Nelson Mandela elected president of South AfricaEnd of apartheid
How the European Union was built, treaty by treaty10 rows
YearTreaty or stepWhat it did
1951Treaty of ParisCreated the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
1957Treaties of RomeCreated the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom
1973First enlargementUnited Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark join
1979First direct elections to the European ParliamentCitizens vote for MEPs
1985Schengen AgreementRemoval of internal border checks (in force from 1995)
1992Treaty of Maastricht (in force 1993)Created the European Union and planned the euro
1999 and 2002Euro launchedElectronic money in 1999; notes and coins on 1 January 2002
2004Largest enlargementTen countries join, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe
2007 (in force 2009)Treaty of LisbonCurrent rules of the EU; a permanent President of the European Council
31 January 2020BrexitThe United Kingdom leaves; 27 members remain

Watch out for (4)

History of Science, Medicine and Great Prizes

Reference tables (4)

Milestones in the history of medicine12 rows
PersonPlace and dateContribution
HippocratesKos, Greece, about 460 to 370 BCFather of Western medicine; the Hippocratic Oath
GalenGreek doctor in Rome, 2nd century ADAnatomy and physiology from animal dissection; the theory of the four humours
Avicenna (Ibn Sina)Persia, about 1025The Canon of Medicine, a standard textbook in Europe for centuries
Andreas VesaliusPadua, 1543De humani corporis fabrica: modern human anatomy
William HarveyEngland, 1628De Motu Cordis: the heart pumps blood round a closed circulation
Edward JennerEngland, 1796First vaccine, against smallpox, using cowpox
Ignaz SemmelweisVienna, 1847Handwashing by doctors cut deaths from childbed fever
Louis PasteurFrance, 1860s to 1885Germ theory, pasteurisation, rabies vaccine
Joseph ListerBritain, 1867Antiseptic surgery using carbolic acid
Robert KochGermany, 1882Identified the tuberculosis bacterium; Koch's postulates
Alexander FlemingLondon, 1928Discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic
James Watson and Francis CrickCambridge, 1953Double-helix structure of DNA, using Rosalind Franklin's X-ray images
Astronomy and the Scientific Revolution, Ptolemy to Newton7 rows
ScientistPlace and dateContribution
Claudius PtolemyAlexandria, 2nd century ADThe Almagest: an Earth-centred model of the universe
Nicolaus CopernicusPoland, 1543De revolutionibus: a Sun-centred model
Galileo GalileiPisa and Padua, 1609 to 1610Improved the telescope; discovered four moons of Jupiter; regular swing of the pendulum
Johannes KeplerGermany and Prague, 1609 to 1619Three laws of planetary motion: orbits are ellipses
Evangelista TorricelliFlorence, 1643Mercury barometer
Isaac NewtonEngland, 1687Principia: three laws of motion and universal gravitation; also calculus and optics
Carl Friedrich GaussGermany, early 1800sThe normal (Gaussian) distribution; number theory
Physics, chemistry and biology from Volta to Einstein12 rows
ScientistDateDiscovery or invention
Alessandro Volta1800Electric battery (the voltaic pile)
Michael Faraday1831Electromagnetic induction, the basis of generators
Charles Darwin1859On the Origin of Species: evolution by natural selection
Gregor Mendel1866Laws of inheritance, from pea plants
Dmitri Mendeleev1869Periodic table of the elements
Wilhelm Röntgen1895X-rays; first Nobel Prize in Physics (1901)
Henri Becquerel1896Radioactivity, from uranium salts
Marie and Pierre Curie1898Polonium and radium; study of radioactivity
Albert Einstein1905 and 1915Special and general relativity; E = mc²; the photoelectric effect
Hans Geiger1908 to 1928Radiation detector (the Geiger counter, with Müller)
Niels Bohr1913Model of the atom with electrons in fixed orbits
Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll1931The electron microscope
Nobel Prizes, other great awards and famous firsts7 rows
Prize or personField or achievementRemember
Marie CurieNobel in Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911)First woman to win a Nobel; only person with Nobels in two different sciences
Fields MedalMathematicsEvery four years, to mathematicians under 40
Pulitzer PrizeUS journalism, fiction, drama and musicSince 1917, run by Columbia University in New York
Turing AwardComputer scienceNamed after Alan Turing
Mahatma GandhiLeader of India's non-violent independence movementNominated several times but never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace laureates often askedMartin Luther King (1964), Willy Brandt (1971), Aung San Suu Kyi (1991), Nelson Mandela (1993), Malala Yousafzai (2014)Malala was 17: the youngest laureate
Rita Levi-MontalciniNobel in Physiology or Medicine (1986)Italian neurologist; discovered nerve growth factor

Watch out for (4)

PYQ weightage by concept

19 concepts · 0 PYQs — where the marks actually sit, so you know what to drill first

The Ancient World: Early Civilisations, Greece and Rome0 PYQs · 0%
ConceptPYQsShare
Early civilisations and the birth of writingfoundation——
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient Worldfoundation——
Classical Greece: the polis, democracy and Alexanderfoundation——
Rome from foundation to fall: the key datesfoundation——
Latin authors and their major worksfoundation——
Middle Ages, Renaissance and the Age of Exploration0 PYQs · 0%
ConceptPYQsShare
Key events of the Middle Agesfoundation——
Renaissance and Reformationfoundation——
The age of exploration and the conquest of the Americasfoundation——
Enlightenment, Revolutions and the Unification of Italy and Germany0 PYQs · 0%
ConceptPYQsShare
The Enlightenment: thinkers and ideasfoundation——
The age of revolutions, 1688 to 1848foundation——
The unification of Italy and of Germanyfoundation——
The World Wars, the Cold War and European Integration0 PYQs · 0%
ConceptPYQsShare
The First World War and the Russian Revolutionfoundation——
Between the wars and the Second World Warfoundation——
The Cold War, the space race and decolonisationfoundation——
How the European Union was built, treaty by treatyfoundation——
History of Science, Medicine and Great Prizes0 PYQs · 0%
ConceptPYQsShare
Milestones in the history of medicinefoundation——
Astronomy and the Scientific Revolution, Ptolemy to Newtonfoundation——
Physics, chemistry and biology from Volta to Einsteinfoundation——
Nobel Prizes, other great awards and famous firstsfoundation——