How do you know you're writting what you need to be?

After months of studying huge amounts of content, come exam time, it can be easy to finally get the chance to put everything you know down on paper. While this will show knowledge, and therefore allow you to access some good marks- it won't allow you access the best marks. For this you need to tailor you're knowledge to answer the question specifically. In History, exam question often have a key question word, for example 'how', 'why', 'what'. Making sure you're analytical in answering the key question word is important as it shows examiners you've actually thought about the question. Similalrly, History questions will sometimes have a time frame, which can either be very specific or very broad. It is vital to keep inside this time frame and anything outside will be considered irrelevant by examiners. In short, the importance of reading and understanding the question is just as important as the knowledge shown within the answer.