Sample Judge’s Questions - National History Day
**Please make sure that all students answer the same or very similar questions. However, they can be tailored to the specifics of the projects.
**It is not okay for a student to remain silent in a group interview. If needed, please ask all group members to respond.
1. How did you decide on your topic?
2. How does your topic relate to this year’s theme?
3. Why was your topic important in history?
4. What is your thesis/claim?
5. How did you conduct your research?
6. What primary sources did you find? Where did you find them?
7. What was your most important source? Why?
8. What websites did you use? Which was the best? Why?
9. Do you think you represented both sides of your topic? How?.
10. (Group) Tell us what each one of you did to contribute to this project.
11. What difficulties did you face doing your project? How did you overcome them?
12. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us? (Great question to end with)
13. What was the most interesting thing that you learned while researching?
14. What changes will you make to further your project if you advance to the finals?
15. What was the most difficult aspect of your research?
16. Historical context: How does your topic relate to what was going on nationally (or globally) at the time?
17. How did you find clip X or resources X, and what made you include it in your project?
18. Briefly describe how you designed/created your entry.
19. What limitations in sources did you come across? How did you ensure reliability?
Context questions should be age-appropriate and not overly specific eg: Students are not expected to know what was happening in specific world locations at the time of their project unless specifically mentioned in their project.