How to Approach a 40 Mark Answer

It is important to know that the paper regarding Germany is a test not only of facts but also of presentation. It does not help if you pen only facts and don't back it up with logical reasoning.
Take the question,
"How important were reparations as a cause of the problems of the Weimar government between 1919 and 1924? Explain your answer."
 for example, in this question, you must aim to build the argument from ground up. This is what the Introduction should consist of the following:

• About the contrast in Germany before and after the War.  How the war had caused a massive decline in the adult male population, state fact that only 1 out of 3 women could find a husband to back up your claim, connect this with how the working population of Germany also declined due to a shortage of adult males and how it caused women to enter the workforce, which in turn upset the conservative aristocratic right wing and mention how the left wanted to create a soviet-Esque state, and therefore the Weimar  Republic had enemies even before it came into existence.
• The inclusion of the Aforementioned points will show the examiner that you know the facts well as you're able to integrate it in a cause-effect explanation. It will also set the tone of the essay in the first paragraph. 

These points must be included in the introduction of an essay whose final claim will be to refute the argument posed in the question and which says that 

"problems other than reparations caused problems for the Weimar Republic" 

It is important to understand that the introduction is the most important part of the essay as the body would contain facts which the examiner would've come across multiple times. Therefore it is imperative to state the direction of the essay in the beginning. However keeping that in mind the essay is argumentative therefore the stance must be put forth subtly, in the introduction and explicitly stated in the conclusion, in addition, the body of the passage must be entirely argumentative with each fact being explained in a new paragraph. 

All in all, to tackle the essay well, you must have a bank full of facts on one of the two eras, i.e. for Germany Study either the Weimar Years or the Nazi Era but study that one topic thoroughly.  

Also remember that while a 40 mark answer might seem to be very difficult if you're well prepared with an armoury of facts it is easy to score well and such an approach allowed me to score a 38//40 in the finals.

NEXT: I will post my resources for the Germany In-depth Studies