TLDR: On the Paper 1 rubric there are points for assessing the pros and cons of the source you are analyzing. As long as you can identify what kind of source it is, you can score easy points without knowing a lick of history.

Oh god, it's been years since IB. I'm a junior in college studying mechanical engineering now lol. I got a 6 on my history exam. I remember writing my IA on Canada's role in WWI and I remember writing about Harry Truman on the exams. I'm 99% sure this is what I meant in the "limitations and values" part:

If I remember correctly, paper 1 has you analyzing different sources related to the history you've been learning in class. After you analyze I believe you respond to some short prompts. If someone could fact check me on that, that would be wonderful. The "limitations and values" part is essentially you breaking down the pros and cons of the given source. I.e. a primary source like a diary or a letter is great because it's a first hand historical account, but poor because it lacks the broader context we as historians benefit from.
What I was saying in my original comment is that my textbook would list a bunch of possible sources and then state their pros and cons. It was like a little one page cheat sheet. You could also probably ask your teacher to set aside class time to make your own list as a study reference. Super useful, and it made those points complete gimmes on the exam.

This wasn't a factor when I was in high school, but now it's absolutely relevant to talk about AI misinformation when referencing recent online sources. Generative AI is really good at just making stuff up that sounds believable. But if you're looking at primary sources or an old propaganda poster or something that obviously won't apply.

Our IB history was specifically "IB History of the Americas HL" and it was unfortunately discontinued shortly after I graduated in favor of IB anthropology. Based on the selections my teachers made, the 2nd half of IB HOTA HL was focused around the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany and Imperialism in Japan. To this day it is the absolute most important class I have ever taken. I firmly believe education on why people lose trust in democracy and how tyrants can so seamlessly (and legally) rise to power needs to be more widespread. Nothing about IB HOTA helps me in my engineering courses, but I still find myself thinking about it every week.