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How to really excel in Modern History (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Tiernan
- Start date
Given I have just started the HSC course as well, I don't have tips of my own but here are some tips that I've heard.
- Do extra reading on all your topics (except for WW1, not really necessary to do too much reading. Just stick to the syllabus - I've heard that reading and researching too much on WW1 ends up disadvantaging you instead.)
- Do regular source analysis practice on WW1. Source analysis is a skill that you can practice, like maths.
- Keep up with syllabus notes and do them as you go, will save you heaps of time.
- Read and examine exemplar responses
- Lots of essay practice!!!! Some people write a couple of essays on each dot point of the syllabus. Make sure you get this marked, you would not want to be writing essays the wrong way over and over again.
- Most of all, listen in class!!! I find that class time is the most valuable time.
Good luck!
- Do extra reading on all your topics (except for WW1, not really necessary to do too much reading. Just stick to the syllabus - I've heard that reading and researching too much on WW1 ends up disadvantaging you instead.)
- Do regular source analysis practice on WW1. Source analysis is a skill that you can practice, like maths.
- Keep up with syllabus notes and do them as you go, will save you heaps of time.
- Read and examine exemplar responses
- Lots of essay practice!!!! Some people write a couple of essays on each dot point of the syllabus. Make sure you get this marked, you would not want to be writing essays the wrong way over and over again.
- Most of all, listen in class!!! I find that class time is the most valuable time.
Good luck!
Probably a bit brief, but here are some of my tips for Modern:
- Learn how to write an essay. The central difference between a Band 6 student and everyone else mainly centres on the ability to write an essay. My teachers were both markers and they said that many people have an excellent knowledge of the content, but few can put it together to produce an essay - this is something I've definitely observed when I've marked essays for people. A lot of people really dont know how to write and structure an essay. The most common mistake people make is to "carpet bomb", where they just write everything they know on an essay, or give a description of an event as opposed to an analytical review. So practicing and mastering essay writing is crucial to doing well in Modern.
- Learning the content in Modern is also important, but considering how vast it is a lot of people dont know how to go about it. Too many people become bogged down in rote-learning mindless facts which you dont really need to know (i.e. exact dates of events, specific details of events). Whilst those things are nice to know, people waste too much time learning them as opposed to focusing on past papers and practice essays which are way more important. So with Modern, you need to be able to condense the content down to the most important elements (this is actually a really good skill for uni and work).
- Learn how to write an essay. The central difference between a Band 6 student and everyone else mainly centres on the ability to write an essay. My teachers were both markers and they said that many people have an excellent knowledge of the content, but few can put it together to produce an essay - this is something I've definitely observed when I've marked essays for people. A lot of people really dont know how to write and structure an essay. The most common mistake people make is to "carpet bomb", where they just write everything they know on an essay, or give a description of an event as opposed to an analytical review. So practicing and mastering essay writing is crucial to doing well in Modern.
- Learning the content in Modern is also important, but considering how vast it is a lot of people dont know how to go about it. Too many people become bogged down in rote-learning mindless facts which you dont really need to know (i.e. exact dates of events, specific details of events). Whilst those things are nice to know, people waste too much time learning them as opposed to focusing on past papers and practice essays which are way more important. So with Modern, you need to be able to condense the content down to the most important elements (this is actually a really good skill for uni and work).
I think one of the most important things to remember about Modern is that it is a very content heavy subject, so to do well there is really no getting around the fact that you need to know your syllabuses (syllabi?) back to front. Even for WWI, where you only need a superficial knowledge compared to your other topics, there is still a lot of information you need to be comfortable with, because even though you only need enough to analyse sources sometimes they can give you really obscure sources or specific questions which requires depth of knowledge.
Obviously, for the other three areas your knowledge really important, so you have to be constantly reading and writing notes, going over them, discussing with other students etc. Like I said, there should be no area of the syllbus where you go 'I would just avoid that question', because if there are two of them then you are screwed. This depth of knowledge is extremely important because without it you can't develop your own opinion, which is the most important thing when it comes to essay writing. If you don't have strong opinions on everything in your syllabus, you will find it very difficult to respond to some questions. This is particularly critical for the Personality section, when they have some obscure quote the only way you can respond is if you know your subject matter so well it just clicks with your own views.
Opinions are also really important because they can help you develop interesting arguments when writing essays. Like, most people can easily regurgitate facts and basic theses from text books (which I think enoilgam covers in his amazing guide) but what examiners are interested in is YOUR view, and if you have a unique one then it is is more interesting to read and there is more of a sense that you have read/know more in order to formulate such a view. Essays, I think, are good on the basis of two things; complexity and clarity. Complexity is how interesting your ideas are to read (as I just said) while clarity is how easy it is to read; just simple stuff like topic sentences, clear paragraphs etc are critical to good essay writing
So to sum up, to do well you need to know a lot in order to be dynamic in responding to tricky questions, as well as developing your own focused opinions, which you NEED in order to do well.
Good luck!
Obviously, for the other three areas your knowledge really important, so you have to be constantly reading and writing notes, going over them, discussing with other students etc. Like I said, there should be no area of the syllbus where you go 'I would just avoid that question', because if there are two of them then you are screwed. This depth of knowledge is extremely important because without it you can't develop your own opinion, which is the most important thing when it comes to essay writing. If you don't have strong opinions on everything in your syllabus, you will find it very difficult to respond to some questions. This is particularly critical for the Personality section, when they have some obscure quote the only way you can respond is if you know your subject matter so well it just clicks with your own views.
Opinions are also really important because they can help you develop interesting arguments when writing essays. Like, most people can easily regurgitate facts and basic theses from text books (which I think enoilgam covers in his amazing guide) but what examiners are interested in is YOUR view, and if you have a unique one then it is is more interesting to read and there is more of a sense that you have read/know more in order to formulate such a view. Essays, I think, are good on the basis of two things; complexity and clarity. Complexity is how interesting your ideas are to read (as I just said) while clarity is how easy it is to read; just simple stuff like topic sentences, clear paragraphs etc are critical to good essay writing
So to sum up, to do well you need to know a lot in order to be dynamic in responding to tricky questions, as well as developing your own focused opinions, which you NEED in order to do well.
Good luck!