Modern/Ancient History HSC Tips (1 Viewer)

[Cute-Duckie]

Hey everyone!

So I initially wrote this information as a reply to a few questions on the Class of 2025 thread, but after spending over an hour on writing my response, and another half an hour editing my response so it made sense (for some insane reason - I think I just hyperfocused lol), I thought this infodump deserved its own post. Although be warned: it's just over 2500 words, so try not to get overwhelmed by the initial amount of information! These are all things I have learnt throughout the past year and just dumped here, so it's okay if it doesn't all stick or make sense initially.

A bit of context about me: I do Accelerated Ancient History at my school. My Year 11 Prelims mark was sitting at 79%, and I hated the feeling of getting that mark back, so I set a goal for myself to achieve a Band 6 in the Ancient History Course. Somehow, one year later, I've just got a 96% on my trials, an this post is basically a summary of the things I've learnt to improve my mark from a Band 4 to a Band 6.

From my understanding the Modern and Ancient HSC exams are marked fairly similarly, so this is more a general advice post for both courses. However Ancient History is what I'm way more familiar with, so if someone has different suggestions for Modern than what I've said here, definitely listen to them over me.

Alright, onto the random tips now:

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PART 1: Note taking tips

Starting with how I structured my Ancient notes - it's actually pretty basic. I had one document for each term (correlating to one doc for each topic, or 'section' in the exam). In that document, I had an overview of the syllabus dot points (highlighted by how well I knew them), any links to useful resources/notes/websites, and then headings for every syllabus dot point. I then put my notes under each syllabus dot point. If you want example on how to do that, most of the comprehensive notes on this site also sort their notes in this way, so just check out a few of those resources to get the idea.

Generally I've found researching outside of what my teacher gives me in class to be really good to do. My best tip for making history notes (without them being too time consuming) is to literally copy other people's past HSC notes. I've actually found a lot of stuff on this site that's been really good. My process was essentially to search up "my topic HSC notes", download whatever free ones I could find, make a 'links list' (just on Google Docs, nothing fancy) of all of those notes, and then go through them and copy whatever information is good onto my document. This really helped me to get good sources, and make sure I wasn't missing any crucial pieces of information or key events (in case my teacher missed them, or I was away and didn't catch up on everything). Using random internet resources others have already spend hours and hours on (research papers, HSC notes, etc) has been an easy, cost-free way of making comprehensive notes for Ancient that has got me good results.

To be honest, history is one of the subjects I personally find it easiest to make notes for, because of how methodical it is. Search up the syllabus, copy the syllabus dot points, and sort/create your notes under those. It's worth remembering that depending on the topic you may only get short answer questions on a dot point, or you may be required to write a whole essay for a dot point, so spend your time and information wisely. You can discover which topics have what styles of questions by looking through past HSC papers - you should get a feel for it pretty quickly.

Relating to when you should make notes, it's never too early to start. You can start making course notes now, before the academic year starts - in fact, I'd encourage it. Both Modern and Ancient are extremely content heavy courses (I noticed a huge shift between years 11 and 12 in terms of content covered), and you'll find yourself flying through material (for example, in Year 12 my class generally covered one syllabus dot point per lesson - which is slightly scary when there's one potential essay per syllabus dot point in the final exam). Having these notes already somewhat done, or at least already being familiar with the content, will mean that you absorb lots of extra information in class, and you have less last minute note taking right before the exam (I've been there, and trust me - when you can do practise responses instead of note taking with that time, you get a much better result). Additionally, having my notes ready fairly fast has meant that I can spend loads of time memorising and doing practise responses, which is a REALLY important step to achieving good marks (give any practise responses to your teacher to mark!! personalised feedback on your work makes it so much easier to improve).

Quickly on memorising sources: I personally find it easiest to memorise using flashcards, but you should memorise however best works for you. With that being said, if you do want to use flashcards to memorise, I can highly recommend Outlearn as the best free resource I have come across for making online flashcards (unlimited cards, unlimited folders, and access to long and short term memorisation modes with customisation all on their free version). You can access the site in their app or in your browser. With that being said, no matter how you memorise best, make sure you dedicate time to it. The history exam is all about proving your knowledge, and to do that you need lots and lots of evidence - it's non-negotiable to get good marks.

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[Cute-Duckie]

PART 2: Exam tips

Moving on from notes, while I haven't sit the actual HSC exam yet, here are a few random exam tips I have from trials and other internals.

In terms of completing the history paper specifically, it can feel really daunting (three hours, four sections, obscene amounts of writing with no multiple choice, etc). Something that made this a bit easier for me was going in with a plan. You don't have to do the sections in order - instead, my teacher advised us to (this worked well for me) start with the sections we felt strongest in, and complete our exam in order of strongest to weakest sections. This means you can maximise marks in the sections you're confident in, and might even have a bit of extra time to mull over those tricky questions in the sections you're less prepared for. I ended up starting with personality study (section 3), then going to time period (the essay) (section 4), then to the core study (section 1), and finally onto the society study (section 2). If there's two sections you're tossing up between which order to do them in, you can also use your reading time to figure out which section has harder questions, and then do the section with harder questions after the easier one.

When preparing for the exam, I would recommend not only writing regularly, but taping batteries onto your pen and then writing with those attached. If you haven't heard of this before it probably sounds a bit stupid, but essentially with 3-4 batteries taped around the end of your pen as you write, your pen is a lot heavier, making your hand much stronger (like lifting weird weights for your fingers or whatever). This is really good for preparing for the exam, as realistically you're not going to be able to write for three hours straight regularly to ensure your hand is strong enough for the exam. This also makes your hand feel like the flash when you finally take the batteries off, making you write way faster too.

Another random thing; make sure you eat well before the exam, and bring a clear water bottle in with you. Sitting in the one spot for three hours is (almost counterintuitively) exhausting, and the last thing you want is to be hungry/thirsty as well as braindead in the last hour or so (that time often seems to drag). Bringing in a tissue is also often a good idea (make sure you lay it out on your desk in clear view before the exam starts), and bringing several pens not only saves you if one runs out, but also allows you to switch them out if your hands get clammy/sweaty while writing.

My last general exam tip is not essential, but can help maximise your marks (and puts the HSC markers in a good mood, which is always positive). This tip seems kind of random, but it's to UNDERLINE YOUR EVIDENCE! Whenever you put evidence in a short response, essay, whatever, just underline it. Doing this allows the HSC markers to really easily see just how much you've jammed into your answer, making it both easier for them to mark (hence putting them in a good mood), and making sure they don't miss any evidence while they quickly read through your answer. It highlights how much you know, essentially putting all your good work into a spotlight to go "look at me!! I'm a band 6 student!!" This can also be useful if your writing is slightly illegible at points, if you're unsure how much more you need to write for a response, the list goes on.

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PART 3: Writing essay responses

Now in regards to writing essay responses. That stupid 25 marker. Or in the case of the Modern History, those two stupid 25 markers (makes me quite grateful that I only have one of them in the Ancient paper).

The samples NESA gives are generally not that great (quoting several of my teachers here), so while they can be good to look at for an idea of structure, you shouldn't really use them as exemplars. I still think it's good to look at essays other people have done (NESA provided or not), however the best exemplar you can get is writing one of your own. I know this sounds a bit silly to say (like just write your own exemplar?? it's not that easy...), but by consistently submitting practise responses to your teacher for marking, you'll not only eventually get to a band 6 standard (assuming you take on board feedback received of course), but you'll also feel so much more confident in your ability to write a good essay, making you feel more relaxed in the exam, and ultimately write better.

A big thing about essays in history is that you will always have to make a judgement about something, and then prove it. The question will most commonly ask you to "assess", or say "how significant, or "how successful", or "why", or "which was", or "to what extent". The thing that connects all of those, is that YOU have to decide what viewpoint you want to take, and then prove it. Making this judgement is crucial to a good essay - otherwise, you're not answering the question. The trick with history essays in this regard, is that once you make this judgement, you need to call back to it constantly. Every piece of evidence, every argument, every topic sentence, EVERYTHING needs to back up your initial thesis. If your evidence doesn't link to your argument, then there's no point putting it in your essay - info-dumping will get you absolutely nowhere. So make sure your thesis answers the question, and that your entire essay proves the thesis. This succinctness and precision with which you are answering the question at every turn is key to achieve a band 6 essay.

In regards to your evidence - your essay needs to be littered with it. Go back to the basic PEEL structure you probably learnt in Year 4 or so - Point, Explain, Example, Link. Everything in your essay should fit into one of these four subdivisions. Every point you make needs to be backed up by evidence, and every piece of evidence you put out needs to be linked to your argument and ultimately your overall essay judgement/thesis. History essays should be dense - you don't have a lot of time to write them, so make every word count.

To achieve a band 6 essay, especially a high band 6 essay, you also need to use different types of evidence in your response. I'm not as sure of what some of these entail for Modern History (I'm sure there are some crossovers and some differences), but for Ancient, these include things like inscriptions, ancient historian's opinions/perspectives, monuments/architecture, tablets, writings, modern historical research, and modern scholarly opinions. These last two - the commentary and perspectives of expert modern scholars in the field, is an important type of evidence for a Band 6 essay that is often overlooked. Including it in your essay screams "I know what I'm talking about, I have done amazing research, I am a band 6 student". HSC markers LOVE when you include modern scholars opinions - usually done in the form of a name (of the scholar) and a quote (generally taken from a paper they have written). Get familiar with some of the prominent modern scholars in your areas of study, and learn some versatile quotes from them that you can incorporate into your essay. While these quotes shouldn't make up the entirety of your argument (you don't just want to copy someone's paper entirely), said quotes are super good for supporting and validating your arguments. To summarise: use modern scholars to give your essay an edge!

Now in regard to practising essays. I personally find essays a lot harder to practise than short responses, simply because of the time required to practise them (45 minutes can quickly turn into one hour, then two, and suddenly my entire day is gone because the idea of writing a whole essay is annoyingly overwhelming). Plus, due to all the dot points you have to cover which could be potential essay questions, it's basically impossible to write out a full essay on each of these anyway (or if you do, you'll fail all your other subjects because you'll have no extra time). Instead, I'd recommend doing a lot of essay plans. Set a 5 minute timer, choose a random question from a past paper, and write out a rough essay plan. I like to do these in the forms of mind maps or a list, where I make a quick overall judgement, write the headings of my arguments, and list my supporting evidence in dot points. This is also a great revision tool to see what dot points you need to memorise more content for, or spend more time on. Doing these plans helps you be more prepared for more topics, while not taking up all your time so you can balance out history with your other subjects.

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I hope this was helpful, and if you have any questions just reply to this or shoot me a dm. Good luck!