Remembering information, studying in general for History (1 Viewer)

[anteara]

Hey all, so I have my HSC coming up soon, and I'm doing alright in every other subject, I'm aiming for an ATAR of at least 70 which I really hope I can get... All of my classes my mark currently is around 65-75, with IT being around 95, and history only being around 50. I'm absolutely terrible at history, I have no freaking idea how I'm supposed to remember this incredible amount of information while trying to remember everything for the other classes as well.

So basically this is what I'm doing... I bought a book called "Checkpoints: HSC Modern History", It's set up to follow the syllabus, so I'm going to write down EVERY study note in it for what I'm doing in class (WWI, Nazi Germany, Leni Reifenstahl, Indochina). So far I've done Indochina and it's 17 pages long. That's ALL of the notes for Indochina. So after I'm done everything I would probably be looking at around 65 + pages.

I really need help actually learning this stuff. I'm going to write everything down because the way the teacher does things is he just gives us handouts and we have so much random information that we have to determine what we need to keep. I probably have around 200 pages of notes overall simply from the stuff he's given me.

I figure it would be easier if I can write down all the notes from the study guide as they would be relevant, and actually what I NEED.

So now here's my question, how the hell can I remember all this stuff? What can I do to keep it in my brain? the techniques I use for English just don't work for History (mainly rephrasing, writing a question and answering it) since the history stuff never gets in to my mind.

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what I can do to learn and remember this information? It's important, obviously, and I would really appreciate it.

 

[school4nerds]

Hey all, so I have my HSC coming up soon, and I'm doing alright in every other subject, I'm aiming for an ATAR of at least 70 which I really hope I can get... All of my classes my mark currently is around 65-75, with IT being around 95, and history only being around 50. I'm absolutely terrible at history, I have no freaking idea how I'm supposed to remember this incredible amount of information while trying to remember everything for the other classes as well.

So basically this is what I'm doing... I bought a book called "Checkpoints: HSC Modern History", It's set up to follow the syllabus, so I'm going to write down EVERY study note in it for what I'm doing in class (WWI, Nazi Germany, Leni Reifenstahl, Indochina). So far I've done Indochina and it's 17 pages long. That's ALL of the notes for Indochina. So after I'm done everything I would probably be looking at around 65 + pages.

I really need help actually learning this stuff. I'm going to write everything down because the way the teacher does things is he just gives us handouts and we have so much random information that we have to determine what we need to keep. I probably have around 200 pages of notes overall simply from the stuff he's given me.

I figure it would be easier if I can write down all the notes from the study guide as they would be relevant, and actually what I NEED.

So now here's my question, how the hell can I remember all this stuff? What can I do to keep it in my brain? the techniques I use for English just don't work for History (mainly rephrasing, writing a question and answering it) since the history stuff never gets in to my mind.

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what I can do to learn and remember this information? It's important, obviously, and I would really appreciate it.

After writing/making all those notes and rereading them and using them to apply to questions you should be able to know them better

 

[ocstew]

I personally use my laptop for note taking in History. If my teacher gives me anything I suck out any information I think is useful, and then throw the paper into a pile of my modern things

 

[Eduard_Khil]

at this late point of the game, it's pretty hard to change your essay writing skills..., However for content, a good method is to first look at the history syllabus, identify what you're doing and write short notes based on what the syllabus requires you to do, you could do this from this checkpoints book that you got, these books usually target the syllabus's dot points, after that comes the process of memorising information (the darn hard part)
A good suggestion I like to use is memorising it in chronological order, and linking things that seem similar, that way you can incorporate your own detailed knowledge of events whilst writing your essay, allowing you not only to recite your essay in chronological order, but also have a clear indication of what's left to write, hence making your essay contain the necessary content it requires,
Of course the memorising part certainly needs time, even right now, in about a week before the exam, that's too late but not impossible, in order for this to be achieved you'll need really good discipline, such as setting a goal to memorise a certain section (in your limited timeframe), keep in mind to aim to finish memorising everything before the day of the exam? give it perhaps a few days (or in your case, maybe hours LOL) to sink in, if you do it the night before, you'll remember it before you sleep, but it will come out with a lot of delay, if at all during the course of the exam, in which your brain will respond negatively as a result of the pressure that is placed upon it, and hence as a result you will lose valuable time.
If you do however give it time to sink in, I did mine before HSC even started, you'll find it's really efficient, you'll be able to recite entire sections just by speaking it out, including all the dates key figures, events etc.
It's also a good idea to write it down when you memorise as opposed to "mentally" memorising it, this is because the action of your hand moving and reciting the info, is intrinsically linked with your brain, if you do this in the exam allowing you to be more efficient in reciting the information based on all the experience you've had writing the answer out by hand, often I find that also speaking it out helps, even though it may seem like you're talking to yourself, often if you can recite an entire section just through speaking it, it's a good indication that you're set.
That and that, since it's like a week left, memorising will probably be extrememly difficult as the pressure is choking in, however know that heaps of other people have memorised all their content before the HSC even began, sooooooo good luck with that, while you struggle, they'll have the time of their life being prepared, which obviously as life is a lesson teaches us that preparing a week before an exam which is super content heavy is not a really good advice aye?
But yeah, i threw you a bone, you can use it to your hearts content if you desire

TL;DR: scroll back up and read what I wrote

 

[asadass]

It shouldn't be as difficult to memorise the content now, since you will have already studied parts of it during the year.

 

[Eduard_Khil]

It shouldn't be as difficult to memorise the content now, since you will have already studied parts of it during the year.

"in theory"
Not all people respond to memorising the content as others do, there are also other variables that you have to keep in mind as well that you clearly haven't, yes, you may have learnt the content throughout the year, and hence through studying it "rings a bell" in which case you're able remember the facts and figures, HOWEVER, you assumed that was throughout the year, as an exam nears close, especially one as large scale as the HSC, often people focus on other subjects and put their mind and effort into those other ones, e.g. you have english and software design tomorrow, are you going to study modern history? which is about a week and a half away?
The answer is logically, a no.
So technically your answer is invalid, because different people respond to different levels of anxiety and stress levels, which ultimately contribute to their level of "optimal arousal" which is needed for their best performance within a test.

 

[asadass]

Didn't realise we were considering every variable possible, mate.

Although I have my Math exam tomorrow, the vast majority of my weekend has been used to study modern and geography. So I guess that means that you're answer is invalid?

I find the shorter topics (WWI and the personality study) can be relearnt in just 1-2 hours each, assuming that you've put SOME WORK in beforehand.

Obviously if you've done little to no work throughout the year and begin studying a week before the exam, you will be stressed, and as you suggest, this stress may affect your ability to memorise/understand the content.

 

[Eduard_Khil]

Didn't realise we were considering every variable possible, mate.

Although I have my Math exam tomorrow, the vast majority of my weekend has been used to study modern and geography. So I guess that means that you're answer is invalid?

I find the shorter topics (WWI and the personality study) can be relearnt in just 1-2 hours each, assuming that you've put SOME WORK in beforehand.

Obviously if you've done little to no work throughout the year and begin studying a week before the exam, you will be stressed, and as you suggest, this stress may affect your ability to memorise/understand the content.

The answer is logically, a no.

errr.. technically my answer is valid since I did say, "logically, a no" here, I'll work it out for you, this means that I claim that although not impossible, it would be rather improper and unpractical to be studying for an exam that is far ahead to come if you suddenly had 2 exams in front of you, however of course there are the outliers, that may study something else, who knows perhaps they were really good at the subjects they had tomorrow, and felt they would rather spend their time on the other subjects, so as a result no my argument is not invalid. But since we're considering every variable, as you state, you didn't take in account all those that might decide to give up the tests in front of them because they may do more than 10 units, and know that those subjects will not be as high as the other ones, who knows? we're using every variable here now, hence your argument is now turned invalid.
Anyway, since this has turned us off topic let's go back, yeah i agree with the statement about being able to relearn something in 1-2 hours, yeah especially since school trials etc, i mean, the trials is designed to be a simulation, with pressure, stress levels, anxiety, possibly greater to some or less, in comparison to the HSC, so yeah, technically it shouldn't be too hard to re-learn this content, but If you haven't put any effort in throughout the year, then... thats a lifes lesson to be learnt, and refer to my aforementioned large piece of text.