Modern History Studying Tips (2 Viewers)

[Benno]

hey everone, look when i study it seems that i get very easily distracted and daydream half an hour away. any tips on how to combat this?

 

[s2ophie]

If you're just reading over and over your notes its almost impossible not to daydream. My advice is to make your notes more interesting eg make pretty wall charts or time yourself. Say 'I will read over all of Germany prior to 1939 in 30 minutes' That way, you can skim over the stuff you know you know and consolidate the stuff you don't.

 

[apollo]

i got 96% for the independent schools trial, so i guess my advice must count for something.

teach things to other people. ask a family member for an hour of their time, and teach them everything you can about a particular topic... get them to ask question too, and clarify where you're not sure.

i don't know why, but the added pressure of knowing you're teaching someone else something helps me recall and remember details, events, etc.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

Here are some tips that I have:

-For your national study and study in peace and conflict, historiography is important. You will notice that the top band answers always make some reference to historians opinions etc. A helpful thing to do is to go through the Key Features, Groups, and Key Concepts for each topic and try to find some quotes and opinions from historians that could cover each of these. It's especially helpful to find quotes which could be incorporated in to essays on a few of the key features.

-Summarize your notes under headings of the Key Features, Groups and Concepts. That way you can be sure that you have everything covered. Remember that it is possible that they could just take a Key Feature and perhaps a concept and combine them to make a question. Eg. Assess the impact of anti-communism on American foreign policy during the period 1956-1975

-It's really important to write practise essays. That way you are more prepared for the different questions that could be asked in the exam. Would you be happy if they asked the same question in the HSC that you were asked for a previous assessment? Most people would be, because they would feel more prepared. Practise essays are an important part of exam preparation.

-An easy way to memorize dates.... here goes. Instead of just writing out lists of dates, write them on little cards and make modern history flashcards. Write the event on one side of the card, and the date on the other. That way you can quiz yourself on the dates, meaning you are actively engaging with the information, rather than simply reading it off a sheet. This technique works great for maths formulas too .

-Practise doing essays under "exam conditions". Give yourself mini exams.... for example, choose a small part of the syllabus, ie The rise of Nazism, study it for a few hours (however long you need) and then do an essay without your notes, just like as if it was an exam.

Please everyone, contribute your study tips to this thread so we can help each other out!!

 

[Benno]

ok thx every1.

 

[Leanne]

this is excellent advice!

i've been looking up historians for Germany...5 hours yesterday...which i'd never done before....its like looking at modern history in a totally different light.....

 

[s2ophie]

I have no idea where to start for historiography! our teacher really hasn't emphasised it but does anyone have any good startingpoints in finding it? Particularly for Indochina and Germany??

 

[braindrainedAsh]

*in the same boat as Soph, wishing I had borrowed some textbooks over stuvac*

 

[Andronicus]

Historiography... You guys are having a panic over historiography? Don't panic, seriously.

All it is are a few quotes from different historians. Now, I was lucky in that my teachers for all histories gave me enough sources and quotes and viewpoints to... well, there were a lot. But, if you have textbook like Harpur for Indochina, or Christian's book for Russia, then they are FULL of quotes from historians, generals and guys like Stalin and all that.

What else do you need? Unless youw ant to get really complex and start looking at the Revisionist school of thought on Inochina (but that's just a waste of time... trust me!).

So look in your textbooks, and if you have none, well then... that's going to make this really hard for you. Try looking up books on your topic, and then borrow and read them, but don't fall into the trap of learning too many quotes and crap that you'll never use - keep it simple and direct (short quotes and one's that can be applied anywhere make it much easier).

Anyway...

 

[braindrainedAsh]

Thanks... I do have some historiography on Germany, but we don't have any in our notes on Indochina... perhaps it's because our teacher wrote a textbook on Indochina.... I suppose we could just make up quotes and say that he said them lol. I'll probably just borrow some textbooks when school goes back and grab a couple of quotes from there.....

 

[Benno]

ash is ur teacher gona be marking the HSC this year? coz ill just use his name and make up qoutes (i use his indochina text book) hehe.

 

[s2ophie]

he won't be (sutho is my teacher too) cos he is retiring next year and will actually be in paris on the day we do our MH exam!

 

[iambored]

Originally posted by apollo
i got 96% for the independent schools trial, so i guess my advice must count for something.

teach things to other people. ask a family member for an hour of their time, and teach them everything you can about a particular topic... get them to ask question too, and clarify where you're not sure.

i don't know why, but the added pressure of knowing you're teaching someone else something helps me recall and remember details, events, etc.

i agree teaching people is a good way to find out what u know / dont know.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

lol alright then, a ton of fictional quotes from our history teacher sounds like a good idea lol.... heaps of people in the state now are going to be using my history teachers name to make up false historiography!! poor sutho!

Do you know what, it might actually be easier just to memorize some historians quotes rather than make them up lol.

 

[Alexander]

When I chose to do MH I thought 'this will be easy, yr 10 was a bludge, how hard can it be to memorize and regurgitate events'...
and then I opened my new MH textbook and the first line read "To succeed in modern history you cant simply memorize and regurgitate events"! It then went on about historiography............. and we've had a wonderful relationship ever since!

 

[MaryJane]

for historians for Germany, you need only divide them into two groups- Structuralists and intentionalists. basically the intentionalists believe that everything Hitler did was part of the 'bigger plan' and the structuralists believe that Hitler waffled through half the stuff he did and altered it to change with the times. he had no fixed plan. its best to study totalitarianism this way, it splits it up really easily

 

[Benno]

should i take a side? if so im a structuralist

 

[s2ophie]

Maryjane do you have a website where i could get info about structuralists and intentionalists? My teacher skimmed over it but it does seem a logical way to look at it!

 

[MaryJane]

Originally posted by Benno
should i take a side? if so im a structuralist

my teacher said its best to take a side in the conclusion but in the intro and throughout the essay you show both perspectives.

Originally posted by s2ophie
Maryjane do you have a website where i could get info about structuralists and intentionalists? My teacher skimmed over it but it does seem a logical way to look at it!

i dont have a website but if u search under "structuralists v intentionalists germany" you could find some stuff. mind u, its probably all on the holocaust. if you can, find the book "Germany 1918-1945" by Anne McCallum. this book is really really good coz it goes through most points of the syllabus and shows each view of the debate. if ur really stuck, i can type up some notes on each from the book if u want

 

[s2ophie]

thats cool. my school has the McCallum books so i wil borrow it on Monday. Thanks!