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6th year History

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  • 22-11-2007 6:16pm
    #1
    Amorphous Head
    Closed Accounts Posts: 74 ✭✭


    hey
    Im a sixth year doing higher level history. Just completed my christmas tests and i got 29%. After studying ferociously, my history knowledge is not th problem. The teacher says its the essay writing, yet i do higher level English and got 87%, so i have no problems with essays.
    Im gutted, i need to improve on this as i intend to do english and history in college

    Any help would be well appreciated
    Cheers


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    #2
    Crania
    Registered Users Posts: 605 ✭✭✭Crania


    Yeah I think I'm in a fairly similar situation to you, I love History(definitely one of my favourite subjects) and I'm fairly good at English also. I know the History course very well, but it's just the actual writing of the essays in the exam that I have trouble with. My teacher says that you have to write 5 paragraphs and that they mark you out of 12 for each paragraph you write. And then the other 40 marks comes from your overall cohesion or something like that.

    Although my teacher also said that you don't have to write it in paragrpah form, and that the examiner is obliged to put it into paragraph form for you when correcting, but you must have touched on 5 different aspects of whatever the question is.


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    #3
    Mars Bar
    Registered Users Posts: 31,933 ✭✭✭✭Mars Bar


    History is SSOOO boring...
    I got a D3 in honours last year(I'm repeating)...my paper must have been bad if that's all I got with the reseach topic.

    But Christmas tests already?? Are ye serious??


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    #4
    Amorphous Head
    Closed Accounts Posts: 74 ✭✭Amorphous Head


    mars bar wrote: »
    But Christmas tests already?? Are ye serious??

    Yeah, third and sixth years in my school do xmas exams in november


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    #5
    Mars Bar
    Registered Users Posts: 31,933 ✭✭✭✭Mars Bar


    Sheesh...


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    #6
    JC 2K3
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,794 ✭✭✭JC 2K3


    CoolCiaran wrote: »
    Yeah I think I'm in a fairly similar situation to you, I love History(definitely one of my favourite subjects) and I'm fairly good at English also. I know the History course very well, but it's just the actual writing of the essays in the exam that I have trouble with. My teacher says that you have to write 5 paragraphs and that they mark you out of 12 for each paragraph you write. And then the other 40 marks comes from your overall cohesion or something like that.

    Although my teacher also said that you don't have to write it in paragrpah form, and that the examiner is obliged to put it into paragraph form for you when correcting, but you must have touched on 5 different aspects of whatever the question is.
    You do know that you can write as many paragraphs as you like and they're all marked out of 12 and counted, not just your best 5?(It's just that the max mark you can get for content is 60) You should be aiming for 8/9 paragraphs and getting 7/8 out of 10 for each one.


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    #7
    Patrickisperfec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 121 ✭✭Patrickisperfec


    does anybody know if the Leaving Cert history paper is way harder than other subject (like Geo and Sciences). Because the way my teacher is marking our test it seems to be an impossible subject.


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    #8
    The Volt
    Registered Users Posts: 7,957 ✭✭✭The Volt


    I've only now started to get the jist of how to structure an essay. Here's my main pointers

    Firstly, your introduction. Do not make any points here, simply refer to the question and state whether or not you agree with it.(if its a statement) Then make a reference to how things turned out. 5 or 6 lines ought to do it

    Try only make one point per paragraph, always refer to the question in each paragraph.

    Make your essay a balanced one, giving somewhat equal say to both sides and show understanding to both. The key is not to be biased here.

    For your closing statement do not make any new points, just restate the question and the point of the essay with a short conclusion. DO NOT talk about what might happened if something went differently. We cannot tell that!

    Hope thats of some assistance!

    One last thing, I would recommend doing paragraphs. Imagine being the examiner and correcting 400 essays. They get to yours, unparagraphed and untidy. It may be the difference between a C/B for example.


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    #9
    regob
    Registered Users Posts: 1,418 ✭✭✭regob


    Patrickisperfec wrote: »
    does anybody know if the Leaving Cert history paper is way harder than other subject (like Geo and Sciences). Because the way my teacher is marking our test it seems to be an impossible subject.

    having done both history and geography for my leaving cert, i personally think history is harder that geography


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    #10
    philologos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,479 ✭✭✭✭philologos


    Patrickisperfec wrote: »
    does anybody know if the Leaving Cert history paper is way harder than other subject (like Geo and Sciences). Because the way my teacher is marking our test it seems to be an impossible subject.

    I ended up dropping History. I got a C2 average usually, if I was lucky a B3, but the amount of work that was involved was rediculous, and I decided to spread the time in which I don't do History into other subjects to focus on, and so far it's a lot more comfortable. I'd also say that History is harder than Geography, and theres a lot more content for sure.


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