History Essays (Higher)

Greyian

I'm in 6th year at the moment, and I'm really struggling to cope with the amount of information needed in a history essay. Does anyone know how much one would have to write to get a B3 or higher in the Leaving Cert (on one of the longer essays, such as Europe: Democracy and Dictatorship, not in the documents question). If anyone has any idea of an approximate recommended length for a 100 mark essay, please let me know here. Also, I know that quality is also important, but if someone was to write a solid, but not excessively long, essay, how much would they actually have to write to get a B3 or better. As an example, we're normally recommended to write approx. 1000 words to get 70 marks (B3) on our English composition piece. Thanks!

amcalester

As you say quality is more important then quantity but in my LC I got a B1 in history and wrote about 1800 words per essay. IIRC it worked out at 6 pages per answer with roughly 300 per page.

Of course writing 6 pages of nonsense wouldnt have resulted in good grades.

ooPabsoo

the exam is marked out of paragraphs...10 marks per paragraph and you do 6 paragraphs..paragraph normally bout half a page

eoins2345

Each paragraph is marked out of 12.Its ridiculously hard to get that in one paragraph never mind getting 12 in every paragraph.If you get 12 in 5 paragraphs you get 60 out of 60.Now for my system

You try and write a good enough paragraph in 5 minutes.Try and get fairly good information into the paragraph and make it relevant to the question.You will get 7 or 8 for these type of paragraphs.Try and do 8 of these paragraphs,thats including an introduction and a conclusion.If you get 7 or 8 in each paragraph thats closing in on the 60 out of 60.It works out at about 4 pages doing a paragraph every 5 minutes.This would take about 40 mins.

To get good marks in the 40 out of 40 you have to answer the set question fairly well.Just give fact and the odd date and relevant figure or very small quote and discuss these!

If you followed that system you should easily get a b3 or more.

Thats how it works for my history class anyway!

Dante

Just wondering, would 2.5/3 pages of good info with facts and dates do better then 5/6 pages of woffle??

Davidius

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

Just wondering, would 2.5/3 pages of good info with facts and dates do better then 5/6 pages of woffle??

I would imagine so. As far I know the marking scheme puts great emphasis on relevance as well as how you use factual information. Apparently you can lose a good handful of marks for needless repitition.

Dante

Davidius wrote: »

I would imagine so. As far I know the marking scheme puts great emphasis on relevance as well as how you use factual information. Apparently you can lose a good handful of marks for needless repitition.

Ahh good cause I'm good at learning dates and facts but I'm **** at woffling and stretching out essays! History is gonna be a bitch, I know nothing of the book on Parnell!:( At least the RSR is out of the way.

K4t

CnG's or FF's economic policies (or both) are 'nearly' a sure bet this year for history!

Anyone agree?

Dante

K4t wrote: »

CnG's or FF's economic policies (or both) are 'nearly' a sure bet this year for history!

Anyone agree?

Yea hopefully....its one of the easier questions that could come up.

dragonfly!

eoins2345 wrote: »

Each paragraph is marked out of 12.Its ridiculously hard to get that in one paragraph never mind getting 12 in every paragraph.If you get 12 in 5 paragraphs you get 60 out of 60.Now for my system

You try and write a good enough paragraph in 5 minutes.Try and get fairly good information into the paragraph and make it relevant to the question.You will get 7 or 8 for these type of paragraphs.Try and do 8 of these paragraphs,thats including an introduction and a conclusion.If you get 7 or 8 in each paragraph thats closing in on the 60 out of 60.It works out at about 4 pages doing a paragraph every 5 minutes.This would take about 40 mins.

To get good marks in the 40 out of 40 you have to answer the set question fairly well.Just give fact and the odd date and relevant figure or very small quote and discuss these!

If you followed that system you should easily get a b3 or more.

Thats how it works for my history class anyway!

exactly how i did it last year and worked fairly well:) would have worked better if i hadnt panicked completley but thats irrelvant!:o you get marked on your use of capitals and having correct dates etc as well

Found it worked well if you have some quotes or stats to back up your answer - it gives your essay weight and shows you really know your stuff rather than trying to learn it all from a book and writing that down....
hope that helps:)

Gloom

K4t wrote: »

CnG's or FF's economic policies (or both) are 'nearly' a sure bet this year for history!

Anyone agree?

Please no! I hate FF! :eek:
*writes down note to look over these secretly*

Come on, 1918Shinners!

ateam

Gloom wrote: »

Please no! I hate FF! :eek:
*writes down note to look over these secretly*

Come on, 1918Shinners!

The "shinners" of 1918 are FF and FG.

Shelka

If you are looking for extra facts to make sure that each paragraph gets as many marks as possible, just ask yourself what the cause and effect are of whatever you are writing about.

And have a clear, well-developed intro and conclusion for each essay! Very important to get top marks...

Here's what I did:
I used to write out each essay with 5 main points in each paragraph, besides the intro, which had about 3 strong opening points.
I always used numbering instead of bullet points too, which is better for remebering. Its all about breaking down the info into easily digestible pieces and using the power of association to help remember...

This is all a bit vague without an example. I can post an example tomorrow eve if you are interested....

Jam-Fly

Shelka wrote: »

If you are looking for extra facts to make sure that each paragraph gets as many marks as possible, just ask yourself what the cause and effect are of whatever you are writing about.

And have a clear, well-developed intro and conclusion for each essay! Very important to get top marks...

Here's what I did:
I used to write out each essay with 5 main points in each paragraph, besides the intro, which had about 3 strong opening points.
I always used numbering instead of bullet points too, which is better for remebering. Its all about breaking down the info into easily digestible pieces and using the power of association to help remember...

This is all a bit vague without an example. I can post an example tomorrow eve if you are interested....

FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's the opposite. It's easier to remember a list if things, if the list is seperated using bullet points, not numbers, roman numerials, letters etc.

Anyway, as for history, do lots of paragraphs. It's waaay easier to get 9/12 in 7+ paragraphs, than 12/12 in 5 paragraphs.
Also, make sure to answer the question being asked and refer to the question regularly. For example, if your asked about Bismarck's foreign policy, and include info about Church-State relations, you won't get any marks (because Church-State tensions had nothing to do with Bismarck's foregin policy!).

bricky10

Gloom wrote: »

Please no! I hate FF! :eek:
*writes down note to look over these secretly*

Come on, 1918Shinners!

I hope something on FF does come up. Something interesting to write about rather than boring C na nG etc etc. SF1918, i'd take it aswell.

I cant stand Parnell and the land act's. the land acts have to be the most boring part of irish history!!

Chanandler Bong

1918 sinn fein is a pretty nice one.. i sailed thru a class test and my xmas test on "How did Partition affect the Society and Economy of N.I"
Man i have that one DOWN!.

Totally agree with the guy before me, anything political in Movements for Reform is just ridiculously boring, glad i sat through it in 5th and now were doing USA!

So is the general feeling to summarise all your essays into bullet point/ numbered form then learn them?

and what essays have your teachers been saying are likely??:D

phase-3

bricky10 wrote: »

I hope something on FF does come up. Something interesting to write about rather than boring C na nG etc etc. SF1918, i'd take it aswell.



Yeah i hope Fianna Fail comes up aswell. Dev is simple to do...

fuisce

Hi there, the best way to assess how you would gain a high grade in History (or in any subject) is to familliarise yourself with the marking schemes for these subjects. This is a link to the marking scheme for LCert History 2009 higher level : http://www.examinations.ie/archive/markingschemes/2009/LC004ALP000IV.pdf .

TheCandystripes

Does anyone think one of 1916 Rising, Dismantling the treaty, Consolidating democracy or Anglo-Irish relations will come up?

Also I need to know for my xmas exam, Stalin. Writing an essay on his Russia(basically the general essay) how would you organise it?

Intro
2nd-5 year plans
3rd-results of plans
4th collectivisation

i was thinking of a paragraph on human cost of his regime but maby not. oh and for his economic policies how would you lay that out?

Offside

fuisce wrote: »

Hi there, the best way to assess how you would gain a high grade in History (or in any subject) is to familliarise yourself with the marking schemes for these subjects. This is a link to the marking scheme for LCert History 2009 higher level : http://www.examinations.ie/archive/markingschemes/2009/LC004ALP000IV.pdf .

The marking scheme for lc history is so broad and pretty much down to the individual teacher, they need a better one imo.

cailin_donn

my teacher thinks martin luther is a given for this year... and she's rarely wrong, she has a weird way of predicting papers. she hasnt given any hints for Irish Hist tho last year we spent 6 months on the treaty because she said if it didnt come up for last years LC we would DEFINETLY have it. and what did it do? came up last year....

Offside

cailin_donn wrote: »

my teacher thinks martin luther is a given for this year... and she's rarely wrong, she has a weird way of predicting papers. she hasnt given any hints for Irish Hist tho last year we spent 6 months on the treaty because she said if it didnt come up for last years LC we would DEFINETLY have it. and what did it do? came up last year....

Please please please don't count on any predictions! Completely unpredictable paper, I assume all the teachers will be predicting the rise of sinn féin and 1918 general election as a BANKER... Just like they have the last two years! Have we seen any sign of it? No!

TheCandystripes

Please people help me.

When writing about how Stalin transformed Russian society how would you organise this?

Also when writing about De Valera's persuit of sovereignity how would you go about it?
I have it layed out like this. I relate everything to him trying to move towards creating a fully sovereign state:
Intro-Not sure what to write, help much appreciated

2.Pre-De Valera-Cumann Na Ngael cautious, set about redefining Irelands role in commonwealth
1926-Belfour declaration paved way for Statute of Westminster Act
De Valera used the act to full effect once he came to power

3.Removing the oath

4.Boycott of Governor-General

5.Abdication Crisis

6.Economy

7.Neutrality-Not sure what to write.

8.Conclusion-Again not sure what to write.

theowen

TheCandystripes wrote: »

Please people help me.

When writing about how Stalin transformed Russian society how would you organise this?

Also when writing about De Valera's persuit of sovereignity how would you go about it?
I have it layed out like this. I relate everything to him trying to move towards creating a fully sovereign state:
Intro-Not sure what to write, help much appreciated

2.Pre-De Valera-Cumann Na Ngael cautious, set about redefining Irelands role in commonwealth
1926-Belfour declaration paved way for Statute of Westminster Act
De Valera used the act to full effect once he came to power

3.Removing the oath

4.Boycott of Governor-General

5.Abdication Crisis

6.Economy

7.Neutrality-Not sure what to write.

8.Conclusion-Again not sure what to write.

Just use what you have for your second paragraph as your intro and then divide the economy into 3 different paragraphs.

TheCandystripes

Any ideas what to write in those 3 paragraphs? Generally speaking?

Also any idea on that Stalin transforming Soviet society and economy essay?
I have

Intro

2.5 Year Plans

3. Cont. and results of plans

4. Collectivisation

5. Brutal treatment of Kulaks

how would you organise remaining parts of this essay?

eoins2345

You could have a paragraph on propaganda and cult of personality and 2 other on the show trials

TheCandystripes

Thats cool. Cheers.

theowen

TheCandystripes wrote: »

Any ideas what to write in those 3 paragraphs? Generally speaking?

Also any idea on that Stalin transforming Soviet society and economy essay?
I have

Intro

2.5 Year Plans

3. Cont. and results of plans

4. Collectivisation

5. Brutal treatment of Kulaks

how would you organise remaining parts of this essay?

1 for the general reasons for the economics war, 1 for the affects and then the anglo irish agreements/cattle-coal pact.

TheCandystripes

Would you just say at the start of that first paragraph something like Dev seen the states economic policy as a way of affirming irelands sovereign status?

eleanoroosevelt

I did history for Lc last year, my teacher was amazing.
A really good study method is:

-get an a4 sheet.
-write a heading-eg "the holocaust" "show trials"
-then, write a list of 1 or 2 liner facts about the heading eg over 1.5million children under age of 15 died in the holocaust. use bullet points.

Over the year, when doing a chapter take 20 mins to pick facts about a topic within that chapter. compile an a4 page of facts about the topic and learn the a4 page off by heart.
everytime you make an a4 page full of facts put it in a folder with your other a4 pages of facts and look back on them regularly.
So, at the end of the year you'll know lots of facts on different topics. This is far more productive than learning off essays.
In history you get a tick for every relevant fact.
more facts=more ticks=more marks.

facts alone won't do though. to really get the A you need to provide intelligent commentary.
Talk to your teacher about well respected books by noted historians.
Then, pick some quotes from these books on a given topic and learn them off to stick in an essay eg
"as said by (book author) in (book name) charles stewart parnell was (quote from book)"

For essay conclusions a mere summary of the essay won't do. you need new facts and a suitable commentary based on those new facts. quotes from noted historians really stand out in the conclusion paragraph and makes a great ending.

But don't learn off essays. learn off sheets of facts. and good quotes. you can add the extra padding on the day, but no examiner wants to read waffle, keep it relevant.

Pay attention in english class, you can learn so much about writing history essays from english.
Appear enthusiastic about the topic in your essay, it helps alot!
good luck with leaving cert history!

TheCandystripes

Guys you really need to help me.

Cumann Na Ngael-Need 2 more paragraphs and a conclusion.
What should I say about boundary commission in relation to how cumann na ngael consolidated democracy and for work with commonwealth would taking it from the perspective that cumann na ngael had to be proactive and look like they persued complete soveignity as to appease anti-treaty side

Also help on a nice conclusion would be cool thankyou