history essays

aliqueenb

how does one learn history.
ive been going grand up till now just writing them and getting them corrected and putting them in a nice folder. but now. i suddenly realise crap i got to learn these 4 page essays.
i have small writing, approx 14 words per line.
how long should an essay with my size writing therefore be?
AND HOW DO I LEARN THEM. first test i did i got 96%, then christmas i got 90. because on both occasions i knew the one essay and 2 essays coming up. but last test i got 54 cos i knew it was one out of 5 so didnt get to learn as much as previous. how do you learn them?
im in 5th year and already have 34 essays written...for two topics. on document question now...

IWishh

Well I mean its no good writing up an essay, filing it away neatly in a folder and never look at it again.
You'd have to have some memory if thats all it took!

Best thing you can do it keep going through the book, taking notes and going back over those notes repeatedly over the following weeks and it will stay in your head. Then at the end of each chapter or whatever go to your essay folder and read one to remind yourself how you put all that information together in an essay context.

aliqueenb

dictatorship and democracy topic took me a whole 120 page hardback notes.

aliqueenb

sovereignty and partition topic took me 100.

IWishh

How the hell did notes take up that much space

What chapters from dictatorship and democracy are you doing?

sock puppet

aliqueenb wrote: »

dictatorship and democracy topic took me a whole 120 page hardback notes.

Lol that's almost as long as the textbook. I write 8-10 words per line and average around 4 pages. Maybe 3 pages then for you? Make shorter notes! A section for me would never take up more than an a4 page front and back. I don't if 5th years are still doing the American topic for the document? But whatever the document is I'd have a page of notes on each case study and that's it.

IWishh

sock puppet wrote: »

Lol that's almost as long as the textbook

Hahah thats right.
I'd actually say forget everything I just said - first thing you need to do is obviously learn how to take notes. Brief notes.

aliqueenb

yeah but how do such brief notes help. like our geog teacher does notes for us. and we just learn them. they are srps and get like an a all the time....
what do you mean what chapters?
the whole dictatorship and democracy book...

aliqueenb

and yeah document is about northern ireland for 2010. separate book for that too. havent taken notes yet on that so i might just do that for the case studies.
im the type of person that learns off things. like i find it well easy to learn an irish essay especially cos im crap at it and have no idea what im writing down. but with history its more difficult...cos you have to kinda have a very good language ability PLUS FACTS

sock puppet

IWishh wrote: »

How the hell did notes take up that much space

What chapters from dictatorship and democracy are you doing?

She's still in 5th year. Can't really narrow down what to learn before she sees what's on this year's paper.

IWishh

Notes are just meant to jog your memory. So when you're looking over them you have a couple brief points about... The Munich Putsch say.. and then you think to question yourself, how much do I know about that. So by using your book and notes together, going back and forth it hammers it into your brain. Its really just a waist of time and a pain in your wrist if your re-writting the book cos obviously 120 pages of 'notes' isnt a pleasant idea to have to go read-over.
And by the chapters question we dont only do 5/6 chapters out of the book, thats certain to cover a question in the Leaving. Doing the entire book x3 takes waaaay too long!

aliqueenb

my brother got an a1 back in first year of the course, 2006 and i find history interesting so thats why i did history. oh how foolish i was!
so do you think, you shouldnt learn off essays but more go over and over your notes?

IWishh

Well if learning off essays isnt working for you when it comes to history then I'd say give the notes a shot. You've ages to figure out what method of study works for you anyway so I wouldnt worry about it!

Gloom

Hmm, I think anywhere between 3&5 A4 pages should be grand.

After you write your essays, have you tried breaking each paragraph down into bullet points to help you learn the points. Focus on points, then manipulate your wording to suit the question.

Take a small random paragraph:

To counter acts this bombardment on their towns and cities, young children, pregnant women and disabled people were transported to the countryside where people would volunteer to accomodate them. Other measures included covering the british beaches in barbed wire, taking down signposts, blacking out windows and preventing church bells from ringing unless it was signalling an air raid. All these measures were done to hinder any advancement and attack of Germany. A Local Defence Force or Home Guard was set up. Local men between the ages of 17 and 65 were trained (usually with very little weapons) in case of an invasion from Germany.

Paragraph - Title it.

1. To counter act bombardment, children, pregnant women and disabled people were transported to the countryside
2. Other measures: barbed wire, signposts, windows, church bells unless it was an air raid. These were done to hinder advacenent.
3. Local Defence Force or Home Guard
4. Men, 17-65, trained (little weapons)

So, basically, you're just learning 4 points and you use then warp them to fit the question.

Obviously, a real history paragraph would have some more points (7-8) but you get the idea. When doing this it helps me because I know how many points I'm supposed to write on each paragraph.

sock puppet

aliqueenb wrote: »

and yeah document is about northern ireland for 2010. separate book for that too. havent taken notes yet on that so i might just do that for the case studies.
im the type of person that learns off things. like i find it well easy to learn an irish essay especially cos im crap at it and have no idea what im writing down. but with history its more difficult...cos you have to kinda have a very good language ability PLUS FACTS

Well don't learn off an essay word for word. You just have to learn how to phrase your answer properly. Say for example a question on church-state relations in Fascist regimes. You could be asked simply how they developed. Another slant could be how did relations reflect fascist attitudes towards religion. Both questions are exactly the same in that you need to learn off the same stuff. The second just needs some sentences changed and a little more personal opinion.

edit: Don't worry too much about it. By next year you should be alright. Especially if you've stored all your old essays. I relied hugely on them for my mock!

Nihilist21

aliqueenb wrote: »

dictatorship and democracy topic took me a whole 120 page hardback notes.

Dear god, I mean I do history and have a keen interest in it, but i've made literally only a page or two of notes for everything on the course. I felt I didn't really have any need to make notes since my interest in history means I just remember it, plus I find for the essays - you just need to know the bullet points of your paragraphs and it's easy (and with enough reading through the books its pretty simple to get 10+ paragraphs out of a question).

ironictoaster

Gloom wrote: »

Hmm, I think anywhere between 3&5 A4 pages should be grand.

After you write your essays, have you tried breaking each paragraph down into bullet points to help you learn the points. Focus on points, then manipulate your wording to suit the question.

Take a small random paragraph:

To counter acts this bombardment on their towns and cities, young children, pregnant women and disabled people were transported to the countryside where people would volunteer to accomodate them. Other measures included covering the british beaches in barbed wire, taking down signposts, blacking out windows and preventing church bells from ringing unless it was signalling an air raid. All these measures were done to hinder any advancement and attack of Germany. A Local Defence Force or Home Guard was set up. Local men between the ages of 17 and 65 were trained (usually with very little weapons) in case of an invasion from Germany.

Paragraph - Title it.

1. To counter act bombardment, children, pregnant women and disabled people were transported to the countryside
2. Other measures: barbed wire, signposts, windows, church bells unless it was an air raid. These were done to hinder advacenent.
3. Local Defence Force or Home Guard
4. Men, 17-65, trained (little weapons)

So, basically, you're just learning 4 points and you use then warp them to fit the question.

Obviously, a real history paragraph would have some more points (7-8) but you get the idea. When doing this it helps me because I know how many points I'm supposed to write on each paragraph.

That's how we do it my class. Convert an essay into bulletpoints, it works.

IWishh

If the essay youre doing is in the style where need to be giving an opinion rather than just narating what happend, how much of an opinion are you meant to give? Like a sentence or so at the end of each paragraph, would that be enough?

-Els-

ahh history.... the bane of my life. I love it so much, but it is just so much work and time compared to my other subjects (I do chemistry and biology, so there's quite a difference!).

Its not really an opinion the examiner is looking for. Like you're not supposed to say "I think Devalera should have gone to the Treaty Negotiations". You're more supposed to analyse the question and answer what you are asked. You write the information, but then you say why it is relevant to the question

For example if your essay was "how did Devaleras pursuit of sovereignty affect Anglo-irish relations" In the paragraph about Irish neutrality during world war two mention that Churchill was agressivly hostile towards Dev and there was a great deterioration in Anglo-Irish relations. This shows that you're not just spitting back information and are answering the question...

Teferi

First, get the predictions if you haven't already.

Next, have you tried using Memory Maps? They worked for me, specifically for History when I done mine in 06.

IWishh

Can anyone help me out?
I'm trying to study the Moon Landings atm (just incase) and in past exam papers I've had a few times my contextualisation question was 'What was the significance of the Moon Landing in 1969?'....

Theres like a small paragraph at the end of the Case Study in the book about it and then it just goes into the following Apollo missions. I'm wondering if anyone has a sample answer or can tell me what exactly it is I'm meant to write was the significance - and enough to get the 40 marks!

Twee.

creggy wrote: »

That's how we do it my class. Convert an essay into bulletpoints, it works.

My method also. This is easier for manipulating your knowledge to the context of the question.

Nihilist21

IWishh wrote: »

Can anyone help me out?
I'm trying to study the Moon Landings atm (just incase) and in past exam papers I've had a few times my contextualisation question was 'What was the significance of the Moon Landing in 1969?'....

Theres like a small paragraph at the end of the Case Study in the book about it and then it just goes into the following Apollo missions. I'm wondering if anyone has a sample answer or can tell me what exactly it is I'm meant to write was the significance - and enough to get the 40 marks!

Well off the top of my head some of the points I would include are the following (some may suit you more than others):

1) Technological advancement, satallites etc.
2) It signified the end of the the space race.
3) Proved the economic/military might of the USA.
4) Inspired many people worldwide.
5) Kept many people employed, aswell as creating new employment opportunities in the long-term.
6) Caused many people to study science
7) National pride + moral.
8) It was a united cause, it (in some ways) unified white and blacks during the 60's. This points streching it a bit - but I'm sure you could fit it in.

There's some points that one could develop into paragraphs.