History of Art Notes & Tips from an A1 Student

History of Art Guy

I've just finished the Leaving Cert and after getting 625 points I'd like to share some of my notes and general tips I have, specifically for the Art exam. I'm getting rid of all my notes and books etc. and I'd like to think that someone can get some use out of them instead of just gathering dust in a box in my attic.

The links I've included are PDFs of my essays and a timeline of the History of Art course. I made the two timelines because I kept on mixing up the dates for the different periods. To be perfectly honest, I got through the entire History and Appreciation of Art exam relying SOLELY on four essays that I had written during the year. I knew my essays inside out and was a good enough student to be able to manipulate my knowledge to suit whatever question was asked. In my opinion, it’s best to focus on one area in each section in detail instead of trying to cover all bases. There has always been a question on the history paper from the “Pre-Christian” era, so there’s no need to study, for example, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age AND Early Christian Ireland. Apart from the unnecessarily vast workload, when it comes to the day of the exam, you would end up wasting a lot of time trying to decide which question to answer.

I decided to study Newgrange and the Bronze Age for “Section I”. In hindsight, this was probably a bit of a risk, considering they could have asked the Iron Age instead of the Bronze Age, and they could have asked something along the lines of comparing carvings at Newgrange to carvings from another era, however, for me, Art was an 8th subject and I decided to take the risk (and it paid off). If I didn’t have the luxury of having an 8th subject at my disposal, I would have studied the Iron Age as well, just to be sure.

For “Section II”, I decided late in 6th year that I would focus on one era too. Just like I chose the “Pre-Christian” era for the first section, for the “European Art” section, I decided to just study the Gothic and Romanesque period, as Question 8 in the history paper has always been from this era. I chose two cathedrals to study in-depth (one from Romanesque period and one from the Gothic period) and familiarized myself with a few other famous ones in case a picture question was asked and I had to identify specific cathedrals. Once you know the main features and terminology pertaining to each period, it wouldn’t be too difficult to produce an essay on the spot on a Cathedral you had never seen before - this applies to the entire history course really. Simply by virtue of the fact that the work is from the same era as a work you are familiar with means you should be able to write a fairly competent essay on the work, even if the day of the exam is the first time you see it.

So throughout the two years I wrote my four essays on my chosen periods and just learnt them word for word. I mainly used Less Stress More Success and the internet as resources (we had a textbook we used in class but I found LSMS way clearer and more concise). I’m usually quite against the whole “rote learning” bandwagon but there’s only so much originality and personal response you can add to “Newgrange was was built about 3200 BC during the Neolithic period”. So, in all, I wrote four essays, two for each section of the exam:

Newgrange (Section I)
The Bronze Age (Section I)
Romanesque (Section II)
Gothic (Section II)

I always found that the best way to answer the questions in the history paper was to consider the question not as one long essay, but to break it down into 4/5 smaller questions that could be tackled individually paragraph by paragraph. The questions in the History and Appreciation of Art exam are always worded in a way that basically lays out your answer for you. They’ll always ask you to talk about 4/5 topics, so the essay should pretty much look like:


-Intro (include any random historical/ cultural points you may know about the particular era to which the question pertains)
-Topic 1
-Topic 2
-Topic 3
-Topic 4
-(Topic 5)
-Conclusion

If your essay is just one long ramble about, say, all you know about Newgrange, the examiner will just get annoyed because (s)he has to search you entire answer for any points you made that are actually relevant. If you lay it out in the most stupidly obvious way, paragraph by paragraph, possibly even with headings (“Form”, “Function”, “Techniques used” etc., whatever it says in the question) not only will you keep the examiner happy (and likely to give you more marks), but you’ll be less inclined to rant or veer off the point, which is possibly the worst thing you can do in any exam.

I’ve one last thing to say about the actual fine arts part of the subject (i.e. the part of the exam where you actual paint/ draw/ sculpt etc.). You should really consider doing the Design Paper instead of the Craftwork Paper. There are a few not so obvious advantages to it. If you choose to do the Craftwork Paper, your work will be examined by three separate people - one person will examine the history paper, one will examine the craftwork paper, and one will examine the still life and life drawing papers. None of these examiners get to see the sections that they’re not examining. It’s very hard for someone to get a true feel for someone’s standard just by looking at three sheets - you don’t really have very much margin of error. If you want to get an A1, ALL THREE of your examiners need to be unanimous that you’re an A1 caliber candidate. Needless to say this is not easy.

However, if you decide to do the Design paper, all of your physical art gets examined by the same person. Your still life, life drawings, prep sheet, preliminary sheet and final design sheet all get put in an envelope and get sent off to Athlone to be marked by one examiner. This gives you a much better chance of getting a higher mark. The examiner marking the design papers get a much better feel for each candidate - if you say, messed up your still life, the examiner will be able to see all of your other work too and will know that that wasn’t really a true reflection of your skill. I’m not saying that they mark you easier, but it just means you have a greater margin of error and it’s easier to impress an examiner with 6/7 pages of outstanding work than with just a 2/3 page sample. Also, examiners are aware of the fact that in doing the Design paper, you get half the amount of time as the candidates doing the Craftwork paper, so their standards and expectations aren’t set quite as high.

Hopefully someone reads this and finds it useful - I really think the whole art exam for the Leaving Cert is just a travesty - the Junior Cert was so much better. If even one person finds one piece of information in this helpful to them in the Art exam I’d be happy.



The links below are PDFs of three essays and two timelines stored on Google Drive



SAMPLE ANSWER (Bronze Age)

SAMPLE ANSWER (Newgrange)

SAMPLE ANSWER (Romanesque)

TIMELINE (Section I)

TIMELINE (Section II)

d1234

Very informative and great quality essays. Well done OP!

lolgrey

Thanks for the useful tips, just studying for my mocks now. I have no problem composing and learning the art history essays as I find it interesting. But timing is really an issue for me. I'm just finding it impossible to get the three essays written, along with their illustrations, in the two and a half hours we have and it usually affects my grade pretty significantly. My art teacher said I should be aiming for an A2 in honours for the leaving, but because I'm not getting the essays completed, I don't know how I'm going to get that. The rest of my art stuff usually brings my grade up to a high B, but I'm trying to get as much points as possible and to get an A in art would really help (I want to become a primary teacher). So since you got an A1, I was wondering if you have any tips where timing is concerned? How long were the essays that you posted when you hand-wrote them? Our teacher tells us ours should be 6-7 pages in length (hence why I'm not getting them finished!) Also, were your illustrations really detailed? My aunt lectured in art college a couple of years back and said they don't need to be, to just show the general shapes etc with labels. But our teacher tries to get us to run over certain sketches with black ink pen (usually man-made objects, like from the Bronze or Iron Ages) in order to get "crisper" detail! I'm just really struggling to get all of that stuff completed and it's really frustrating, because I am actually studying and learning the info. I like how you structured your essays, they seemed very straight to the point and didn't look as if it took you 6-7 pages to write them. (Or maybe it did, in which case I can give up hope haha) If you could offer me any advice I would really, really appreciate it...and if not, thanks for the tips above anyway

History of Art Guy

Hi, thanks, I'm glad you found them helpful! Fully written out in handwriting each essay was about 4/5 pages long of pure text (not counting the sketches). I usually formatted the essays in a way such that I wrote for two pages, left a blank page, wrote for another 2/3 and left another blank page. When I was finished writing I would then go back and draw my sketches in the blank pages I had left. The subject matter of the sketches was usually whatever was discussed in the preceding 2 pages. I would draw them VERY roughly with pencil - I would spend about a single minute at most per drawing, with 3 drawings per essay (2 for the main essay and 1 for the shorter 10 mark question). I used a black ball point pen to label the drawings, include dimensions and titles, and draw a box around them to make it look cleaner. I would leave the shading out completely and only go back and complete the drawings at the end of the exam provided that I had the time using a heavy pencil/ graphite stick to very quickly add tone. For high achieving students, you shouldn't pour over the drawings, the text is more important. I think it is somewhat the reverse for weaker students as they are more likely to get high marks for their sketches than in their essays (because they will reveal information they know about a piece in their drawing despite the fact that they may not have mentioned it in their essay - this should not be the case for students wishing to get an A1! If you include a detail in your sketch but haven't mentioned it the text I would go back and include a line or two about it!) but for the A1 student only a brief "sketch" (literally) is needed. Just show the examiner you know the outline of whatever it is you're talking about, include the most salient points and dimensions and you'll get your marks.

Of course, as with every LC exam, timing is crucial. You cannot allow yourself to pour over one essay at the detriment of another. That's why I think it's so important to lay out your question in point form (even on a separate piece of paper for a rough outline) so that you can keep track of what you've mentioned, and what you need to mention. You shouldn't spend too long stopping and starting thinking bout what next to say- jot down your points and headings and then just stick to them!

Keep practicing writing essays under the time constraints of the exam - spend a while researching and producing a solid A1 essay (have your teacher correct it and don't be happy with it until it comes back with 100% - yes the exam is that mechanical) and then familiarise yourself with that essay until you can reproduce sections of it rapidly. The question won't allow you to write the exact essay you originally wrote when it comes to the exam in June, but if you're an A1 student you should be able to manipulate your pre-learnt answer to fit whatever it is they throw at you - it's a fact-based essay at the end of the day so there's not a whole lot of variation they can come up with with the questions. Just keep practising writing it out against the clock and don't underestimate the power of adrenaline on the day to get you going!

lolgrey

Thank you so much, your reply was really helpful. I'm glad you said that about the illustrations because if that's the case I think timing will be much more manageable. I do higher level history too and our teacher constantly gives us essay exams under a 40-minute constraint so for art history, it's usually the illustrations that are a setback. Our teacher has always said that the drawings need to be highly detailed so the fact that yours weren't and you still got an A1 is such a comfort! I'll put what you said into practice for my mocks (and hopefully my art teacher won't be the one correcting it, lol). Thanks a million again for taking the time to reply, I honestly feel so much better now

History of Art Guy

No problem, I'm glad you're finding some of this stuff useful! Just to clear things up (because I know how frustratingly ambiguous it is to hear "just a rough sketch will do"), I've attached some links bellow to scans of some sketches that I drew in my mocks last year - I got full marks for them and the sketches I ended up doing in the actual Leaving Cert exam were pretty much identical. Good luck in the mocks and try not to get too hung up on them - they're a bit of a waste of time in some respects, I think schools just do them as "scare tactics" to get unmotivated students to start working, there's no way you should have your Leaving Cert course finished yet, you've still over 4 months left! I went from something like 510 up to 625 by the end of the year so you've tonnes of time left!

Sample Sketches 1

Sample Sketches 2

Sample Sketches 3

Sample Sketches 4

Sample Sketches 5

Keeks96

Thank you so much for this, my practical artwork is usually an A2/B1 standard but my Art history can fall to as low as a D, as I am a disaster at it! I've also just decided to do my paper in English rather than Irish as I simply can't remember all of the technical terms in Irish. I don't have an eighth subject so I'm relying on art for a decent amount of points.
I am going to learn the Newgrange essay tonight, thank you again.

"... lived off of the rich land of the Boyne Valley in county Mayo." I think this may be a mistake in your essay in Newgrange!

History of Art Guy

Thanks, again I'm glad you're finding them helpful - just shout if you've an issue!

Keeks96 wrote: »

"... lived off of the rich land of the Boyne Valley in county Mayo." I think this may be a mistake in your essay in Newgrange!

Yes you're absolutely right, thanks for the heads up! I've changed the file now so everything should be in order

Keeks96

They are extremely helpful, thank you!
Seeing as you earned 625 points, do you have any other notes available? Your art history essays contain all of the information necessary to the answer, effortlessly comprehensible yet do not lack the flourish needed for an excellent essay.
Unrelated to art but ... what did you decide to study at third level? I hope to study Speech and Language Therapy in NUIG, if not Linguistics and English in UCD.

History of Art Guy

Thank you very much, I'm really pleased that these are benefitting others! I studied eight higher level subjects for the Leaving Cert (English, Irish, French, Maths, Physics, Applied Maths, Accounting and Art) and as you can probably infer from the subject choices, I'm studying Engineering in UCD. Art was really just an excuse for me to relax and forget about numbers and equations, I never actually considered it a Leaving Cert subject - it was definitely more of a hobby for me and I just happened to do quite well in it without really hoping to. I was a very poor Art student in that I never practiced outside of class - I never did any of the life drawing and still life homework my art teacher gave us to practice at home for example, which was very bad! I do have other notes somewhere that I could upload that are of a similar format / style to the History of Art notes if I can find them.

Keeks96

Any help is appreciated in desperate times leading up to the mocks, especially decent assistance from people such as yourself
Ah, Engineering...one of the things least related to Art I could possibly have imagined! As a university in general, how are you finding UCD? I've been told that it can be somewhat cold and impersonal, especially in undergraduate arts where I could be entering.
If it is at all possible, English, French and Irish would be of great use to me personally, no rush on them though and don't fret if you can't find them.
I'm sure most art students do little drawing practice outside of the classroom (including myself), I only find myself practicing calligraphy and infrequently the still life at home. Many thanks again.

Fiona_OS

Hi Thanks very much the info is really helpful. I had no idea what to study!!
Just wondering would you have any more essays?
Or an art appreciation gallery question maybe?
Thanks again

History of Art Guy

Hi Fiona, I only have essays for sections I and II of the History and Appreciation of Art course. I don't have any essays for section III as I think that the best essays for this section are always the ones that are created on the spot. Sections I and II are heavily reliant upon facts, names, dates, examples, references etc. and by nature are easy to score well in by learning stock paragraphs of factually accurate information. Section III however is vastly more subjective and is examining a completely different skill set. Your opinions and appreciation skills are what is being rewarded here and I feel that the most authentic and virtuosic opinions come from genuine impressions and thoughts, not from a pre-learnt mantra.

That said, some people might benefit from learning off by heart stock intro paragraphs, one-liners, filler phrases etc. to help get the ball rolling or to help flesh out thoughts when the creative vibes are running low (especially at the end of the exam). These can be found in any English revision book or textbook under essay writing tips. If this seems mechanical / clinical it's because it is - remember that the History of Art exam is only concerned with your (backed up) thoughts and opinions, not on the quality or fluidity of delivery like in the English exam.

Nevertheless, I still think that for the purposes of the exam it is still critically important to structure your answer in an exam-friendly format just like the essays for the first two sections as above. Fortunately, most questions in the History of Art exam are laid out in a very coherent, comprehensible manner, clearly listing the points that are expected to be addressed. Simply discussing briefly and equally EACH point mentioned in the question is the easiest way to garner marks (the marking schemes are formatted "Point 1: 5 marks, Point 2: 5 marks, Point 3: 5 marks, Point 4: 5 marks ..." - it's essential that no point mentioned in the question is left out in your answer, otherwise you WILL lose marks).

If you've any more questions / issues feel free to ask and best of luck in the mocks and in June!

Miriam3

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to post your notes. I am a mother of a young man in 5th, year. He requires a lot of help in school. He is finding the history of art so boring!! But he has a talent for drawing(wow:) Thank you. I hope you are enjoying college life.

sotisme

625 points?! Wow. Any chance you'd be willing to share any tips with us on how you did so well? What subjects did you do?

History of Art Guy

Hi there, I did 8 higher level subjects: English, Irish, Maths, Applied Maths, Physics, Accounting, French & Art. I worked hard from mocks onwards, and I learned early on that the best way to do well in the Leaving Cert is to just become as familiar as possible with the exam papers and questions - I figured out what it was that each exam expected from me, and just became really good at answering the questions the exact way the marking scheme expects it - whether or not I agreed with that from an educational point of view is another matter! I just viewed the Leaving Cert as a hoop I had to jump through, I didn't exactly agree with a lot of it!