Hey guys!
I'm in the middle of wading through 250 pages of modern history notes and one more statistic from a breakdown. Obviously this is a very content-heavy subject, but clearly I can't cram 250 pages of notes into a single essay. I guess what I'm asking is - how best would you advise covering all the syllabus dotpoints in one essay? Do you pick a few key events and describe them in more detail? Do you broadly go over everything from the period? E.g. when writing on WWI as a whole, do we have to say that x battle was where tanks were first introduced? Or in the case of the Cold War, describe every single conference?
Just a little worried about memorizing things that appear on the syllabus but seem very minor in the grand scheme of writing an essay on an entire period. thanks so much!
I'm not an expert so this may be wrong, but I don't think you should necessarily be covering all syllabus dot points in one essay, or at least not at all in the same amount of detail. I think it is much more important to stick to the question and what they are asking, so unless the question asked you to cover the entire span of the period (which is unlikely, and even then you would have to pick and choose) then I would just stick to the most relevant points as indicated by the question. Though detail is great (in fact necessary if you want to do well) as it demonstrate your knowledge, if you are just regurgitating the syllabus and not relating it back to the quesiton being asked, then it will look like a planned response. You need to find a balance between the two.
So, if the Cold War question was on the
origins of the Cold War (and
maybe development), then yes I would be discussing each conference. However if it was on
Detente or
Renewal and End, I would most likely not discuss them at all, and if I did, it would only be a very brief mention with a sentence offering the context of international tensions to which I would be discussing.
Basically the key is to KNOW your syllabus, but also know how to APPLY it to a question.
HOWEVER, if you are struggling to memorise, for trials maybe just focus on 3 out of the 4 syllabus dot points per topic, as it is
unlikely (but not impossible so maybe don't do this for the actual HSC) that out of the two questions they will both be on the same area. Therefore for the Cold War, pick the three areas that you are the strongest, so for me that would be Origins, Development and Detente, and learn those back to front, and forget about Renewal and End for now. This is slightly risky, so only do this is you really have to.
Again, I'm not an expect so take this with a grain of salt, but I hope this helps!! Good luck