HSC Modern History Question Thread

[Mada438]

Both! Their memory could also be faulty, or they now know more about the events which could have altered their opinion too.

It is a debated topic, so if you say either way you may still be fine. I just know that throughout HSC I always referred to them as secondary sources because that was what I was taught, and was never penalised/told otherwise

I agree that it all depends on what you think and can go either way.
I reckon based on context, they are still primary because the person who wrote the memoirs EXPERIENCED THE EVENTS THEY WROTE ABOUT FIRST HAND
If you're confused, see my above examples^^^^^^^^^
But in the end, i do agree with you susie

[fergo]

Hello!

I was wondering how much you should write for the WW1 source analysis part b question? Mainly, how many lines are provided in the exam, as I don't want to be practicing writing too much and then struggling later on.

Thanks!

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hello!

I was wondering how much you should write for the WW1 source analysis part b question? Mainly, how many lines are provided in the exam, as I don't want to be practicing writing too much and then struggling later on.

Thanks!

hey!

it really depends on how much you can write personally - how much have you written in any practice ones you've done? usually just over 1.5 pages of lines are given and most just write in those lines. if you go over that, i don't recommend going over a page of your new writing booklet because you would've written too much for a 10 marker!

[fergo]

hey!

it really depends on how much you can write personally - how much have you written in any practice ones you've done? usually just over 1.5 pages of lines are given and most just write in those lines. if you go over that, i don't recommend going over a page of your new writing booklet because you would've written too much for a 10 marker!

In practices, I can do 300 words in 10min, and I also have really big writing. I have an assessment coming up where we have 20min to write about one source, and based on my speed I should be able to do between 500-600 words, but I'm struggling getting 400 for a decent argument.

Thank you!

[theyam]

Hi guys,

I'm the 2018 cohort and I just cant seem to get the hang of doing source and reliability questions even though I follow the acronym. TOMACC R U. Does anyone have any tips or perhaps any exemplar responses I could look at? Also, the holidays are coming up should I be doing anything for Modern other than notes? Thanks guys~

From theyam

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hi guys,

I'm the 2018 cohort and I just cant seem to get the hang of doing source and reliability questions even though I follow the acronym. TOMACC R U. Does anyone have any tips or perhaps any exemplar responses I could look at? Also, the holidays are coming up should I be doing anything for Modern other than notes? Thanks guys~

From theyam

hi!!

a great source analysis structure is one mentioned by susie in her lectures - i'm pretty sure the slides are in the notes section and you can check it out there :-) as for work in the holidays, notes are a good idea, or just rewriting them for the topic you've done. you could read ahead a bit for your next topic, which is probably going to be your national study.

hope this helps,
fantasticbeasts

[theyam]

hi!!

a great source analysis structure is one mentioned by susie in her lectures - i'm pretty sure the slides are in the notes section and you can check it out there :-) as for work in the holidays, notes are a good idea, or just rewriting them for the topic you've done. you could read ahead a bit for your next topic, which is probably going to be your national study.

hope this helps,
fantasticbeasts

Hi fantasticbeasts

Thank you for your quick reply, I will check out that powerpoint soon! I think I'm doing Nazi Germany as my text topic, sounds very interesting~~
From theyam

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
Just a question with the source analysis: are you allowed to include the caption in the usefulness section of the paragraph? So one of my sources is an extract from an oral testimony from a British munitionette and I've decided to say it is of partial use since it's giving a limited perspective towards Total war in Britain- can I quote the caption or only just mention the source only provides one perspective?

Thanks in advance!

[Mada438]

Hey guys,
Just a question with the source analysis: are you allowed to include the caption in the usefulness section of the paragraph? So one of my sources is an extract from an oral testimony from a British munitionette and I've decided to say it is of partial use since it's giving a limited perspective towards Total war in Britain- can I quote the caption or only just mention the source only provides one perspective?

Thanks in advance!

Based on that information, i'd say don't quote the caption. The markers already know the sources. So if you just meantion the source you're talking about when mentioning usefulness, they should know what you mean. Its not like the markers (or the teacher) have no idea what the sources are, usually because they have some input in designing the exam!
But thats just my opinion.
Hope this helps! 

[sudodds]

Hey guys,
Just a question with the source analysis: are you allowed to include the caption in the usefulness section of the paragraph? So one of my sources is an extract from an oral testimony from a British munitionette and I've decided to say it is of partial use since it's giving a limited perspective towards Total war in Britain- can I quote the caption or only just mention the source only provides one perspective?

Thanks in advance!

Based on that information, i'd say don't quote the caption. The markers already know the sources. So if you just meantion the source you're talking about when mentioning usefulness, they should know what you mean. Its not like the markers (or the teacher) have no idea what the sources are, usually because they have some input in designing the exam!
But thats just my opinion.
Hope this helps! 

I agree with Mada438 here Quoting in general for modern is something that should only be done if they are presenting something unique - an argument, judgement or perspective. Not detail that could also have been sourced from other sources. There is a bit of leeway when it comes to a source analysis as you want to explicitly reference the sources and that may sometimes involve indicating that certain bits of information is included, but the contextual detail of a source is not "part of the source" if that makes sense - thus that should come from you

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
So my teacher loves to give us some essay writing for class tasks and whenever I research, it always leads me to a Youtube channel called The Great War. I'd say it's a great source since the channel dedicates itself to WW1, but my main concern is that should I be quoting Indiana Niedell (host of the channel)? Whenever I research him, he comes up as an 'amateur military historian' (according to Wikipedia).

Thanks in advance!

[sudodds]

Hey guys!
So my teacher loves to give us some essay writing for class tasks and whenever I research, it always leads me to a Youtube channel called The Great War. I'd say it's a great source since the channel dedicates itself to WW1, but my main concern is that should I be quoting Indiana Niedell (host of the channel)? Whenever I research him, he comes up as an 'amateur military historian' (according to Wikipedia).

Thanks in advance!

I'm going to tentatively say no you shouldn't be quoting him. I don't know much about him, but upon first glance (tell me if i'm wrong) he appears to be a kind of "John Green/Crash Course" style youtuber, who is definitely not someone you should quote. That doesn't mean he's not useful though, and you can probably find quotes from other more credible people through his videos! (Kind of like how you shouldn't quote wikipedia, but you can look at their bibliography and quote them instead sneaky internet hack for you right there)

[owidjaja]

I'm going to tentatively say no you shouldn't be quoting him. I don't know much about him, but upon first glance (tell me if i'm wrong) he appears to be a kind of "John Green/Crash Course" style youtuber, who is definitely not someone you should quote. That doesn't mean he's not useful though, and you can probably find quotes from other more credible people through his videos! (Kind of like how you shouldn't quote wikipedia, but you can look at their bibliography and quote them instead sneaky internet hack for you right there)

The thing that confuses me is that he's classified as an 'amateur military historian,' yet he has a degree in history. Would he still be classified as a historian and someone quote-worthy? I'm so confused lol

[sudodds]

The thing that confuses me is that he's classified as an 'amateur military historian,' yet he has a degree in history. Would he still be classified as a historian and someone quote-worthy? I'm so confused lol

Hmmm the thing is though a lot of people have history degrees, does that automatically mean they are a historian (the traditional way of defining a historian, which mind you I'm not sure I even agree with, is having a PHD in history)? Something for history extension debate thread I'd still shy away from quoting him, however if you're still not sure, maybe ask your teacher, they're likely to know better than me

[prickles]

Hi,
I suppose I am mostly asking Susie here because I think she has experience with this? But if anyone else has an opinion please chip in!
When doing notes in Modern I feel like I am wasting time. Our teacher presses us to type our notes under the syllabus headings, and I feel like I am remembering none of it. I hate reading and would much rather drawing/speaking/practicing with content, but I feel if I don't type down all the info/content needed I will miss/forget something.

Another aspect I suppose is that our teacher regularly skims over our notes, making sure we are relatively up to date, and are structuring them the way she wants. She is an amazing teacher in terms of skills/marking/depth of knowledge, but is not very flexible in her ideas, and I don't think she would appreciate me doing a different format of notes that she has been accustomed to teaching for years. In our lessons, she basically reads/explains stuff from the textbook and expects us to be on our laptops typing up the most important points of what she is reading.

So, I guess the overall problem is, I don't like writing huge chunks of text for notes because I can't remember them, and am a bit apprehensive of whether my teacher will accept any other way of doing them.

Thanks for any help!