historiography vs hard evidence

[heylex]

having read the examiners report, i am wondering which type of evidence is better to have: cold hard facts and statistics, as well as quotes from revolutionary leaders, or a massive bank of quotes from historians?

so much to remember -_-

[saheh]

Both. For 40+ people say it's the historians opinions that are key, but what's history without facts? (dates/people)
Try and find historians opinions and quotes that fit into a couple events, therefore you want have to remember so many
And just commit to memory the key dates, people, etc.

[Genericname2365]

IIRC question 3.D (and the equivalent question in the second section) is the question in the exam with the lowest state mean, which is of course a question in which historiography is a key component of your answer, so that may be partly why people say historiography is essential for 40+.

[MissJannine]

Well i do history revolutions now and my teacher is an examiner and the one thing she always tells me is to use both. You have to use historians as well as evidence and not instead of. Evidence illustrates your knowledge of the content, and the study guide any other revolutions student can do that. However, historiography is the harder stuff, the stuff that allows you to be set apart from any other student in the State. Historiography shows the examiners/teachers that you are able to debate and use the opinions of others to do that. It shows that you have the skills of evaluation and analysis. I do Revolutions now and my teacher always gives me practise SACs, my practise SAC had no historiography at all and I got 32/50. From the feedback she gave, I worked to learn how to use historiography and got 45/50.

So if you want to get like average marks use evidence. However, if you do want to excel you have to use both.

[ThyJovan]

Yeah just like everybody has said, you're going to have to strike a healthy balance between both. It was the difference between my Prac and actual SAC, went from like a 40 to a 47.5. And of course, don't just throw them in, weave them within your answer, use them effectively, I didn't really focus on it in my Prac haha, silly mistake.

[MissJannine]

^you do three subjects the same as me

Just wondering too, do you guys get cheat sheets?

[osgood]

We get a sheet of notes which is handy but it sort of puts you off learning your dates.

How do you guys go about memorizing historian's opinions? It's the most dreary part of Revs for me!

[MissJannine]

I dont write dates on my cheat sheet, we have like a quiz every friday. I just write the evidence and stuff...

This is going to sound lame but because i write songs... I usually form the quotes into a song. Complete with guitar and stuff. That or i write it into a story in my head...
Que cards work too i used them last year for International Studies

[ThyJovan]

^you do three subjects the same as me

Just wondering too, do you guys get cheat sheets?

Nice, how are you going for those other 2?

Yeah we get cheat sheets (one sided), I don't really use it much though, maybe a couple of dates I'm unsure about, but usually only for historian quotes as they are the hardest to remember, only really remember a few names and that's Pipes, Figes and Chamberlin off the top of my head. :S 

[Menang]

Just in response to OP: The most important thing is the chronology - the examiners want to see that you understand:
1. what led to an event.
2. what happened in that event.
3. what was significant about the event in the course of the revolution.
So that is cold hard facts and statistics, contemporary views and dates which is the crucial part of your knowledge.
Historiography is needed to interpret the primary sources. You will need both to get a 40+ SS, but historian's opinions are not worth very much without basic facts, stats and dates.

In regard to the memory work: yes, it's just rote learning. Write songs! Make flashcards! Pace up and down! Revs is a very memory-driven subject, with the dates and quotes. Find out whatever works best, but the important thing is that you do it.

[s.ay]

In regards to writing an essay for a historiography SAC, would it be wise to structure it as causes, event, significance, in regards to three body paragraphs, with quotes and reference to the source throughout? If that makes any sense haha

[Menang]

In regards to writing an essay for a historiography SAC, would it be wise to structure it as causes, event, significants, in regards to three body paragraphs, with quotes and reference to the source throughout? If that makes any sense haha

Hmm, depends on the question/specific assignment.

I personally wouldn't approach a question like that simply because I prefer to handle causes, events and significance together in one fell swoop, so to speak. Dealing with that separately, but with many events across 3 paragraphs might get messy.

Unless you mean the causes, events and significance of the revolution as a whole?

[s.ay]

Ah! I should have specified. The SAC will be on one specific aspect of the Russian Revolution eg. The February Revolution 1917. Would the cause-event-effect structure  be the best way to go about the essay in that instance? Thanks!