HSC Modern History Question Thread

[henrychapman]

I have my Modern trials in two days and I haven't started studying at all, but there is sooooo much content!
Any tips on how to approach my study at this point in time?

I've been a regular modern crammer so I know how you feel. I wouldn't bother with notes. If anything, I'd pull the very very key aspects from all your topics and learn them. cram in some typical essays that come up (for example for Germany there's usually always a question on the fall of Weimar/rise of Nazi's, yet there are a number of factors). They can specify a factor, but this just needs it needs to be the focus of the essay, you can still integrate all the other factors !
The other thing I'd do is learn historians' names and learn roughly what they say. There is no point memorising quotes. Paraphrasing historians is the better option because it actually shows that you understand what they're saying rather then just name dropping a quote.
Best of luck !!

[askaerdf]

Hey, as i only have limited time left to study for modern history, i was thinking of for section II weimar germany, just skipping the political democracy part of it and only studying the Nazi part, is that risky or is there always guaranteed to be a Nazi question for that section. Thanks

[Mada438]

Hey, as i only have limited time left to study for modern history, i was thinking of for section II weimar germany, just skipping the political democracy part of it and only studying the Nazi part, is that risky or is there always guaranteed to be a Nazi question for that section. Thanks

You can never really be sure.
You can only predict what you believe it will be by looking at past exams.
My teacher (who writes modern exams for NESA) says that they are told "Don't make it predictable"
You can get it completely wrong (I have before). You may be able to discern a pattern based on past exams, but they could throw you somethinfg completeky different. You never know. There is never GAURENTEED to be a Nazi question for that section.

Ultimiately it's up to you to decide whether it's too risky or not.

[henrychapman]

Hey, as i only have limited time left to study for modern history, i was thinking of for section II weimar germany, just skipping the political democracy part of it and only studying the Nazi part, is that risky or is there always guaranteed to be a Nazi question for that section. Thanks

that is definitely risky and something I wouldn't recommend. Plus the essays that come out of the first section of the syllabus are probably easier than anything to do with the Nazi's- as there are a significant amount of factors that lead to the rise of Nazi's/ fall of Weimar democracy. This means you can essentially pick and choose which material you use (depending on the question of course) and your argument is basically created for you with that sort of question. Whatever factor it is that is specified in the question (Treaty of Versailles, the Army, Great Depression, structural political flaws or Hitler's ability to appeal to the Germans) you can argue "yeh it played a large role, but there were other contributing factors."
In the Nazi section - the common questions revolve around consolidation of Nazi power and the impact of race on Nazi policy, both domestic and foreign. Another common one is to what extent did Hitler achieve total power by 1939? I'd say the Nazi's achieved total power due to the way Hitler consolidated and the things he brought it (mainly through the Enabling Act) that prevented opposition to the party and thus meant that the Nazi's had total control. You could also mention the role of propaganda and terror in this too.
Hope this helps- I think you should just try cram the best you can on everything because you really don't want to leave yourself short of knowledge

[dancing phalanges]

Hey, as i only have limited time left to study for modern history, i was thinking of for section II weimar germany, just skipping the political democracy part of it and only studying the Nazi part, is that risky or is there always guaranteed to be a Nazi question for that section. Thanks

Hey just to add to the great answers below - knowing even just a bit of the political part is great because you are expected to have a holistic understanding of the topic. For instance, if the question is about how the Nazis rose to power or how they transformed the life of Nazi Germany from 1933-1939 it is crucial to at least know what Germany was like before 1933 so you can compare the two

[theyam]

hello,

was just wondering if anyone could give me tips on how they would answer this germany question: Assess the impact of the revolutions of 1918-1919 on the growth of democracy in Germany.

thank you guys

[Mada438]

hello,

was just wondering if anyone could give me tips on how they would answer this germany question: Assess the impact of the revolutions of 1918-1919 on the growth of democracy in Germany.

thank you guys

Hey!
So first things first. Look at the directive term. In this case its an assess question
"Asses means to weigh up to what extent something is true. Persuade the reader of your argument by citing relevant research but also remember to point out any flaws and counter-arguments as well. Conclude by stating clearly how far you are in agreement with the original proposition"-University of Liechester
So how big of an impact did the revolutions have? Remember you're only talking about 1918-1919. Anything else isn't relevant to the question at hand. So events such as the Kapp putsch (March 1920) are not applicable as they occured in 1920 or later.
The two main aspects i'd disscuss are the Spartacist uprising in January 1919 where they seized government buildings and fought the Freikorpos
And the revolution at Kiel where sailors refused to take part in battle
Then they were joined by workers and soldiers and took control of Kel
This then led to the general strike and the Kaisers abdication.

Im sorry i cannot help more as this is all i could come up with. But i do hope it helps
Good luck my friend!

[holky]

Hey!
So first things first. Look at the directive term. In this case its an assess question
"Asses means to weigh up to what extent something is true. Persuade the reader of your argument by citing relevant research but also remember to point out any flaws and counter-arguments as well. Conclude by stating clearly how far you are in agreement with the original proposition"-University of Liechester
So how big of an impact did the revolutions have? Remember you're only talking about 1918-1919. Anything else isn't relevant to the question at hand. So events such as the Kapp putsch (March 1920) are not applicable as they occured in 1920 or later.
The two main aspects i'd disscuss are the Spartacist uprising in January 1919 where they seized government buildings and fought the Freikorpos
And the revolution at Kiel where sailors refused to take part in battle
Then they were joined by workers and soldiers and took control of Kel
This then led to the general strike and the Kaisers abdication.

Im sorry i cannot help more as this is all i could come up with. But i do hope it helps
Good luck my friend!

Hey, so I just wanna throw my two cents in here; you can totally discuss things beyond the scope of 1918-19 as it is the revolutions that are specified as 1918-19, not the scope of the questions. So you could talk about the Kapp Putsch or anything else you feel were important to German democracy. However, because the question specifies the revolutions, your answer needs to focus on those, so I'd do two paragraphs on the revolutions and one on another important factor.
Hope that helps x

[-Grace-]

Would any preliminary content be tested in the HSC for Modern History?

[fun_jirachi]

Would any preliminary content be tested in the HSC for Modern History?

The answer is no, since the HSC for Modern History is 3 hours with 5 mins of reading, divided into 4 45 minute sections based on the Core (WWI), the National Study, the Personality Study, and the Peace and Conflict Study, all of which you studied between the start of Term 4 last year and now.
However, preliminary content will definitely not be tested, but it can sometimes provide excellent context for some studies you do this year ie. I did Fall of the Romanovs, then Russia for the National Study and Trotsky for the Personality study, so it really helps sticking some content from that into my work for those two aforementioned sections, so for some people, Preliminary content is still relevant even if it's not tested.

Hope this answers your question!

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
How much do we need to know about Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo? I know it's not part of the syllabus but in all the Modern textbooks I've looked at, they talk about Dunkirk.

[sudodds]

Hey guys,
How much do we need to know about Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo? I know it's not part of the syllabus but in all the Modern textbooks I've looked at, they talk about Dunkirk.

Hey! I didn't study Conflict in Europe (so correct me if I'm wrong, someone who has!), but I'd say if it's not directly on the syllabus, then you don't need to know much if anything about it! A lot of textbooks include lots of "fluffy" irrelevant stuff to pad them out so they can justify charging insane prices. It might be good detail, but if it's not on the syllabus, its not something they should be able to directly question.

[kauac]

Hi, definitely not a modern student  .... But I do have a random question related to modern history.

Has anyone heard of/ know much about the 1600s King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus?

I'm doing some probing for one of my English related texts, and it alludes to this person.... The text is a satirical short story written in about 1910, and I'm kinda really confused why the author would mention this person? Like, he calls a baby 'Gustavus Adolphus', its really weird.

Any insights would be super helpful! 

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
Just a general question: does anyone ever finish the whole Modern History syllabus on time? My class is extremely behind, i.e. we've only started looking at Operation Barbarossa and we have around 10 days of school left (excluding Graduation Assembly, Mass, Year 12 Brunch, Formal etc.).

So yeah, just curious if anyone usually finishes learning the content early.

[fun_jirachi]

We definitely are going to, after trials its just Soviet Foreign Policy left, and that's tiny. I guess to an extent we rushed Trotsky and that the teachers heaped a lot of the work onto us, prepping us mostly for exam technique instead of content, like we were meant to do most of the content ourselves, and that's why we have so much time? I'm not in yr 12 so I can't talk, but even they should finish Soviet Foreign Policy in the time they have left, so we should be finishing a little early.