VCE History: Revolutions — Exam Discussion

[Sullivan]

Did you manage to overthrow the bourgeoisie? Did you seize the means of production?

Please comment your thoughts below.

[fitzapie]

Hi, this thread seems really dead but I have an urgent question and would appreciate any help.

I did my Revs exam today and I screwed up in two ways:

1. I forgot to shade which revolutions I chose.
2. I used two booklets and that really confused me - I started my essay in the what was meant to be the SECOND booklet.

If anyone can help me or direct me to somewhere with answers to my concerns, I'd be so grateful because I've felt so bad all afternoon.

[stellamblack]

I did China and Russia, found the exam pretty good!

[JaidynLuke]

I did France for Section A and Russia for Section B...

Section A: France
question 1 a,b and c were straight forward, standard.
question 2 was a little challenging but I'm semi-confident
question 3 was a bit of a shock, but wasn't horrible.

Section B: Russia
question 1 - essay - wasn't too challenging, except for one thing: I only wrote up until the February revolution, and the soldier/sailor mutinies I discussed were the Potemkin mutiny in 1905 and the soldiers joining the strikers on the 26th of February - the 'decisive day' as described by Trotsky.
question 2 a and b were pretty standard, but question c really took be unawares. I had already regurgitated all my knowledge about economic challenges in a and b, and didn't know what else to add in c apart from the NEP, which I hadn't even started writing before 'pens down, time's up'.

All in all I'm expecting at least a 70 in the exam, which is around a mid-high A according to the 2015 graded assessment
I averaged 80's in SACs,

[Locinator]

After doing the HTAV practice exam, this exam seemed quite straightforward

I did America section A, and Russia section b.

American Section A Source Analysis was easier than I could of imagined, basically the causes and effects of the Boston tea party
The extended responses for section a were again, quite simple. Shays rebellion was a predictable question, and the Checks and Balances question wasn't too bad. I feel this the checks and balances will be a discriminater for America

Russia Section B essay apparently caused difficulties for many people, according to discussions with my cohort after the exam and dicussion on Facebook. However, I found it again quite straightforward, as the military support for the Russian revolution was how the last ingredients in the success of all three Russian revolutions
The source analysis wasn't too bad, thought I didn't expect the famine to be the source. Three sources also surprised me, and I imagine would have surprised everyone doing that question. Similar to the tea party question, the fact it was based around causes and responses/effects made it straightforward

I'm interested to know what people thought of China and France, I've hear China has caused some difficulties

[Locinator]

Section B: Russia
question 1 - essay - wasn't too challenging, except for one thing: I only wrote up until the February revolution, and the soldier/sailor mutinies I discussed were the Potemkin mutiny in 1905 and the soldiers joining the strikers on the 26th of February - the 'decisive day' as described by Trotsky.
question 2 a and b were pretty standard, but question c really took be unawares. I had already regurgitated all my knowledge about economic challenges in a and b, and didn't know what else to add in c apart from the NEP, which I hadn't even started writing before 'pens down, time's up'.

I wrote about similar things for the essay, except my final paragraph was about the importance of the military to the Bolsheviks after the June Offensive, July Days and Kornilov. Throughout the essay I also wrote counter points within the paragraph, e.g: I started with Bloody Sunday, and how peasant uprisings that occurred from this led  to the deployment of the military 2700 times. And then how with potemkin and soldier control of trans Siberian railway led to the high pressure of October general strikes

It's a shame to hear about how you Section C went, im sure you are a good chance for the score you are aiming for

[deejay9]

Section B: Russia
question 1 - essay - wasn't too challenging, except for one thing: I only wrote up until the February revolution, and the soldier/sailor mutinies I discussed were the Potemkin mutiny in 1905 and the soldiers joining the strikers on the 26th of February - the 'decisive day' as described by Trotsky.
question 2 a and b were pretty standard, but question c really took be unawares. I had already regurgitated all my knowledge about economic challenges in a and b, and didn't know what else to add in c apart from the NEP, which I hadn't even started writing before 'pens down, time's up'.

Sounds like we had similar experiences. For the essay, I wrote about the Russo-Japanese War, the Potemkin mutiny, the tsar's terrible leadership in WWI (and how this inspired various mutinies), and of course the mutiny of the Petrograd garrison. I didn't even think to write anything on the July Days, so my essay had very few references to post-February 1917 events.

Exact same thing happened to me with the Part C question. It started off great - I wrote about how the government had to deal with the economic consequences of WWI and the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk, then moved on to discussing War Communism and how Lenin blamed the economic situation on the kulaks. Then just as I was beginning to write about the NEP, boom, time's up. I'm hoping that I can still get a decent mark though, given that I managed to write 3/4 of a page of decent analysis before writing time finished.

[stellamblack]

I'm interested to know what people thought of China and France, I've hear China has caused some difficulties

China was alright for me, but the questions based on the ideology of the Nationalist Party surprised me and took a while to think about.

[JG97]

I didn't have time to do the causes of the Russian revolution essay, as I think I took a bit too much time answering the questions for the American section. All in all, though, it was a very straightforward exam, though I also was unsure about the economic faced by the Bolsheviks, and like others, I mentioned only the NEP, and a smidgeon of War Communism.

Felt like some of my answers were a bit general, but hey, it's done now.

[lbrady]

Hi, this thread seems really dead but I have an urgent question and would appreciate any help.

I did my Revs exam today and I screwed up in two ways:

1. I forgot to shade which revolutions I chose.
2. I used two booklets and that really confused me - I started my essay in the what was meant to be the SECOND booklet.

If anyone can help me or direct me to somewhere with answers to my concerns, I'd be so grateful because I've felt so bad all afternoon.

Let your VCE coordinator now and write a letter of exactly what has happened - they should then let the VCAA know and they can extract your paper prior to scanning and shade in the boxes for you. (I know this sounds far fetched but they will do this!)