Hey!
Thanks for this. Really apprieciate it.
I was wondering if you could elaborate on what exactly you put in those four subheadings, and what exactly does 'ideas' subheading mean?
This is an example of one of my notes that I formulated for my first sac:
Bloody Sunday
• When: 9 Jan 1905
• What:
o Follow St. Petersburg workers strikes (120,000 ppl – 3-8 jan)
o Father Gapon led workers to present peaceful petition to tsar for:
Income tax
Trade union rights
Eight hour working days
• Result: troops attacked mobs
o 200 killed
o 400 injured
• Consequence: tsar blamed + not trust
• Historian quote: “The Monarchy’s fate hung by a thread” – Robert Service
Do you have any suggestions on what to exclude/include? Also, is there any relevant tips on studying revs that you can offer? In my case, I can understand the content, but knowing how much and what specifically to know is what I'm confused about.
(BTW: I'm doing the Russian and American revo)
Thanks! Much appreciated.
Okay so these four headings are taken straight from the study design
(
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/history/HistorySD-2016.pdf)
On p. 62, it says you need to be able to answer:
• What were the significant causes of revolution?
• How did the actions of popular movements and particular individuals contribute to triggering a revolution?
• To what extent did social tensions and ideological conflicts contribute to the outbreak of revolution? These are the big questions you need to be able to answer about the first area of study. The study design then goes on to outline the specific knowledge you need to know, and groups it under the four categories of individuals, events, movements, and ideas.
So like it says in the study design, the "ideas" about Outcome 1 of the American revolution it wants you to focus on include
"the Enlightenment, Natural Rights, Taxation without representation, Representative Government, Republicanism, and Liberty" and for Russia Outcome 1
"Nationalism, Liberal reformism, Revolutionary Populism, Marxism and Marxist-Leninism". So essentially asking, how did the proliferation of these specific ideas help cause the revolution?
For the other headings; look at what is specifically mentioned in the study design. For everything in the study design, this is what you should devote most of your notes to - these notes should be the most in depth and have the most historian quotes. For things that aren't listed in the study design, your notes don't need to be as completely in depth.
The example you have of Bloody Sunday is very good for just a brief summary of the event, and will definitely be helpful when you need to refresh your memory about what happened on Bloody Sunday when you revise your notes next semester. But, Bloody Sunday was a BIG event in Russia area of study 1. Therefore I think you need some more detail about what its
significance was in contributing to the revolution.
Eg. adding info like:
- Although Nicholas II wasn’t present, he was ultimately held responsible for the massacre, greatly damaging the image of the tsar as “little father” guardian of the Russian people, becoming “Bloody Nicholas/ Nicholas the Bloody”
- Although protests prior to Bloody Sunday had been moderate and largely confined to urban workers, news of the massacre motivated political upheaval from all sectors of society.
- The outraged reaction to Bloody Sunday spread through universities around the country. Students went on strike in large numbers, turning campuses into “centres of political agitation”; in Moscow alone over 3000 students staged a rally, burning a portrait of the Tsar and hanging red flags from the building. On March 18th, the authorities ordered all institutions of higher learning closed for the remainder of the academic year.
Also, for big events like Bloody Sunday, you need to know multiple historical perspectives. The Robert Service quote you currently have is really good, but try and find more historical quotes from different perspectives!
The statistics you have about how many were petitioning, and how many were killed/ injured are really good, and you should try and include similar stats for all your events!
Other general study tips for revs are: - Since history is SO content heavy, you need to frequently reread your old notes, so you don't forget things. This is so easy and just means that like once a month, you just read through all your notes again, just to get a quick refresher. This was one thing I didn't do enough. I did Russia semester 1 and France semester 2. When I finished my final sac for France and went back to start revising Russia, I couldn't believe how much I had forgotten. Even if you are in semester 2 and really busy studying your second revolution, ALWAYS make a tiny bit of time to revise your first revolution!
- Make timelines!!!!!!!!!!!! This is sosososo helpful. I found timelines made it easier to kind of visualise how one event lead on to another. I made my timelines as a table with 3 columns.
1st column: Date of event
2nd column: Name of event
3rd column: Significance of this event - in this column i wrote 3 or 4 dot points about why this event was so instrumental in leading up to a revolution (in area of study one), OR why this event was significant as a consequence of the revolution (area of study two).
- Alphahistory is your friend
http://alphahistory.com/russianrevolution/ they have very comprehensive summaries of events which are very useful, mindmaps, historian quotes, images and documents that are great for practising doc studies. Basically, alphahistory is an amazing resource that i highly recommend
- Read. Read widely and read often. Read a large variety of historian opinions. Watch documentaries. The more you immerse yourself in learning your revolutions, the easier it will be to think of things to write about in sacs and exams. this is advice that i wish i had taken when I did revs, and that I have only truly learnt from studying history at university.
I hope this is a little helpful!
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