Susie - Ask a State Ranker (Q+A Closed)

[lcamilleri.53]

In Economics, I always lose marks in multiple choice. How do I amend this? I've done plenty of practice on multiple choice generators. Also, with the large amounts of study notes in Economic Issues and Economic Management what is the most important information and subtopics?

[heathersnowy]

Hey Susie,

I was just wondering if you have any tips for learning modern content quickly and how you suggest structuring essays for modern? Are there any tips that you have for writing really good essays? I was also wondering how you would approach source questions on assessing the perspective, reliability and usefulness of sources. Btw, I attended your workshop and it was really helpful, thank you.

Kind Regards,
Heather 

[dancing phalanges]

Hey Susie also forgot to ask on a different note - what marks did you get internally in each of your assessments (if you can remember) to get a state rank in Modern and how well did you do in actual HSC exam if you recall? Not that I aiming that high, I am just looking for a B6 at the moment but would be nice to see how on track I am for doing that

[sudodds]

hey!
i do modern history... our class did a essay under exam conditions the other day...
got it back from my teacher and she said the whole way thru that i was telling a narrative and not analysing enuf...
what would u suggest for me to fix this? any tips on how to analyse more etc.??
thanks so much 

Hey! The easiest way to avoid writing a narrative is to continually bring it back to the question, and to focus on the significance of the events, rather than the events themselves. Sentences like this "thus it is evident that (your judgement) is supported", or "this further emphasises the significance of (your judgement)". These sentences show that you are analysing rather than just telling us a story, because they are forcing you to have to make a judgement as to whether this event is significant or not.
 
Another suggestion I often give my students who write too narrative is to use a thematic structure. A thematic structure, by nature will prevent you from writing a narrative, as they do not focus on full events, but more so different aspects of many events, and how they contribute to a theme. The themes are political, social, economic (and sometimes strategic/militaristic, cultural and ideological!). So, lets say you are a Russia student writing a Stalinism essay. Rather than having each paragraph go in chronological order detailing what Stalin did, which is very easy to slip into re-tell, you could instead have a paragraph on Stalin's political impact, social impact, economic impact, etc. etc, where you have to make the call as to which events demonstrate which theme

My teachers no. 1 tip to tell if you are writing a narrative was this. If you can put "meanwhile" at the beginning of a sentence, and it make sense - you are probably writing too narrative!

Hope this helps,

Susie

[droodsh]

Hello Susie!

Do you have any important tips or advice when studying for modern history and how to memorise quotes/sources?

[cowpotato]

Hi Susie!

For Modern sections 2 and 4, do you think it's necessary to use historians' quotes? Or does it just count as additional knowledge/detail?

Thanks

[sudodds]

Hi Susie,
How many historians should I have memorised for each part of the Modern History exam as it's hard to memorise one for each specific part of the syllabus and what are some good historians to use? eg Russia, Trotsky and Conflict in Europe.

Hey! There isn't an answer to that question I'm afraid! The importance of historians is kinda over inflated in modern by many schools - in the HSC exam, they'd much rather see that you can form your own unique judgement, than just parrot the judgements of a historian. Having some good, universal, punchy quotes memorised (maybe 2 per syllabus dot point?) would be more than enough (and even then - not essential. Like if you forget a quote in the exam seriously don't worry about it. They're just nice to include cos they count as detail!). In terms of memorising them, go for the short quotes, that feature an argument, rather than just detail - and don't be afraid to paraphrase! Paraphrasing is often even better than quoting, because it shows that you actually understand the argument, rather than just memorising a few words.

In terms of Russia and Trotsky, I recommend having a look at Deutscher!! He's fantastic. Though I disagree with their judgements, Robert Service and Orlando Figes are also pretty good for quotes. Check out this thread! for more suggestions (along with some other topics as well ! Unfortunately I didn't study Conflict in Europe But there are a few people on ATAR Notes who did, so I suggest popping a question over here and hopefully one of them can get back to ya!


Susie

[sudodds]

Hey Susie,

I was just wondering with a question that says "The impact of the treaty of versailles was more significant than any other factor" for modern, would this be asking about the fall of the Weimar republic or some other broad thing? I have no Idea what it wants me to talk about.

Thank you

Hi Lucy! Unfortunately I didn't study Germany last year, so take this advice with a grain of salt, but from my limited knowledge of the Germany syllabus, yes I believe that is what they are talking about, given that on the syllabus I believe this comes under the "fall of the weimar republic" dot point!

[ca052267]

Hey Susie,

I am currently preparing for my Trials which begin on Monday.

I'm studying for Advanced English and I was wondering what texts you did for each module and your AOS.

If you studied any of these (below) or know anything about them could you help me with key themes to write about? I can't seem to find resources for most of my texts, especially for module C. 
 AOS: The Motorcycle Diaries
Mod A: Metropolis / 1984
Mod B: Hamlet
Mod C: Poetry of Judith Wright

Also, what are your best tips for writing thematic essays?

Thanks

Charbella

[tracyhuang]

Hi Susie!
I was just wondering if you had any tips or tricks for remembering all the content in Ancient History? And also how to improve in source analysis for Pompeii and Herculaneum?

[sudodds]

Hi Susie,

I'm doing extension history by distance and my teacher does nothing, i hardly got given work at the beginning of every term, Just wondering with the case study, I'm doing appeasement and i was wondering how to go about answering a question, like would i usually be talking about a few of the debates with like 3 historians for each type thing or do i talk more generally about all of them and discuss the problems with them??

sorry if that doesn't make sense

Hey! The way that I structured my essay for the case study (I did Western Imperialism), was I looked at the source and tried to extrapolate themes and historiographical ideas relevant to the debates. So for example, with my case study I found that Western Imperial history was often used to justify contemporary reality and imperial activity (usually the US), so I'd have a paragraph on that, linking my debates - Origins, Aims and Impact - throughout. I might not talk about all the debates in each paragraph, but just the ones most relevant to the issue. I typically discussed two historians per paragraph, that had opposing views, so I could demonstrate this idea of debate - but rather than focusing on what they were saying, I focused more on their methodology, and why they were saying these things. For example, in Vladimir Lenin's "Imperialism: the highest state of Capitalism", his interpretation is going to be (clearly) impacted by his ideology as a communist, in the same way that Niall Ferguson's "Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World" is impacted by his right-wing, pro-western, pro-capitalist ideology! Remember that this is a historiography essay - not a history essay, so you need to be analysing the historians, more than the actual event itself (eg. Appeasement).

[eyw00400]

Hi Suzie!
I have modern trial exam coming up and its on the same day as my maths exam.
I'm worried that I'am going to be too mentally exhausted and stuff up my modern exam.
Do you have any suggestions for reserving energy and getting through the exam?
Also for my exam I was thinking of starting with WW1 (I'm most comfortable with this section) then Cold war (least comfortable-we just started learning it), Personality and then National study (most comfortable) , would that be a good order to do it?

[eyw00400]

Hey Susie,

I am currently preparing for my Trials which begin on Monday.

I'm studying for Advanced English and I was wondering what texts you did for each module and your AOS.

If you studied any of these (below) or know anything about them could you help me with key themes to write about? I can't seem to find resources for most of my texts, especially for module C. 
 AOS: The Motorcycle Diaries
Mod A: Metropolis / 1984
Mod B: Hamlet
Mod C: Poetry of Judith Wright

Also, what are your best tips for writing thematic essays?

Thanks

Charbella

Hey I study the same texts for Mod A and B. There are notes on the site which can help you with it!
Usually the themes for Mod A and B tend to come as binaries, especially for Mod A.
So Mod A usually the most common themes are: power vs control, rebellion vs revolution, hope vs despair, figurative vs literal machine, etc.
For Mod B its things like loyalty vs betrayal, revenge, justice, the human condition, mortality, fate etc.

[sudodds]

Hi!

i was just wondering if you had any tips on memorising specific dates and key points for all the topics for the Modern trial, is there any tips you used when studying for your trials to help you memories the dates and events for each specific topic!?

also, how do i stray away from my essays becoming narratives? (especially for the studied personality section of the modern exam)

Thanks!

In terms of memorising detail - I used a detail table! Basically it had all the syllabus dot points down one side, and then a column for miscellaneous detail (eg. stats, terminology, names, etc.) and then a column for quotes. I also recommend taking a look at this thread! made by jakesilove! Worksheets are a really effective form or study, because they are "active", meaning that your brain has to be switched on, rather than just reading and writing out different stats. When done often, its kinda like muscle memory - you will just know these stats, without even having to think!

The easiest way to avoid writing a narrative is to continually bring it back to the question, and to focus on the significance of the events, rather than the events themselves. Sentences like this "thus it is evident that (your judgement) is supported", or "this further emphasises the significance of (your judgement)". These sentences show that you are analysing rather than just telling us a story, because they are forcing you to have to make a judgement as to whether this event is significant or not.
 
Another suggestion I often give my students who write too narrative is to use a thematic structure. A thematic structure, by nature will prevent you from writing a narrative, as they do not focus on full events, but more so different aspects of many events, and how they contribute to a theme. The themes are political, social, economic (and sometimes strategic/militaristic, cultural and ideological!). So, lets say you are a Russia student writing a Stalinism essay. Rather than having each paragraph go in chronological order detailing what Stalin did, which is very easy to slip into re-tell, you could instead have a paragraph on Stalin's political impact, social impact, economic impact, etc. etc, where you have to make the call as to which events demonstrate which theme

My teachers no. 1 tip to tell if you are writing a narrative was this. If you can put "meanwhile" at the beginning of a sentence, and it make sense - you are probably writing too narrative!

In terms of for the personality study specifically - you can write a narrative for Part A! It's part B that needs to be analytical, and the above advice is applicable

Susie

[dancing phalanges]

Hi Lucy! Unfortunately I didn't study Germany last year, so take this advice with a grain of salt, but from my limited knowledge of the Germany syllabus, yes I believe that is what they are talking about, given that on the syllabus I believe this comes under the "fall of the weimar republic" dot point!

Hey Lucy, Susie is 100% correct, what you have to do is talk about the impact of the T.O.V on the fall of the W.R for a good solid paragraph, before then discussing other issues eg. Article 48, constitution, great depression etc and prove at the end of your paragraph if these were more or less significant than the TOV and if the TOV contributed to these at all (eg. great depression - anti-democratic feeling following reminded people of TOV and its association with the WR) Just remember at the end of each para to make a judgement