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

[sudodds]

Hello
What were the central themes you looked at for the AOS? I'm doing the Tempest and I want to strengthen my links between it and Discovery, so any tips would be amazing!

Thank you

Heya! Lucky you - I studied the Tempest as well! These were the themes I looked at (each had their won dedicated paragraph).
- Unexpected or unwanted discoveries, and how they can have a significant transformative impact upon lives, as they forcing individuals to reconsider their actions and beliefs. (link to the actual Tempest in Act I - which subverts the "natural state of being", forcing the individuals onboard to confront the fragility of their place within the social hierarchy)
- How individuals interactions with one another can have a cumulative effect upon discovery, looking at Banquet scene, whereby Antonio and Alonso are confronted with the impact that their actions had on Prospero, and thus their own lives later on.
- How stark contrasts can lead to discovery, as they are given the opportunity to reflect upon the differences, both positive and negative, between them. With this I looked at the Betrothal Masque, and how the beauty union of Miranda and Ferdinand contrasted the horror and deceit of the rest of the characters, prompting Prospero to reconsider his own actions, attitudes and behaviours.
- How the transformative impact of discovery is evident through an individual’s willingness to reconsider their values and behaviour, linking this to the idea of forgiveness prevalent at the end of the play!

Hope this helps! You can actually find my discovery the notes section!

Susie

[assassinsfreed]

Hi Susie! I went to your trial lecture (you were FANTASTIC) and do all three histories, and I was wondering how you managed to memorise all the dates and historian names across the subjects? also for the HTA history extension prize submission, did you have to convert your footnotes to endnotes (as they suggest)?

[sudodds]

Hey Susie, my questions to you are as follows:
1. How should I prepare for extension and modern history HSC, do you suggest memorising essays beforehand?
2. Where did you get your insperation from when it came to creative writing?
3. Do you have any advice/tips for improving clarity and having a clear expression in English Advanced essays
4. How did you manage to write quick in the trials and HSC??

Thanks so much, have a lovely day. 

Hey rasha! Here are my responses

1. NOPE NOPE NOPE! Don't memorise essay for history extension or modern - that is a recipe for disaster. Definitely do practice questions, and write a tonne of practice responses for both - but don't memorise (especially for history extension - its literally impossible as you need to be integrating the source consistently, to the extent whereby your entire argument is based around it). Every year, the marking centre comments that students are writing essays on last years question, because they have memorised an essay and failed to adapt it to the new, very different question.

2. Inspiration for me is kinda wishy washy tbh ahaha, its usually whatever I find interesting at the time. I study creative writing at uni as one of my electives, and I literally wrote a serious script, the idea of which came from a meme I saw on "trolley theory memes" ahaha. So I guess, the smart way of saying what I just said would be to "observe" your surrounding, and try and see the creativity of even the inconsequential (but really - just look at meme pages on fb they're ace )

3. Practice. Practice. Practice. I also really tried my best to practice being concise, because I was notorious at my school for writing too much (*cough*6000 word history extension draft*cough*). So i'd look at a paragraph I just wrote, and I'd think "can I say this in less sentences/words" - most of the time, yes. Another thing that I found was that the simplest way of describing something, is often the best way. As much as vocab is really important in english, I think many students confused themselves in their essay by attempting to use "big" words that they don't fully understand, that then leads to confusing essays.

4. Studying enough to the point whereby I was confident with the content was a huge factor, as it meant that I wasn't sitting in exams trying to work out what to say next. But on the more practical, hand-strength side, I suggest getting a weighted pen to build up some strength This worked well for me, and meant that my hand was less tired as the exam went on (also put a band aid around the tip of your middle finger, even if you don't need one - I was gripping my pen and writing for so long in Ancient that the abrasions on the pen cut open my finger :/).

[katie,rinos]

What are your tips for procrastination? (I find that I could procrastinate on anything at the moment )
Also, for English did you use both your related texts in your trials and HSC?
For section 2 in extension, how many areas of the debate did you study and use in your exams? Is it better to do one in depth, or to do two?
Also, may seem like a dumb question, but you seem to really like Trotsky-Who was he? (showing my lack of modern history knowledge here )
Thanks so much (again)!!

[Dante1091]

A few questions for you Susie,
1. What time did you go to bed before your exams
2. What order did you do your paper 1 and paper 2 for English
3. Memorise essays or nah?
4. How many words was your essays roughly?

[sudodds]

Hey Susie, got my ancient trial this Friday and have ALOT of questions to ask!! (sorry in advance)

No need to apologise! Happy to help

1. How did you prepare for your ancient trials?

Mainly just wrote a lot of practice essays and essay plans! I also read over stephanieazzopardi's notes for Pompeii and Herculaneum, Sparta, Agrippina and Julio-Claudians, which can all be found in the notes section of ATAR Notes!! If you do these topics, I highly recommend checking them out - they were a lifesaver for me (and my entire class) last year!

2. How many sources per paragraph should I include (would two sources be enough?)

For me, I tried to have a least one source per point that I made Remember that this includes ancient/modern historian quotes too, so if you don't know a bit of archeological evidence, you can always use one of them instead!

3. I'm having trouble with finding archaeological sources for all the syllabus dot points for Sparta, do you know what are the best archaeological sources to use?

Definitely quite tricky! I mainly used historians rather than archaeological sources for this very reason, however I'd often try and find archeological evidence (and this works for all sections) that relate to multiple areas of the syllabus! For example, the poems Alcman and Tyrtaeus of course work for the "literature" dot point, but also work for many aspects of the 'Social structure and political organisation' section Buildings are also a fantastic source type (eg. the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia), as they were often multipurpose, and are more durable (meaning they have survived "better")

4. How do I keep finding motivation in Ancient, when my teacher doesn't teach the course properly, half the class hates the course and the other half are so competitive. I really want (at least) a band 5 in this subject.

That sucks Though I loved all my three of my ancient teachers, it wasn't ideal that I had three ahaha (due to circumstances beyond any of our control). For me, I found motivation in the fact that I was so passionate about history, but also through setting goals Like "I want to get this mark in this exam" or "I want to have 3 essays written by next week so I feel confident for Trials" those kinda thing. In terms of competitiveness - avoid it at all costs, like literally ignore it. It makes me really sad when people view the HSC as a competition, because it is literally the opposite - the better you all do, the higher all of your marks will be.

5. How many pages should each section of the exam should be?

As many as the booklet provides for each section! Expectation is that you fill the entire booklet - eg. you get given a 8 page booklet for the essay - they expect you to write 7-8 pages, roughly 1100 words per section

6. Whats the most effective way of studying for this subject? Left my revision at the last minute and have six days left (with 4 exams on top) to study. My notes are so synthesised that there's barely any detail left. Not sure if this is a bad thing or a good thing.

I'd focus on doing practice essays/questions, and essay plans! That is pretty much the only way I studied for Ancient

7. When including a written source in your paragraphs, should I mention if the writer is biased or not (like commenting how Herodotus usually exaggerates his accounts) or would I just be wasting my time?

Thank you!!!

Definitely! But don't go overboard - a simple sentence will do, just clarifying that you understand the historiographical implications of their assertions

Hope this helps!

Susie

[sudodds]

Hey Susie!
Just wondering what you think the best way to study for the Period (25 marker) in ancient is? Practice questions dont really help me but any advice would be great

practice questions... sorry ahaha that was pretty much the only way that I studied for Ancient! However, I understand that that method may not work for everyone. I also found essay plans really effective, and also group study! Teaching the content to others is often one of the best ways of learning the content - discussing the events, and everyones opinions of them is a great way to work out new arguments, that are critical to forming a sophisticated judgement for this section!

[sudodds]

Heya! So the Q and A is now closed for further questions!!

Thank you so much for all of your questions! Wayyyy more than I was expecting which is super cool! Don't worry if you haven't received an answer yet - I'll be going though them all this evening.

I hope you are all finding this helpful <3 I'm having a lot of fun answering them!

Susie

[sudodds]

Hey Susie
Just wondering what texts did you do in English (for discovery, modules and related) and do you have any tips for the english papers?

Hey Lizzie!
Discovery - The Tempest (relateds: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and An Idiot Abroad)
Mod A - Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice
Mod B - TS Eliot
Mod C - Wag the Dog (relateds: Candide by Voltaire and The 'Evil Empire' speech by Ronald Reagan)

My biggest tip would be to use Emily's Q&A tomorrow But also to make sure that you are focusing more on the concepts of the overarching topic, than the actual text - use the text to demonstrate the greater themes of eg. discovery, rather than focusing on the plot!! Also techniques, techniques, techniques!!

[sudodds]

Hello!
I was wondering how you would study after school? Aka, how many hours you would study, how many breaks in between, would you allow  yourself to procrastinate, how long is your 'free time'?
And how would you schedule your study during weekends?

Also, any tips on how to avoid procrastination?

Hey! To be completely honest, it was extremely varied. Some days I might spend literally every waking hour studying, some none at all! I wasn't very good at planning my study - I was lucky that as I was studying subjects I enjoyed, motivation wasn't too difficult to come by, so I didn't really need to "force" myself to study. I'm the type of person whereby as soon as I plan to do something, and I make it a "chore" - I won't do it. I think often procrastination is your body telling you you need a break (obviously it can get out of control, but if you have been studying consistently and then one day you just can't even will yourself to look at your textbook - maybe take a bit of a break).

Setting goals, and making promises was a big motivator for me. If I told my modern teacher I would have 3 essay for him by the end of the week - then rain, hail or shine I would have 3 essays. That is because I'm the type of person that hates disappointing people, or not living up to expectations, so this worked quite well for me - set the expectations, so that I am forced to meet them (don't set them too high though to the point whereby they are unachievable, as this can do more harm than good).

Tips to avoid excessive procrastination? Study in a "study" environment. For me, I could not study at home, so I'd actively go and study in the school library (or if that was not available, my local library) - so even during exam blocks, I'd come to school but just spend the whole day in the library. I found this really helpful, because if I needed help with anything, or I wanted something looked at, I could just run upstairs to the staff study and get (usually) immediate help, plus I just found the environment easier to focus in. Giving your phone to your parents as well is a good way of forcing yourself to avoid these distractions

[sudodds]

Hi Susie,
1. How did you prepare for the HSC History exam?...and specifically how did you study/prepare for the essay in the exam? (I do Ancient History)

Hey!!
I pretty much just did past papers and essay plans (more so essay plans for Ancient, as I found the questions were often more varied than in Modern), and then I'd get them all marked by my teacher (who was an absolute champ, and would literally mark anything I gave him within a day
- I was really lucky.).

2. I can only write max. 4-5 pages under time conditions, is that a problem? How much could you write?

Okay so my brutally honest answer - you should be aiming to fill the entire booklet, so in the HSC that is (for an essay) 7-8 pages. Reason being is they expect 1000 words minimum for an essay, and they guestimate that that is 7-8 pages. A big reason as to why you aren't filling that is possibly that your handwriting is too small (like mine was!), so make a concious effort to try and increase your font (? is that the right word for it lol) size.

3. How did you manage your time during exams?

I mean, I didn't "manage" it all the time! In the final HSC exam for modern, I went way overtime on one section, which only gave me 30 minutes to write my Cold War essay Super stressful - luckily didn't affect me too much! Reason I am saying this is don't beat yourself up about it if in an exam you mess up the timing a bit It happens to everyone.

In terms of actual advice, be strict with yourself. One bit of advice that I received, which really helped me out in this department is that if you have spent 45 minutes writing an essay, you probably have already solidified your mark, and an extra paragraph may only really add one or two more marks (fun fact, a significant chunk of your mark is determined by your intro!). Whereas starting a new section, even if you haven't "finished" your current essay will inevitably get you more marks

4. Would I need to write specific dates of events for the exam or just know the approximate chronological order?

As specific as you can, as it counts as detail, and detail is EVERYTHING in history! However, don't worry if you can't remember a specific date in an exam Just putting the year will be fine if need be

5. What was your study schedule like? (on a normal school day + the holidays leading up to HSC)
Thanks

As I said in my response above, quite varied to be honest! I didn't really have a "schedule" as I don't work very well in that kinda format. However, in the few weeks before the HSC exams, I tried my best to treat every day like a school day, so start studying at 9am, finish at around 3-5pm.

[sudodds]

Hey Susie,

I wanted to ask for modern history how did you remember intricate events and specific dates? I'm doing the core obviously, Germany 1919 - 1939, Leni Riefenstahl (personality) and conflict in indochina 1954 - 1979. Sometimes it is overwhelming to look at all the dates and events and people and histiography, so yeah, any tips?

Thanks     

Hey Marcus!

In terms of memorising stats/dates/quotes etc. - 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!

[sudodds]

Hey Susie,
Just a quick question on Modern. I've practically finished all my essay plans... what would you do next! Do you think it is worth trying to form them into full essays under timed conditions? Or do you think it is better to just make sure you know the key ideas? Of course, this is all dependent on time, my exam is on Thursday! In other words, what worked for you?

Awesome! Great work dancing phalanges I'd definitely try and do some full responses under exam conditions to test your knowledge! Always a good idea to familiarise yourself with the exam format, and get used to the amount of time you have. I'd also then suggest constructing some detail, linking and argument tables to solidify your knowledge and personal judgements

And how many statistics would you recommend using in WW1 during Questions 7 and 8 and likewise for essays, as I don't want to memorise too many if it won't improve my mark too much but of course some in there are good. Thanks

As many as possible. Like you can never have enough detail - I'm not going to suggest being selective ahaha. Try and memorise as many as you can

[sudodds]

Hey Susie, what was your study schedule per subject like during and between trials and the hsc exams? Like how did you manage your time between your history subjects and other subjects. At what point would you say one had done enough study for modern, and did you start to get diminishing returns on modern study after you got to a certain point of confidence with the subject? If so, how did you deal with that?
Thanks 

In all honesty, I never felt like I had done enough study for modern ahaha - that was always my number 1 priority throughout the year, and for better or for worse, I would be lying if I said that I didn't neglect other subjects (particularly economics and Studies of Religion). Like I would pretty much consistently be studying for Modern (and extension) all throughout the year, even outside of exam periods, and for my other subjects my more concentrated study would be the 3-4 days before an exam, whereby I would revise a topic a day, through practice questions (This of course doesn't include assessment tasks however, which I also count as study to an extent, as for example my english essays were memorised and carried through the entire year).

[sudodds]

Hi Susie,

I am actually interested to know your opinion on Trotsky's role during the signing of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk haha.

Ahaha, my opinion is that though many people have just kinda written it off as a classic example of Trotsky's naivety and idealism - suggesting that his position of "neither peace nor war" failed due to the fact that he held to strongly to his ideological beliefs in permanent revolution, I actually think that it is a clear example of the alternative interpretation: that he was a practical revolutionary!

The hold up for me is that being pragmatic doesn't always mean that you succeed - it means that you look at the situation, analyse the pros and cons, and make an educated judgement as to the next course of action. Neither is being deeply ideological - as Trotsky most definitely was - an indicator that an individual is unpragmatic, but more so the way in which they apply ideological theory to suit present needs and conditions (praxis). Though "neither peace nor war" was definitely informed by Trotsky's ideological position of "Permanent Revolution", which advocated and suggested the need for a global/european wide revolution (thinking that a German revolution would trigger this), it is important to note that it was still a measured response, even if it failed.

EVERYONE thought that Germany was going to have a revolution. This wasn't just some idealist imagining of Trotsky, like it definitely looked like it was going to happen, and was based on some pretty solid evidence - so was Trotsky being naive to base his position on this? Lenin's position of "Yield Space Gain Time", which many consider to be the more practical solution, was also based on the idea of a German revolution, just with Lenin he suggested that the German revolution meant that the concessions that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk enforced would only be felt for a short while, as a German revolution was "immanent" and would reverse these concessions, whereas Trotsky suggested that a German Revolution being immanent meant that there was no point signing the Treaty in the first place.

Furthermore, many people neglect to mention that when it did become evident that Trotsky's position had failed when the Germans invaded, he did not rigidly hold onto his position, but rather immediately sided with Lenin - acknowledging the failure of "neither peace nor war". People often say that him refusing to attend the signing of the Treaty despite being Commissar of Foreign Affairs is an example of him being arrogant, and authoritarian about ideology - but in my opinion, that is a bit simplistic. I'd say a big part of his reasoning would be more so that he felt pretty embarrassed, and did not want to be the person that had to sign the now much harsher concessions. A similar debate surrounds his resignation as Commissar of Foreign Affairs. Many suggest that it was because, again, he was arrogant, and pissed off that no one followed his line of thinking. However, again I believe that is simplistic, and that the transition from Commissar of Foreign Affairs was actually quite pragmatic, and demonstrates how Trotsky was actually willing to FORGO ideology in this instance! I think he potentially recognised that, despite Commissar of Foreign Affairs being the best position for him to implement his very internationally orientated ideology of Permanent Revolution, he was not the best for the job, due to his very strong ideological views, and thus recognised that his talents were better elsewhere

But yeah ahaha, those are my views on the matter! (can't believe I just wrote that much on this but whatevs )

Also, just wanted to know for both ancient and modern whether you wrote out full essays for all syllabus points and possible q's, or just chose to scaffold/plan essay questions?

For modern I did full essays, for Ancient mainly essay plans, just because I found the questions to be more varied. For example, I realised that even when the questions were different, my Bolshevik Consolidation of Power essays often still had the exact same structure, whereas with Ancient I could never predict how I would have to respond to a Julio-Claudian essay! So plans were more effective for ancient, as I could cover more in a shorter amount of time.

Out of interest as well, did you prefer the core study for modern or ancient, as I far prefer WWI and modern as a whole at the moment.

Thanks so much in advance

WW1 Though, as much as I did really enjoy Ancient, I loved all of my Modern topics more ahaha