Ancient History Exam Discussion (and Suggested Answers!)

[sudodds]

I got 4/5 for multiple choice, pretty good considering I've seen none of the sources before, for the 3 short answers I think I did pretty okay. I didn't revise political life so I was a little bit off with terms I used probably. Really happy with the 10 marker as I predicted that the question would either be that or ethical issues.

Sparta was 50/50 - totally forgot everything about Artemis Orthia & revised mostly terms and social structure stuff instead of culture, but my answer was kind of close to answering the question

For personality I did Hatshepsut - both really good questions especially with a being a describe verb 👏👏

Historical period was absolute rubbish imo, New Kingdom Egypt to the death of Thutmose IV...I chose to do option a (prominent officials) which was hard to talk about because I only really knew about the pharaohs.

All in all I think it was a pretty okay paper, I left feeling fairly confident & easily better than in trials

Great job! Sounds like you smashed it, especially for Section I and the Personality Study! So glad that you're feeling confident overall Don't worry too much about the Historical Period - i'm sure a lot of people struggled with that one (definitely one of the harder options imo - had a student this year who studied it and it looked super tricky), which means that during the moderation process you'll probably be bumped up!

Great work,

Susie

[sudodds]

I really didn't mind the Ancient exam until after I left and I realised that I answered the Cultural Life of Sparta question thinking it asked about Everyday life. I just lost a good 15 marks... so that wasn't a fun time.

I'm sure you wouldn't have lost all 15 marks! Yes, you may be prevented from getting a "high mark", as you didn't exactly answer the question, but I'm sure that you'll be able to grab some marks for detail + content that crosses over (a lot of it does!)

The questions for the NKE To the Death of Thutmose IV were hella hard. I predicited that an officials question would be asked in either the Hatshepsut (personality) section or my NKE period but the second option about relations with the Mittani was REALLY narrow in my opinion.

Yeah, sounds like that option was brutal overall! Probably means that that option will scale up though, so don't worry Ancient exams can be really mean when it comes to super specific questions - when will they learn

Great work overall! And congratulations for finishing Ancient History!

Good luck with the rest of your exams,

Susie

[sudodds]

I absolutely hated the Pompeii and Herculaneum sources - got 2/5 in MC. I want to cry ahhh!! But the other sections were alright so I'm really hoping my raw mark is over 90/100 

What do you all think the raw mark cut off for a band 6 would be this year?

Aye, that's what, 3 marks? In an 100 mark paper? Don't stress If the other sections went well, then it's likely that this will have very little impact on your final mark

I got my raw marks back last year - 85% raw got me a final mark of 91. This paper seemed a little tricker than last years, but not by much, so maybe 83/84 raw to get a band 6? I'd say that'd be a fair estimate

Great work and congratulations!!! Good luck with the rest of your exams,

Susie

[sudodds]

For Pompeii I got 4/5 for multiple-choice. I got Question 4 wrong (I said it was the ampitheatre, I honestly had no idea). I'm pretty proud of myself considering I did not know any of the sources. The Egyptian influence question was easy and I was prepared for it. The political life one was the complete opposite. I wrote a lot for it but used basically no sources. I didn't like how specific Question 10 was by making us focus on tourism but I managed to adapt what I had. I agree that Source H was tricky. I just kept referencing the fences.

Great work for the multiple choice! Question 4 was quite tricky - u'd really need to know the role of the quinquennial duumvirs (a very small aspect of political life) in order to be able to answer it properly, so I doubt you'd have been the only person to get that one wrong! Don't worry too much about not having many sources for the political life short answer - there isn't much in the way of sources anyway for that section besides a few statues and programmata, so I'm sure you'll be fine.

Societies freaked me out at first because the questions were very obscure and I was not expecting them at all. However, I think I managed to do quite well in this section, especially with the 15 marker.

Awesome! Yeah, at least for Sparta I thought they were a bit obscure (Artemis Orthia and Marriage customs mainly) - did you do Sparta? or another option?

The Agrippina questions were pretty good. I think I did well for the 10 marker but in the 15 marker I was flustered and rushed (I don't know why because I did this section first). Basically it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be but I used lots of historians and wrote a lot so hopefully it was ok.

I'm sure you went okay, even if you were a bit flustered! Agrippina is an accessible part of the exam, so I'm sure you still managed to pick up a lot of marks here, even if it wasn't 100% as good as you hoped

Section 4 was terrible. I did NKE Amenhotep III-Ramses II and like the other people on this thread found the questions way too specific for a 25 mark essay. I did the Battle of Kadesh one because I knew only 2 officials at a very basic level. I don't think I answered the question very well because I was talking about so much other stuff to try and make it the length of an essay. It was frustrating because I prepared for this section so much but those 2 questions were both horrible in my opinion.

Sounds like the Egyptian options really hammered you guys this year! Don't worry too much though - moderation and scaling will work in your favour as these were all so tricky this year! Talking about other stuff isn't a problem if you set up in your introduction that it would be We call that a differentiated essay!

Overall great work Frecklelots! I'm sure you smashed it, even if there were a few sections that you weren't 100% comfortable with!!

Good luck with the rest of your exams,

Susie

[sudodds]

Pompeii and Herculaneum: Yay got 4/5 for the multiple choice questions!! Honestly source C confused me because I didn't know what they were doing. I thought the person was tanning the cloth so I put down tanner . Short answers were sweet. The question for extended response wasn't too bad but I think the way I approached was awful. I said that tourism was good-ish BUT was bad because it also quickened the process of deterioration. O well.

The first time I looked at that source, I wasn't 100% sure whether it was a fuller or a tanner as well! Ended up needing to reverse image search of google, because I just wasn't 100% sure either way. I think that source was a bit unfair - not as clear as I think NESA expected it to be. That doesn't sound like an awful way to approach it at all! In fact, I'd definitely want to reference that there are two sides to tourism - that it's a bit of a double edged sword

Spartan society: All the question were amazing honestly. Are artisans and craftsmen the same thing? I totally forgot what a fisherman was called during the exam so I put down craftsmen instead for the first question. Artemis Orthia was sweet and also the marriage customs. My teacher was shocked when I told her that in my marriage customs response, I said 'fill her up with noble sperm' (Plutarch). It's still a source so... For the extended response, I predicted that it was going to be cultural life and I nearly cried when I saw it in the exam. For our Sparta assessment this year, we had the exact same question so this section was good. I mentioned Laconian Cup (the source given), Arkesilas Cup, Herodotus' account of the Karneia, the ivory sculptures of the Dioscuri, Pausanias' account of the buildings in Sparta and the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. I should've included Alcman but ran out of time.

Hmmm I believe that they are the same thing, but not 100% sure. If they are, then you'd still get at least 1/2 for that question So glad that you thought the other questions were good! I thought the second and third were quite tricky to be honest! And ahaha, well considering you literally got a source referencing feces, I don't think she could be that surprised by that quote! Love Ancient - only subject were you can talk about the most vulgar shit, and get away with it cos its a "source"   Yay! I was so happy when I saw the cultural life question as well! What I was hoping for last year tbh But so glad that if I couldn't get it, you guys could Sounds like you smashed this section Bea!

Xerxes: Slightly disappointed in the questions. Succession to kingship was alright and the influence of Xerxes during his time was completely made up. Talked about his revolts and his administration of the empire and also how the result of the Persian wars influenced Athens to develop into a democratic empire.

Greek World: 500-440BC: I keep forgetting that this topic is split into three dot points not two. So guess which dot point turns up in the exam? The one I didn't study for because I completely forgot it existed. I would like to track down the HSC marker marking my essay and would like to formally apologise to him/her. Barely had sources for the question that I picked.

But hey! This Ancient History exam is literally history now. HUGE relief that its finally over!

Aye don't worry too much about this In English last year, they prescribed Hollow Men, the only poem I didn't study, only wrote a 3 page essay, but still came away with an overall pretty good mark in English One essay not going 100% your way doesn't mean that you can't still get a good mark, or even a band 6!

Sounds like, overall, you killed it Bea!!! Congratulations on completing Ancient, and good luck with the rest of your exams!!

Susie

[EdenD]

Pompeii:

-So based of the sample answers here I think I got 5 for the MC's which is a pleasant surprise.
-Not sure if I explicitly mentioned Herculaneum in Question 7 so idk if I can get 6 for that
-Also I mucked up my statistics for the essay and said Pompeii gets 500 000 visitors per year instead of Herculaneum, and I didn't speak about vandalism or looting  I used Pompeii Forum Project and HCP in the 10 marker and not sure if correct

Athenian Society:

-2 Marker was name two temples, so it was fine
-3 Marker was on the Great Dionysia Festival which was also good
-5 Marker was on Funerary Customs, which fucked me over- not sure if I got more than 3, it was really hard.
-15 Marker was on Athenian Culture for the first time ever, so that was really unexpected, and I hope I did okay.

Personality: Pericles

-10 Marker on Family Background and Education was perfect, it was what we were predicting so no problems there.
-15 Marker on Influence on time I'm not sure I did so well on. I did one paragraph democratic reforms, one military career and one on personality/rhetoric, but I rushed the last paragraph and I have no idea if anyone else even does this elective.

Period: The Augustan Age

-The Settlements 25 Marker was word for word the same as the Catholic Trial which was great, so I'd already done it before. I did make up quite a few sources though so not sure if I can get 25 or 24.

All in all hoping for 90+ raw.

[sudodds]

Pompeii:

-So based of the sample answers here I think I got 5 for the MC's which is a pleasant surprise.
-Not sure if I explicitly mentioned Herculaneum in Question 7 so idk if I can get 6 for that
-Also I mucked up my statistics for the essay and said Pompeii gets 500 000 visitors per year instead of Herculaneum, and I didn't speak about vandalism or looting  I used Pompeii Forum Project and HCP in the 10 marker and not sure if correct

Congrats with the multiple choice! Don't worry too much about Question 7. Without explictly mentioning Herculaneum, yes, you can't get FULL marks, however not getting full marks isn't a big deal - you can still get "most" marks without referencing Herculaneum. One wrong statistic is also unlikely to affect you - they won't take a mark away from you there, they just won't give you a mark for that stat And doesn't matter if you didn't referencing exactly what I would have! There are tonnes of other stuff that you can mention besides vandalism and looting which are just as valid. Sounds like you answered the question well!

Athenian Society:

-2 Marker was name two temples, so it was fine
-3 Marker was on the Great Dionysia Festival which was also good
-5 Marker was on Funerary Customs, which fucked me over- not sure if I got more than 3, it was really hard.
-15 Marker was on Athenian Culture for the first time ever, so that was really unexpected, and I hope I did okay.

Hmmm customs questions for most case studies are really hard, as they are very specific (ie. you can't bullshit them), so I'm sure a lot of other people struggled with that question as well - same for the culture question! And that will all be taken into account with moderation (especially considering you do one of the lesser studied options!)

Personality: Pericles

-10 Marker on Family Background and Education was perfect, it was what we were predicting so no problems there.
-15 Marker on Influence on time I'm not sure I did so well on. I did one paragraph democratic reforms, one military career and one on personality/rhetoric, but I rushed the last paragraph and I have no idea if anyone else even does this elective.

Congrats on predicting the question! Always a nice feeling aha. I actually have a student studying Pericles, and they said that that question was a bit tricky - but it sounds like you approached it well! I like how you structured it according to the specific influences he had on the time

Period: The Augustan Age

-The Settlements 25 Marker was word for word the same as the Catholic Trial which was great, so I'd already done it before. I did make up quite a few sources though so not sure if I can get 25 or 24.

All in all hoping for 90+ raw.

Lucky! Again, they won't take marks away from you for making up sources (if they catch you at all), they just won't give you marks for them, so don't worry about that.

Great work! Sounds like you smashed it!! Good luck for the rest of your exams!!

Susie