Revs in Year 11?

[ashleigharmstead5]

Hey guys,
Im evidently new to all this, so thanks in advance for humouring any stupid questions:)
I'm in year 10 this year, and am needing to finalise subject selections for next year quite soon. I am thinking of doing 3&4 history next year, as I have been doing history this year (focused on the Russian Rev.) and love it, and my history teacher is pushing for me to do it as well. My questions to all you knowledgable people are: Would you recommend doing it in year 11, and how challenging is the course in itself? And would I be foolish to do it next year, potentially getting a worse score than I would have, had I waited the extra year? if that makes sense haha.
Thankyou

[Menang]

Revs is an amazing subject to do in Year 11 - I did it last year and it was probably one of the best choices I've made.

It requires a fair amount of work - probably a solid 4-5 hours per weekend to work on a practice response, and if you're dedicated, an hour every night to do the reading. There is a mountainload of quotes and dates to memorise for this subject. I found doing this in Year 11 ideal, because I had more time, and I was happy to sacrifice other subjects and focus on Revs. You don't have to do that, but yeah, having more time would be good.

I personally think my Year 11 subjects results would probably be better than my Year 12 ones simply because I really enjoyed them and I had loads more time.

[ashleigharmstead5]

Phew, thankyou that was exactly my reasoning!  I am doing Lit 1&2 this year, and am planning to wait to do the 3&4 in year twelve (mature language skills etc), so I think doing revs next year would be a good way to break down a bit of the heaviness, rather than doing both in year 12? Thanks so much for your advice! Hopefully I will enjoy it and I will be happy if I do even half as well as you (lurked the results for last year, your SS was really impressive )

[werdna]

Definitely do it if you can, but I must say it's a really time-consuming subject that requires heapsss of reading and memorising! Some areas of the course can be quite complex and hard to get your head around, and it's a really broad subject too... you can't really 'expect' what will be in SACs or the exam like you can in something like Legal, because this subject is so broad and there's so many key individuals and events, it's hard to get a feeling that you've covered most of the material, or enough of it. Nevertheless, I think it's a really enjoyable subject, glad I chose it.

[ashleigharmstead5]

Yeah, having studied a very very simplified version of the Russian Rev. this semester, and seeing the amount of detail there, I can only imagine how broad and extensive the actual 3&4 must be! If I get to do it, I will definately have to work on my time management and level of procrastination haha. Thanks heaps for your advice! and good luck for the rest of the year

[Menang]

Do you know which other revolution your school is studying?

The general consensus is that the difficult ones are China and France, and the "easy" ones are Russia and America.

Having done Russia and France last year, and I safely say that France was heaps more complicated than Russia.

[ashleigharmstead5]

Ah we are doing France as well!

[Interficere]

I'm studying Revs this year as a Year 11 student, and since we've only just finished France, my opinion is probably not worth as much as those who've completed the subject already - nevertheless, I think that if you enjoyed history this year, then go ahead and do Revs next year.

Maybe it's because we did the unit 1 for History in Year 10, but I didn't find the learning curve to be too steep. Like you, we did the Russian Revolution last year, and my teacher also encouraged me to continue onto Revs. Going by the results of my first SAC and the practice questions I've done, I don't think I could do much better if I had waited another year. I don't have to spend much time studying it - I spend a few hours at most on practice questions, I do some extra reading before bed and on the way to/from school, and I usually review my notes or read through my textbook in class. I guess how much time you put into it is up to you, but I personally don't think it's incredibly demanding for a 3/4. The sheer amount of knowledge you need to memorise (and not only memorise, but understand, evaluate, analyse and all sorts of other twisted and evil things) can get overwhelming though, but it's not too bad.

Best of luck to you if you decide to do it next year. (: If you're going to do a 3/4 in Year 11, it may as well be Revs.

[ashleigharmstead5]

Ah thankyou! its good to know that you still recommend the subject, despite having just slugged through France haha. Im fairly sure I will do it next year, thanks to the great feedback here, the fact that I enjoy history, and also the lack of substantial 3&4 subjects offered at my school for year 11s haha.
Thanks for your advice and best of luck for the rest of the year:)

[Interficere]

Heh, if you enjoy it, then it doesn't matter how overwhelming it is. Sometimes it's the sheer magnitude and significance of all that happened that really impresses upon you why it's important to study history - not that it prevents us from making the same mistakes anyway, sadly. Revs was the only 3/4 that I was sure I wouldn't fail. So naturally I did it.

[ashleigharmstead5]

Yes definately, there's no point doing a subject that you hate. And its so fascinating and exciting and horrifying all at once. I agree- had we learnt from such poor leadership and choices in the past, we may be in a far better position, nationally and internationally. But inevitably, somebody/thing always comes along and screws everything up