RecklessRick
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
- Messages
- 281
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- HSC
- N/A
Hey all,
My name’s Pat, and in the 2015 HSC I received third in NSW in Modern History. Many of you may know me for my infrequent bursts of actual advice or, more likely, my far more common role as an agitator and cynic on bos. Now in this short guide I’m not going to try and fool you - the most effective way to state rank modern history is to work hard and build up a broader depth of knowledge than any of your competitors. As arrogant as it sounds, my success (particularly in the German national study and Speer personality study) largely stemmed from my borderline unhealthy amounts of knowledge about the options I studied. That being said, knowing more than anyone else in NSW about the Weimar Republic is not enough to guarantee you 25/25, or indeed to gain you any marks at the HSC. I doubt that even Richard Evans would score a 25 just by virtue of not being adjusted to 45 minute hand written essays. In order to get the top results in Modern History, you need to be able to express yourself in the most effective way possible. This is perhaps the most straightforward way to improve and what this brief guide will be focusing on.
Opening well
Anyone who tells you the opening does not matter is blatantly wrong. Not only does your introduction immediately signal to markers the quality of your writing, it also allows you to show off the sophistication of your argument and your intentions for the rest of the essay. Never open your introduction by restating the question. You can work within the framework of the question’s phrasing, and you should use the keywords, but don't get caught up in its structure. Your first sentence needs to knock the marker out of their chair and immediately tell them that your essay is something different. Even better students will sometimes lead with weak opening sentences - you are able to differentiate yourself as being amongst the best the second the marker sets their eyes on your work. A large part of this which will be also covered next is how clear your argument is. You should be able to precisely phrase your line of argument in your first sentence. That is not to say that your argument should only be worthy of one sentence in its magnitude. Rather, no matter how complex the thesis is, you should be able to reduce it to one or two sentences which the marker can easily comprehend and understand. It is not necessary to use lots of convoluted vocabulary. No one cares how much you sound like a thesaurus if you can’t clearly and concisely express yourself. Let’s look at a couple of examples using the 2015 HSC Germany questions:
Question: How effective was the Nazi party up to 1939 in dealing with the political, economic and social issues arising from the Weimar Republic?
Bad:
There were many political, economic, and social issues caused by the Weimar Republic which the Nazi party was effective in solving. This essay will explore how the Nazi party was able to effectively solve these political, economic and social issues.
Good:
Whilst the Nazi Party may appear to have solved the kind of political, economic and social instability which characterised the short lived Weimar Republic, many of these supposed gains were chimerical or simply the result of misleading claims. In fact, the true efficacy of the Nazi Party came in its ability to convince the populace that positive change had occurred while social divisions and economic polarity were actually exacerbated by German structural change
The reader at this stage may complain that the biggest difference between the ‘bad’ and ‘good’ examples is that the latter pushes back against the question whilst the former simply accepts it. In part this is because simply by refusing to accept the question’s implication adds a critical element which instantly differentiates from weaker essays. The key to a sophisticated essay however is not simply whether the thesis agrees or disagrees with the question. The good essay can do either, but whichever it does, it needs to be nuanced. For example, I could easily flip the theses in the examples:
Bad:
Though there were many political, economic, and social issues caused by the Weimar Republic, the Nazi Party was unable to solve any of these issues. This is because the Nazis were unable to influence the economy or society due to their programme of racial hatred.
Good:
Though the Nazi Party produced by its own accord new social, economic and political problems based in racial divisions, economic polarity and political confusion, it was generally very effective in replacing the mob rule of the Weimar Republic with a strictly centralised government with effective decision-making capabilities.
The reader might see emerging here the necessity for detailed and specific and detailed knowledge. It is theoretically possible to write sophisticated theses without the knowledge to back it up, but it is far more difficult to pluck correct social, economic and political factors out of the air than it is to simply know about them already.
Don’t memorise your essays
Just don’t. Don’t even bother, it’s a waste of time. I’ve seen it suggested that students can format their notes as essays specific to each dot point which is certainly novel in concept, however the danger with this is that students can very easily be drawn into simply memorising those essays and thinking they’ll be fine. Specifically regarding recent trends in HSC question writing, not only are questions beginning to transcend specific dot points by including other parts of the syllabus, but they are beginning to move outside the syllabus itself. You simply have to read the 2015 National Study questions to realise that it is no longer possible (if it ever was) to gain from memorised essays.
As such, there are three key factors to succeeding in HSC Modern History:
Having a specific, detailed knowledge of the events on which the syllabus is based, including a comprehensive conception of the timeline of events
Being able to precisely form unique and interesting theses in response to questions, the likes of which will immediately catch the marker’s eye
Knowing how to structure your essays and back up 2. with 1. - this comes from practice and from reading other people’s essays.
This is a pretty cursory look at how to succeed in the Modern History course, and I'll probably get around to updating this further in the future. I kind of just wanted to give at least something back to the forum which has occasionally provided me with valuable information and motivation. Feel free to chuck me any quick questions you have.
I hope the mods won’t mind a little bit of shameless self-promotion here at the end: I will soon be giving Modern History lectures for http://stateranklectures.com.au/ for HSC students. These lectures are created with the intention of imparting the knowledge which allowed me to state rank to future HSC students with specific focus on exam technique and skills to improve your performance in Modern history. Should you wish to hear a more comprehensive perspective on how to succeed in Modern History than I’ve been able to convey in this guide, feel free to put your name down for the next lecture!
I’ll also be available to tutor for Modern History, as well as any of the other subjects in my sig bar 4u maths if you’d like to hit me up in PM.
My name’s Pat, and in the 2015 HSC I received third in NSW in Modern History. Many of you may know me for my infrequent bursts of actual advice or, more likely, my far more common role as an agitator and cynic on bos. Now in this short guide I’m not going to try and fool you - the most effective way to state rank modern history is to work hard and build up a broader depth of knowledge than any of your competitors. As arrogant as it sounds, my success (particularly in the German national study and Speer personality study) largely stemmed from my borderline unhealthy amounts of knowledge about the options I studied. That being said, knowing more than anyone else in NSW about the Weimar Republic is not enough to guarantee you 25/25, or indeed to gain you any marks at the HSC. I doubt that even Richard Evans would score a 25 just by virtue of not being adjusted to 45 minute hand written essays. In order to get the top results in Modern History, you need to be able to express yourself in the most effective way possible. This is perhaps the most straightforward way to improve and what this brief guide will be focusing on.
Opening well
Anyone who tells you the opening does not matter is blatantly wrong. Not only does your introduction immediately signal to markers the quality of your writing, it also allows you to show off the sophistication of your argument and your intentions for the rest of the essay. Never open your introduction by restating the question. You can work within the framework of the question’s phrasing, and you should use the keywords, but don't get caught up in its structure. Your first sentence needs to knock the marker out of their chair and immediately tell them that your essay is something different. Even better students will sometimes lead with weak opening sentences - you are able to differentiate yourself as being amongst the best the second the marker sets their eyes on your work. A large part of this which will be also covered next is how clear your argument is. You should be able to precisely phrase your line of argument in your first sentence. That is not to say that your argument should only be worthy of one sentence in its magnitude. Rather, no matter how complex the thesis is, you should be able to reduce it to one or two sentences which the marker can easily comprehend and understand. It is not necessary to use lots of convoluted vocabulary. No one cares how much you sound like a thesaurus if you can’t clearly and concisely express yourself. Let’s look at a couple of examples using the 2015 HSC Germany questions:
Question: How effective was the Nazi party up to 1939 in dealing with the political, economic and social issues arising from the Weimar Republic?
Bad:
There were many political, economic, and social issues caused by the Weimar Republic which the Nazi party was effective in solving. This essay will explore how the Nazi party was able to effectively solve these political, economic and social issues.
Good:
Whilst the Nazi Party may appear to have solved the kind of political, economic and social instability which characterised the short lived Weimar Republic, many of these supposed gains were chimerical or simply the result of misleading claims. In fact, the true efficacy of the Nazi Party came in its ability to convince the populace that positive change had occurred while social divisions and economic polarity were actually exacerbated by German structural change
The reader at this stage may complain that the biggest difference between the ‘bad’ and ‘good’ examples is that the latter pushes back against the question whilst the former simply accepts it. In part this is because simply by refusing to accept the question’s implication adds a critical element which instantly differentiates from weaker essays. The key to a sophisticated essay however is not simply whether the thesis agrees or disagrees with the question. The good essay can do either, but whichever it does, it needs to be nuanced. For example, I could easily flip the theses in the examples:
Bad:
Though there were many political, economic, and social issues caused by the Weimar Republic, the Nazi Party was unable to solve any of these issues. This is because the Nazis were unable to influence the economy or society due to their programme of racial hatred.
Good:
Though the Nazi Party produced by its own accord new social, economic and political problems based in racial divisions, economic polarity and political confusion, it was generally very effective in replacing the mob rule of the Weimar Republic with a strictly centralised government with effective decision-making capabilities.
The reader might see emerging here the necessity for detailed and specific and detailed knowledge. It is theoretically possible to write sophisticated theses without the knowledge to back it up, but it is far more difficult to pluck correct social, economic and political factors out of the air than it is to simply know about them already.
Don’t memorise your essays
Just don’t. Don’t even bother, it’s a waste of time. I’ve seen it suggested that students can format their notes as essays specific to each dot point which is certainly novel in concept, however the danger with this is that students can very easily be drawn into simply memorising those essays and thinking they’ll be fine. Specifically regarding recent trends in HSC question writing, not only are questions beginning to transcend specific dot points by including other parts of the syllabus, but they are beginning to move outside the syllabus itself. You simply have to read the 2015 National Study questions to realise that it is no longer possible (if it ever was) to gain from memorised essays.
As such, there are three key factors to succeeding in HSC Modern History:
Having a specific, detailed knowledge of the events on which the syllabus is based, including a comprehensive conception of the timeline of events
Being able to precisely form unique and interesting theses in response to questions, the likes of which will immediately catch the marker’s eye
Knowing how to structure your essays and back up 2. with 1. - this comes from practice and from reading other people’s essays.
This is a pretty cursory look at how to succeed in the Modern History course, and I'll probably get around to updating this further in the future. I kind of just wanted to give at least something back to the forum which has occasionally provided me with valuable information and motivation. Feel free to chuck me any quick questions you have.
I hope the mods won’t mind a little bit of shameless self-promotion here at the end: I will soon be giving Modern History lectures for http://stateranklectures.com.au/ for HSC students. These lectures are created with the intention of imparting the knowledge which allowed me to state rank to future HSC students with specific focus on exam technique and skills to improve your performance in Modern history. Should you wish to hear a more comprehensive perspective on how to succeed in Modern History than I’ve been able to convey in this guide, feel free to put your name down for the next lecture!
I’ll also be available to tutor for Modern History, as well as any of the other subjects in my sig bar 4u maths if you’d like to hit me up in PM.
