had my first assessment on sparta to the battle of leuctra and got a 14/25 (i think I'm at the bottom of the cohort)
really depressed. my notes were reasonably done well so even more disappointed
we were assessed on a 5.8 and 12 marker. its so hard to understand what I did wrong in them. its all very vague stuff like "not enough detail" and stuff like that. how do I improve? help lmao
hi! i do modern so i think i can help. my first assessment task was not a 5/8/12 but rather a 25 marker, but my prelims had section where there was a 5/8/12.
'not enough detail' and 'elaborate' is pretty common feedback from a lot of teachers. and in my opinion, even if you give the detail - so that you think it's enough - teachers will always try to find something that constitutes as 'needing more detail', so you'll need to try to circumvent that. look at how you structure your responses - a basic PEEL works for generally all your responses (adjusted ofc based on how many marks it's worth), but structuring your detail so that it fits into PEEL helps a lot, and helps you map out how much detail you need. if it stems from not putting enough historical evidence/detail/historiography, then try to embed that into your notes. for example, for the most important historiography and quotes i put them in a blue font colour in blue text boxes throughout my notes that are placed right next to the dotpoints talking about the basic knowledge i need to answer the appropriate essay question.
the whole point of history is not to regurgitate your knowledge (because that's way too easy) but rather use that knowledge to make an assessment/judgement. 'not enough detail' is a trap that's easy to fall into because if you know that knowledge, you need to link that knowledge properly to a sustained assessment/account of your point. and another thing about your notes - they may be well done but don't overload on knowledge. try to link your notes to these types of assessment/judgement (using the syllabus dotpoints to help), as well as supporting historiography/historical evidence/quoted sources where possible so you can maximise the way you use your notes and provide the detail you need
though one thing i would get you to do is try and get your teacher to sit down and talk with you, going over every piece of feedback - something my teacher did for anyone who asked after our first assessment tasks were returned, because at the end 'not enough detail' can be very vague so getting your teacher to actively address why they didn't give you the marks, as well as asking them how to improve your response, is the best thing to do.
