just curious- past and present ancient HSCers (1 Viewer)

[ay_caramba]

who actually likes ancient as a subject??

does anyone else feel like there's a lot of content??

i really like ancient history, but am a bit worried abt the sheer amount of content we have to know for ancient-quotes, dates, events (in the right chronology aargh).. past HSCers, how did u actually find the Ancient History HSC paper?? was it pure torture? did u have to know everything??

ancient is a very interesting subject but i sometimes wonder what i'll do when it comes to the actual trials and hsc, will my brain explode?

that is all, thanx

 

[stressed monkie]

i id ancient last year and i honestly hated it and the teacher hated me an she like kept telling me to drop but i persisted and in the hsc i got 89 as my mark for ancient so..

 

[jessica_layden]

I like ancient
yeah there is alot of content, but you find that with alot of subs, the thing about ancient is that if your interested in it it will click and all be good, if you hate learning about all the ancient people and stuff, your a little stuffed because you will find yourself drifting off and not listenining and taking in what you should be

 

[Josie]

I like the topics (even if I am slightly sick of Rome), but my teacher is really strange. Talk about self directed learning, she leaves so many gaps all over the place. And her assessments are so vague.... But over all, I like Ancient, when its not being turned into a Drama lesson.

 

[snakeoils]

ok, i did ancient last year... trying to remember what it was like (nah, just kidding, you dont forget it that easily)

during the year it feels like a massive amount of work... soooo much to learn, etc etc... and i know i was one of those people going "damn, i shoulda just done drama instead!"

but, believe it or not, come October everything just seems to magically fall into place, albeit not without a little effort. Looking back on it now, the lead up to the ancient history HSC exam was kinda actually fun - it turned into a real bonding experience, and we'd have study groups with chocolate and coffee and jaffas!

by the time you get to the HSC exam, you'll have written so many practice essays and memorised so many quotes, it'll seem like a natural way to spend 3 hours of your life...

 

[Mike85]

I despised the subject. The amount of content is insane (though not as bad as Modern) and incredibly boring. It's not a fun 3 hours of your life, but then, who'd say that about any exam?!

 

[ay_caramba]

I despised the subject. The amount of content is insane (though not as bad as Modern) and incredibly boring. It's not a fun 3 hours of your life, but then, who'd say that about any exam?!

wow and u still got in the top 3 for ancient!! good on u

thanx for all the replies, i feel a bit more calm abt ancient.... i really hope it does fall into place in the end!!

i wish we were studying egypt as a topic tho.. looks really interesting

 

[Enlightened_One]

I kind of like it because it is really easy to do. The only annoying thing is Egypt, which is boring compared to the other subjects. I actually would have rathered Modern Hisotry, but my school didn't run the course, but Ancient is a fairy good subject

 

[Lundy]

Looking back, I quite liked ancient (even though it could be boring as all fuck sometimes). Yeah, There is a lot to remember, but it is possible to do. In the exam, things will fall into place easier than you might expect. My advice: pay attention in class/do the homework. It's so much easier to revise and study when you're not teaching it to yourself for the first time (and while under pressure too). My assessment marks weren't too flash, but I ended up with a 94 for the exam.

 

[Lundy]

And to answer the qn "did you have to know everything?", of course you wont be assessed on everything, but you have to know it anyway because you don't know what they'll ask. And I mean everything. They can hit you with any topic (societies was the biggest bitch when it came to this) on the syllabus.

 

[Josie]

Originally posted by Mike85
I despised the subject. The amount of content is insane (though not as bad as Modern) and incredibly boring. It's not a fun 3 hours of your life, but then, who'd say that about any exam?!

Interesting, I've got stacks more content for Ancient than for Modern, and we've still got all of Greece (persian wars) and our personality to do yet... for Modern we only have to finish off Russia and then we have one more topic..... I assume its different for different schools and different options.
My thoughts are that Ancient can be as much or as little work as you like. You could go insane and do heaps of stuff (which I tend to do), or do just enough to get by and still not do too badly... any past HSC'ers have thoughts on that?

P.S Societies is just the devil.... There is SO MUCH stuff and they can ask you anything.... definitions, roles, influences, there's so much, you can never know if you have it all.

 

[Mike85]

That's what I thought until Stuvac came around and I was faced with the task of cramming the information into my head. No doubt, there is a HEAP of stuff for Ancient and Modern. But Modern History is more complex, while for Ancient is easier to predict patterns and the exams are really straightforward. Until HSC exam time, I thought Ancient was SO much harder than Modern, but it isn't so. The amount of time and issues you have to cover in Modern History, the possible combination of questions they could ask....... it's simply overwhelming, I nearly broke down. And there is more information on the topics, and more contesting historiography - the arguments of historians writing on the Minoans, Sparta or Egypt are fairly easy to learn and comprehend. Get into Nazi Germany or the Cold War period, it's a completely different story.

That said, Modern is still more enjoyable - I was planning on dropping Ancient in year 11. That was how much I disliked it and my teacher.

 

[*girl04*]

Originally posted by Enlightened_One
I kind of like it because it is really easy to do. The only annoying thing is Egypt, which is boring compared to the other subjects. I actually would have rathered Modern Hisotry, but my school didn't run the course, but Ancient is a fairy good subject

lol the person above you was wishing to study egypt! i am doing like basiclly all egypt topics myself though, its not thata bad!

 

[*girl04*]

Originally posted by Lundy
And to answer the qn "did you have to know everything?", of course you wont be assessed on everything, but you have to know it anyway because you don't know what they'll ask. And I mean everything. They can hit you with any topic (societies was the biggest bitch when it came to this) on the syllabus.

thats what annoys me, the fact you have to know EVERYTHING but they just get you to do a few essays and stuff. Coz the person next to you might have only study 3 things - but learnt them off by heart and in depth and you might know a fair bit about everything, but they could do better purely coz of question

 

[olay]

i love ancient, minus the quotes memorising. but remember them, and remember them WELL. didn't like the prelim course though. and *cries* it IS a crapload of work. i wish i did modern as well now.

i think the key to ancient is knowing ur sources. once you've memorised 'em you're set.... its a subject thats easy to do well in, but its a lot of work.

 

[rubylotus11]

I love learning about ancient history, but I hated Ancient History the HSC subject. I did my HSC last year and Ancient was my hardest exam by far. I think there is just an insane amount of content in comparison to other subjects and to Modern. But I wish you all luck for this year's exams and get into memorising and studying early, there is just so much to cover.

 

[MicK_eT]

i think i liked ancient wen i did it last yr.. mainly cuz it was a small class n the teacher was cool n all that jazz.. with the info.. yea it was heaps but pfft.. i had fun with it cu i always made stupid comments n lil things n i ended up rememberin them anyhows...

but like yea... in the actual exam i just faked everything lol.. i couldnt be bothered studyin for the exam an yea it was like whoa!~ but meh... i dun fink the markers know what they are doin... to a degree.. with certain subs.. cuz like yea i got 90 n thats not right ahhaah... especially since i bullsh!tted everything..

hmm but yea.. ancient is cool!~... sigh lol im doin ancient as an elective in uni lol.. sigh freak hahah

 

[Gemstone]

Yeah ancient has a lot of content but I think my class have a lot of fun with it. Plus someone always says something silly and we all remember it and then in the exam go 'huh what's that about... oh yeah BB's number plate and the frog.. ah I remember now' Yep my class is weird but there is some stuff you can just remember from silly little things like that. It's how I remember what we did in class.

Plus we got someone whose really good at think of neumonics so that helps a lot.

The only thing I find difficult is remembering specific quotes.

Gemma

 

[cyanide]

hi *waves*

i did ancient in 2002, i loved it, and i still do. we had a coolies teacher, and i thought it was my easiest subject, mostly cos i liked it the best. the hsc i found too generic, it didn't ask for specifics, which is what i prefer, so i thought i did poorly, but i actually pulled off a decent mark. but you're right, there is a lot of ground to cover. just make sure you've covered the dot points and you shoudl be right.

 

[Skryp]

Modern is WAY better than Ancient..the workload in ancient is wack as fuck & ya still don't remember a word...Doesn't help when you're teachers a bitch too...