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March 29, 2024, 02:38:58 am

Author Topic: Areas of importance within the course  (Read 1764 times)  Share 

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Mooshkat

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Areas of importance within the course
« on: December 19, 2016, 09:52:14 pm »
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Hi,
Just wondering, did anyone who has completed the 3/4 course find that certain areas were more commonly examined/were more important?
If so, what were they?
Thanks :)

occidit

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Re: Areas of importance within the course
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2016, 09:40:22 am »
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It depends on what you choose to do my dude.

There are 4 AOS in global politics, each is examined thoroughly, these 4 topics are Global Actors, Power in the Asia-Pacific, Ethical issues and debates, and Global Crises.

 To answer these you'll have to do things like outline, explain, evaluate, and analyse, words which seem similar but have slight nuances that affect the marks given, e.g we were taught that questions to do with 'evaluation' require you to explore both sides on an issue and compare and contrast their effectiveness to score highly, whereas a low scoring response may only look at one side, which is just something to look out for.

 You really wanna get these question words under control, because if you don't know what you need to write, how can you get the marks?

For questions relating to the Asia Pacific, you need to choose one state that you will use for the entire section, and also remember that only examples in the Asia Pacific area may be used. No talking about Chinese migrant workers in Chile please, no matter how interesting.

Furthermore, where it says "use a different 'global crisis', or whatever from the last question", please do so, you will lose the marks otherwise, and have to explain to your teacher why you got an ungraded on the exam  :'(

Probably the most important point is that all examples must be post 2000. Obviously these issues such as terrorism did not all spring into existence on January 1st 2000, however the bulk of your examples must be post 2000, for example the decrease in foreign fighters joining ISIS going from 2000 a month to just 200 by the end of 2015, or the 9.5% decline in Iceland's budget deficit % of GDP from 2009 to 2014.

You can mention causes of terrorism etc, but don't make them the main part of your argument, imo the best place is to use them in your essay as it shows knowledge and understanding but doesn't undermine the points you're making as you have a long time to flesh out any other post 2000 examples in greater detail.

Obv treaties/International laws can be pre 2000, personally I did the Geneva and Genocide conventions, both of which were pre 2000.

Also keep in mind that you have an essay to write that is worth 25% of the mark, so try to leave ~40 mins to write it. Don't get yelled at by the supervisors to stop writing like I did  ;)

Tl;dr
Read the question.
Understand what the question is asking.
Choose one Asia Pacific state.
Use only examples from the Asia Pacific in questions from U3 AOS 2.
If the question tells you to do something, please do it, don't dog the boys.
Use post-2000 (Or continuing) examples or you will fail.
You can mention causes but you shouldn't dwell on them, the bulk should be post-2000 or continuing, some of which are (e.g sectarian divide in terrorism).
International treaties / laws can be pre-2000, don't write the year you don't need to.
Leave yourself time to write the essay, it's worth 25% of the exam my dude.

Sorry if this isn't what you wanted I'm tired. Ask me specific questions you have and I'll answer them  :)
Bio, Methods, Glopol, MUEP Bio, Eng Lang, German, Chem, Physics

2018-2022 Bbiomedsciadvhons

Mooshkat

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Re: Areas of importance within the course
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2016, 10:59:00 am »
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That was really helpful, Thanks so much! :)

occidit

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Re: Areas of importance within the course
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2016, 08:32:48 pm »
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That was really helpful, Thanks so much! :)

Now that I'm awake properly, the best thing that I'd recommend going into a year of global politics is to read the study design, accessed here:

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/globalpolitics/globalpoliticsindex.aspx

This is important as all questions on the exam MUST come from the study design; the examiners don't look at the book when writing the exam, the sole resource used is the study design, making it likely the most important resource at your disposal.

Also on that page is the advice for teachers page, notable as down the bottom of the document there is a list of useful definitions  :)

What I sent you before are relatively exam technique ideas, but you will need to adhere to them in sacs too, so I'd recommend reading the study design, maybe looking over some past exams to get an idea of what your sac structure may be like (good ones mimic exams afaik), and to start collecting post-2000 examples for use in sacs/exam, as these examples are the bread and butter of any student attempting to write a good global politics response (in my opinion).

Best of luck my dude, feel free to ask for any clarifications  :).
Bio, Methods, Glopol, MUEP Bio, Eng Lang, German, Chem, Physics

2018-2022 Bbiomedsciadvhons

Mooshkat

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Re: Areas of importance within the course
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2016, 02:36:50 pm »
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Great  :D
Is there anything else you'd recommend doing between now and next year in preparation?
I don't feel like I'm doing enough in comparison to my other subjects  :-\

occidit

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Re: Areas of importance within the course
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2016, 07:22:46 am »
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Getting into a rhythm of reading through to news critically and taking down examples that seem relevant (e.g china - us relations) will help as you'll have a good bank of info to use in your sacs.

Glopol is different to other subjects as you can't really spam questions for it (in my opinion), as a result you would be better off reading through the textbook to familiarise yourself with the content and what is relevant, but remember also that everyone and their dog will be using examples from the textbook, so it pays off to find your own, to 'separate yourself from the herd'.

Think of the textbook like a springboard; the bare minimum info is there, but you need to put in your own effort to find good examples to get the high marks.

One thing you can spam though is definitions! The study design has a list of examinable definitions, and when I say examinable, I mean, they can literally ask you to define them. In recent years there's been a shift away from these definition questions, preferring instead to integrate it into a different question (imo), however they will be there in some form. This year they asked to explain cosmopolitanism iirc.

Just 'switching your politics brain on' and learning definitions should put you in good stead, however politics is a hard subject so any work you do will pay off :)

Ask if you need clarification, I'm a bit short on time right now so sorry for short response.
Bio, Methods, Glopol, MUEP Bio, Eng Lang, German, Chem, Physics

2018-2022 Bbiomedsciadvhons