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March 28, 2024, 09:23:45 pm

Author Topic: How to study and memorise all your evidence for history!!  (Read 4405 times)  Share 

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katie,rinos

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How to study and memorise all your evidence for history!!
« on: July 19, 2019, 09:49:31 am »
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How to study and memorise all your evidence for history!!
Tips and strategies that you can use!!

I loved studying history in year 12, but one of the things I found most overwhelming was the amount of content that we were expected to know. I thought I’d put together a quick guide on some of the different ways you can study and memorise your evidence and content for history. I only studied Ancient and Extension, so it’ll be more focussed towards those but should still be applicable to Modern as well. 

Summaries/Class summaries
Summaries are really helpful for some people but not for everybody. I only ended up doing summaries for 1/2 of the content in Ancient-I used to get overwhelmed with how much content there was for each topic. However, my class did class summaries which I found helpful. 

Class summaries: We did this in class for two of my Ancient topics. We split the topic in halve and each person was given a dot point to summarise. Then by the end of the lesson, half of the topic was summarised by our class (& we did the other half later). This was really good because everyone in my class was involved and completed them well. Even, if you decided to do your own summaries afterwards, you now had a basis for them (and could either add, or take away info). If you have a group of friends in history, or a close class, I found this was a really quick, easy way to do summaries.

Extension history: Each week, I would do a summary table for the section 1 historians. I would make notes under the main questions: Who are the historians?, What are the purposes of history?, How has history been constructed over time?, Historian’s interpretation on their subject, Why have approaches to history changed over time?, What impacts the historian had on historiography? and What are some of the criticisms of their approach?

Really condensed summaries
Something that I found really helpful for legal, was super condensed summaries. I worked on having everything I wanted to remember for a topic fit into around 6 pages. It cut down on all the unnecessary info I already knew and wasn’t as overwhelming as having heaps longer summaries or reading though a textbook.

You can always download some summaries in our notes section if you are behind, or want to see how others have done theres. 

Flashcards/quizlets
These are good as you can use them anywhere/on the go. I used to study my flashcards in the car, on the way to school, etc. For Ancient my flashcards mainly included key terms, dates and quotes. For Extension: Section 1-Had one for each historian answering the 5 main questions and also a se for the key terms. Section 2: Historians context, book/date, evidence, interpretation of events & why.

Kahoot
This is definitely really boring doing it by yourself, but I did it a lot in my history classes. In one of my other classes I worked on making a kahoot which I found really fun, and helped me remember some of the content. It would be fun to be able to play your own kahoots or online ones with a group of friends who study history.

Detail/linking/Argument tables
I found this a really good way to make sure I had enough evidence (archaeological, modern and ancient quotes) for each dot point for Ancient. I had a detail table for each topic which had archaeological evidence and quotes from ancient/modern historians for each dot point. I also did an argument table for Agrippina (the personality section for Ancient) and it included the main ways that she was interpreted and events/issues, archaeological evidence and quotes from Ancient and Modern historians. I’d try to do a look cover write check with it before an exam, to see how much I actually knew and what things I had trouble trying to remember.
For example, these were my detail tables for Ancient, Susies’ for Modern, and Olivias (also for modern). 

Timelines (flashcard timelines)
There’s a lot of dates you need to remember for Ancient so I had a timeline for each topic (especially the Julio-Claudians and Agrippina). I also had my dates on flashcards. My teacher made timetable flashcards for some of our topics and left it in the library. I’d go sometimes, try to guess the dates and then lay them out across the table so I could see the order of the events. For extension history, I thought it was useful to be able to have a timeline for section 1, so you could see when the major historians were compared to each other.

Record yourself & listen
I recorded all of my English quotes/essays a couple of days before exams, and played it back heaps. By the time of the exam, I could pretty much tell you any quote on the list. You could record some of your quotes/evidence that you find difficult to remember. Recording different accents might make them easier to remember!

Podcasts/listening to info
When we were learning Sparta, our teacher recording himself reading chapters of the textbook so we could listen to it at home, which I found really cool, especially as a low-effort way to study. Otherwise, there’s heaps of different podcasts for both Modern and Ancient that you can listen to (I’ve linked our AN lists).

Mind maps/Brainstorms
Towards trials I liked making mind maps on my whiteboard as a form of studying. I would get a dot point and put all the evidence (archaeological/written) I remembered in one colour. Then, I’d go back and and put everything I didn’t remember in another colour.
We did one in class when we had a sub teacher on Nero. We all called out a bunch of things we remembered about Nero (including the funnier stuff) until the board was filled. It was a fun way to study as a class!
Our Nero mindmap!

Worksheets
One method that Jake used to memorise stats for modern was through worksheets. He would make worksheets with the stats for each topic and go through them. I didn’t use this but it sounds like a helpful way to study. There’s a thread about it here!

Testing/teaching friends & family
I really liked being able to teach other people about the content. During HSC especially, I liked being able to answer questions on AN because then I would look over the content again and have to write it in a way that would clearly explain it. It was a great way to actually apply your knowledge. Going over the content with your friends (in your history class or otherwise) and your family might work well as well. I also used to get some of my friends from Ancient or my siblings to test me on things. We used to go over flashcards together and test each other on dates and terms.

Essay plans
I did a lot of essay plans closer to trials/HSC because most of the time I didn’t feel like writing full essays. It was sometimes better because I was able to get through a lot of plans in the time it’d take to write 1 essay. I’d start open book with my notes, so I could see if I needed to add anything, and then worked my way to closed book. After your essay plans, you could always turn some into a full essay. For Ancient: I used to write out evidence, points I would use, and a dot point intro/conclusion. For Extension: I’d mainly go through the sources, and get the main points/arguments that I’d use. I’d then link those to historians and a topic sentence.

Essays/Past papers & questions
Like with the essay plans, start open book so your not stressing about not being able to remember everything, and then move to closed book. You can always start with untimed essays and then move to working within a time frame. Continually try to get feedback from your teachers, peers, or us at AN to improve.

Hope this helps!! Feel free to share your study methods or ask any questions!! :D
« Last Edit: July 19, 2019, 09:54:23 am by katie,rinos »
Class of 2017 (Year 12): Advanced English, General Maths, Legal Studies, Music 1, Ancient History, History Extension, Hospitality
2018-2022: B Music/B Education (Secondary) [UNSW]

r1ckworthy

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Re: How to study and memorise all your evidence for history!!
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2019, 10:08:31 am »
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Thank you so much for this!!! Literally saved my revision for Ancient History ;D ;D ;D
HSC 2019: English Advanced || Mathematics || Mathematics Extension 1 || Physics || Chemistry || Science Extension || Ancient History ||

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