A Guide to Writing Study Notes for Ancient History

[stephanieazzopardi]

Hey everyone! To kick off the first guide of the Ancient History series, I thought I'd explore one of the many key ways to succeed in HSC Ancient History. The majority of what I say in this guide will be specifically tailored to Ancient, but the fundamental skills explored can definitely be used in writing study notes for all your HSC subjects. Writing study notes and using them to study for your HSC is a notion that is just thrown around a bit, and I feel like there is not enough guidance out there as to how to write study notes that not only look great and contain all the essential information, but are going to make an effective and useful study tool when it comes to studying for the Trial and Final HSC Exams. If any of the points I make in this guide are unclear or you just have some lingering questions, just simply ask a question below!  Make sure to register here - it only takes a few minutes!

Ok, so let’s get started. In order to effectively study for your Ancient History Trial and HSC exams, you’ll need to have a detailed but concise set of study notes for each topic your class covered in the HSC. And these beautiful notes should not be something that is completed just in the four-week lead up to the HSC exams. Instead, they should be completed consistently throughout the year. Some people like doing them at the end of each topic, although I found completing study notes for the syllabus dot points we had covered in class in the previous week much more efficient and effective as a revision tool. Writing study for all your HSC subjects should become apart of your normal homework/assignment routine and overtime, they should become a habit.

Why should I write study notes?
Before I fill you guys in on all the tips and tricks to writing beautiful Ancient History study notes, I need to give you a reason to spend hours and hours writing them! It would be so much easier just to type into Google “Ancient History study notes” and use someone else’s hard work as your own, right? But I cannot stress enough how ineffective this is. Your study notes are supposed to be tailored to YOU, and assist YOU in maximizing your marks. For example, my study notes for Ancient were extremely visual (I used a lot of images and tables) because I see myself as a very visual learner. I also used other visual cues, like colour coding and symbols to help me remember certain quotes or sources. Because I had wrote (typed) those study notes myself (and had been using them as a study tool for the previous 2 months), I kid you not, in the examination I could see my study notes sitting in my photographic memory! I am not telling you guys not to look for Ancient History study notes on Google at all – they can be used as a great source of guidance or inspiration for your own study notes! You should be looking at other people’s study notes and realizing how much work you need to be putting into your own, in order to succeed in the HSC, not just in Ancient, but in all your subjects.

Gathering the information
Ok, so you’ve come to the end of the week (or the end of a topic) and you’re ready to start writing or typing your study notes. Where do you begin? Take the time to go to the school library or your local library and ask the librarian if they can direct you to all the books they have on Pompeii and Herculaneum, or whatever the topic is, pick the best ones, and borrow as many as they will allow you to. If you’re teacher is anything like the passionate Ancient teacher I had, they would have already given you trees worth of booklets on all you need to know for Ancient. It can be a little overwhelming at first to read all this information, but taking the time to read through the books and pick out what information relates best to the syllabus is so worth it. Books are the best sources we have for Ancient when it comes to writing study notes. The good ones often include archaeological sources, and ancient and modern written sources (all the good stuff that the markers are looking for).

Writing your study notes
The first issue I want to address here is the question many people ask: “Should I type or write my notes? Which option will make me remember the content better?” My answer to this question is that it depends on your personal preference and the way you study. Some people find writing their notes actually allows them to remember the content much easier, while others find typing them is a lot quicker, and easier to insert pictures, quotes etc. From personal experience, I can say that a mix of typing and writing works most effectively. For all my HSC subjects, I initially typed my notes, and then when it came to studying difficult dot points I just couldn’t remember, I would write the notes out by hand until I could answer the dot point without having to look at my typed notes for guidance. Therefore, whether you write or type your notes is a matter of personal preference.

The best way to set out your study notes is in accordance with the HSC syllabus. Your study notes should literally be a document of answers to each and every syllabus dot point (a.k.a. all the possible exam questions). To be effective, your ‘answers’ to each dot point should be presented in a way that will allow you to effectively use the notes to study, through the use of bullet points, diagrams, tables, etc. Make sure you have enough information and detail under each dot point to be able to comfortably answer a short or long answer question on it.

In saying that, your notes should not merely be 30 pages of facts. The fundamental reason as to why we study Ancient is because of the primary archaeological and written sources that have been uncovered from thousands of years ago. For each dot point, you need to have at least one source to back up what you are saying. You need to be considering archaeological sources, as well as ancient and modern written sources, and incorporating these throughout your study notes, just as you would include them throughout a 25 mark essay in the exam. When referring to sources, you should be focussing on what the source reveals about Pompeii and Herculaneum, or Sparta, or whatever the topic is, not just dropping the source and leaving it there. In my own study notes, I colour coded my sources to make it easier for me to remember them. For example I used green for archaeological sources, dark blue for ancient written sources, and light blue for modern written sources.

Finally, the take home message from this guide:
1. Start your notes early. Don't leave them to the last minute. If you haven't started your notes, don't worry too much, just try to have them finished by the time you graduate, leaving you plenty of time to use them to study for your exam.
2. Whether you type or write your notes is up to personal preference. I found a mixture of both worked effectively.
3. Structure your notes in accordance with the HSC Ancient History Syllabus. Your notes should literally look like answers to each syllabus dot point.
4. Be sure to incorporate archaeological evidence, as well as ancient and modern written sources into your notes, and use them in terms of what they reveal about your chosen topic.

I hope you guys find this guide helpful! Be sure to leave a message if you have any questions! Stay tuned for an upcoming guide on how to smash your Ancient History Trial Exam and HSC Exam - Let's get some Band 6's! 


All the best!

[caitie145]

with the real HSC exam/trials, i don't know how to remember a source for each dot point of each syllabus. Am i expected to remember all of these or do i just think about what i think might be examined? Thanks!

[aoife98]

Hey I'm pretty sure you only need sources for your essays and some short answer questions, so you're unlikely to need sources for certain dot points. I find putting pictures of the evidence in my notes or visualising it as I write/learns them means while I don't have to memorise them, they come back in the exams.
Also not sure if the same but in modern history you are better off paraphrasing the ideas of historians/sources rather than quoting them as it shows your understanding and application regarding the question.

[The Timzone]

I'll go ahead and say I really like this. I've started the HSC course just a couple weeks ago and have already gotten into writing study notes for my subjects.

As I was not entirely sure how to produce notes I'm grateful you were able to provide instructions on how to do so.  Thank you very much.

[jenna.ridgway]

Hello,
I'm a bit confused about how to go about reading all my notes when I have to study for the HSC at the end of the year. Since I will have large quantities of information for each topic, how do I read/learn/digest my notes without getting overwhelmed?
Thanks,
Jenna.

[jamonwindeyer]

Hello,
I'm a bit confused about how to go about reading all my notes when I have to study for the HSC at the end of the year. Since I will have large quantities of information for each topic, how do I read/learn/digest my notes without getting overwhelmed?
Thanks,
Jenna.

Hey Jenna! So most people will have a solid 30+, 50+, maybe even more, pages of notes for their subject by the end. No way is it efficient to try and learn and memorise from them. So there are a few things you can try - Making palm cards with the most important bits is useful, as would be doing brainstorms based on sections of your notes at a time. Doing practice papers is a must, at least eventually. You might even want to try this cool technique - Jake's favourite

It's just about synthesising your information (palm cards, posters, summaries), then applying it (practice papers, brainstorms, essay plans). As to what specifically works for you, that takes a bit of trial and error - You should have a bit of an experiment with some things in the lead up to your Trial exams!! Pay attention to what works and what doesn't, so when the HSC rolls around you know exactly what your style is

[sudodds]

Hello,
I'm a bit confused about how to go about reading all my notes when I have to study for the HSC at the end of the year. Since I will have large quantities of information for each topic, how do I read/learn/digest my notes without getting overwhelmed?
Thanks,
Jenna.

Hey Jenna!

Definitely take on board everything that Jamon said below A+ advice!
History (both Modern and Ancient) are very high content, so it is definitely super important here to study smart rather than study more.
For me, I wasn't a big note taker in general for any of my subjects. I used pre-prepared notes (I was extremely lucky to be studying the same topics as Stephanie, who's notes were so incredibly helpful! Defs at least check out her ones for Pompeii and Herculaneum which can be found here! ) for light study, and then focused the majority of my attention on just banging out past papers (and then getting them marked by my teacher). This was 100% the best way for me to study, as I am a more practical based learner, who learns through doing things rather than reading information.

However, when I did write notes I almost always wrote them in a table format. I am a MASSIVE advocate for tables. Detail tables are incredibly beneficial in Ancient History, as with any point you make in a response you need to be backing that up with evidence. Down the far left hand side write down all the syllabus dot points, and then next to that have a column dedicated to quotes (both Modern and Ancient historians) and archaeological evidence. Linking tables are also really good, and are super beneficial when it comes to cracking a band 6. What you want to be "linking" are concepts that can become a driving theme throughout your essay. For example, with Agrippina the Younger (my personality study) I linked every single interpretation of her legacy to her femininity, thus my judgement went further than just "Agrippina was an important historical figure whom people have a lot of different opinions on", to instead "Agrippina the Younger's legacy is defined by her femininity, and thus interpretations surrounding her legacy and influence are greatly dependant upon the attitudes and values said society holds in regards to women" - which is more sophisticated

Hope this helps!

Susie

[jenna.ridgway]

Thanks so much Jamon and Susie, I am very relieved you guys don't recommend trying to remember absolutely everything, your comments have made me feel a lot more confident.

[Maraos]

Hi!
I've got my HSC half yearly exam in about 2 and a half weeks time. The exam will be a 1.5 hour exam in HSC format with only the Core topic (Pompeii and Herculaneum) and society topic (Spartan society).
I've completed my notes on Sparta, however I have not created a complete set of Pompeii + Herculaneum notes.
Should I spend these holidays creating my syllabus dot point notes for Pompeii/Herc or should i just use what i have and try to do as many past papers, questions etc.
I'm concerned that if i spend time making the notes now I won't have enough time to revise and do past papers. Any thoughts? 

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi!
I've got my HSC half yearly exam in about 2 and a half weeks time. The exam will be a 1.5 hour exam in HSC format with only the Core topic (Pompeii and Herculaneum) and society topic (Spartan society).
I've completed my notes on Sparta, however I have not created a complete set of Pompeii + Herculaneum notes.
Should I spend these holidays creating my syllabus dot point notes for Pompeii/Herc or should i just use what i have and try to do as many past papers, questions etc.
I'm concerned that if i spend time making the notes now I won't have enough time to revise and do past papers. Any thoughts? 

Hey Maraos! I'll let Susie or someone more knowledgeable on Ancient lend you some advice here, but just going to quietly leave this link to a whole bunch of free notes on Pompeii/Herculaneum

[sudodds]

Hi!
I've got my HSC half yearly exam in about 2 and a half weeks time. The exam will be a 1.5 hour exam in HSC format with only the Core topic (Pompeii and Herculaneum) and society topic (Spartan society).
I've completed my notes on Sparta, however I have not created a complete set of Pompeii + Herculaneum notes.
Should I spend these holidays creating my syllabus dot point notes for Pompeii/Herc or should i just use what i have and try to do as many past papers, questions etc.
I'm concerned that if i spend time making the notes now I won't have enough time to revise and do past papers. Any thoughts? 

Hey!
In my opinion use the notes that you already have, and these written by steph! Really, really thorough - if I ever used notes last year these were it!

Don't write anymore content related notes. By that I mean no more dot point summaries. At this stage, the only form of note taking that I recommend would be detail, linking and argument tables. The reason I recommend these is because these are forms of active study - they make you think about what information is important to include, and how the content can be used to formulate various arguments - something that you will have to do in the exam.

Spend the next two and a half week just banging out past papers, creating a few tables (don't need to be super long and complex) and making sure that any gaps in your knowledge are filled before the exam For both Ancient and Modern History, past papers were pretty much all that I did for study - I never wrote any of my own notes, just used pre-made ones from either here or my teacher.

Hope this helps!

Susie

[Maraos]

Hey!
In my opinion use the notes that you already have, and these written by steph! Really, really thorough - if I ever used notes last year these were it!

Don't write anymore content related notes. By that I mean no more dot point summaries. At this stage, the only form of note taking that I recommend would be detail, linking and argument tables. The reason I recommend these is because these are forms of active study - they make you think about what information is important to include, and how the content can be used to formulate various arguments - something that you will have to do in the exam.

Spend the next two and a half week just banging out past papers, creating a few tables (don't need to be super long and complex) and making sure that any gaps in your knowledge are filled before the exam For both Ancient and Modern History, past papers were pretty much all that I did for study - I never wrote any of my own notes, just used pre-made ones from either here or my teacher.

Hope this helps!

Susie

Thanks so much for the help! I'll have a look at those notes and start past papers

Just another question,
You suggested I make "argument tables" in preparation for my exam, what exactly do you mean?
My teacher teaches us in an unusual format (mainly online documents with questions) and he has never brought up creating argument tables for exams.

mod edit: just merged your two posts together 

[sudodds]

Hey just another question,
You suggested I make "argument tables" in preparation for my exam, what exactly do you mean?
My teacher teaches us in an unusual format (mainly online documents with questions) and he has never brought up creating argument tables for exams.

Argument tables weren't something that my teacher told me to do, they were something that I just kinda came up with on my own (though I'm sure I'm not the only person to ever create something like this).

Argument tables were something that I more so did for Modern History (mainly because, admittedly, I worked harder and devoted more time to that subject) that was really really beneficial to my understanding and comprehension of the topics - that I 100% believe would be applicable to Ancient as well. Basically when it comes to writing the essay you will be required to make a judgement based upon a particular question. However, even though you cannot anticipate that question and what judgement you will have to make, you can anticipate the events and issues you will discuss - the events and issues on the syllabus.

As I said, you cannot anticipate the question, however an argument table takes the most common and adaptable judgements (stuff like effectiveness, contribution, impact etc.) and puts them next to these events and issues, asking you to justify how each event/issue can be used to argue for or against said judgement. This forces you to not only think critically about the content that you have learnt and make connections, but it also allows you to visualise the most powerful arguments, and which events/issues work best for each judgement (because you won't have enough time to talk in depth and all of them).

Unfortunately as I said earlier I don't really have any ancient related examples of an argument table, however I do have one for modern that will at the very least give you an indication of how to structure one of these tables

Hope this makes sense!

Susie

[Maraos]

Argument tables weren't something that my teacher told me to do, they were something that I just kinda came up with on my own (though I'm sure I'm not the only person to ever create something like this).

Argument tables were something that I more so did for Modern History (mainly because, admittedly, I worked harder and devoted more time to that subject) that was really really beneficial to my understanding and comprehension of the topics - that I 100% believe would be applicable to Ancient as well. Basically when it comes to writing the essay you will be required to make a judgement based upon a particular question. However, even though you cannot anticipate that question and what judgement you will have to make, you can anticipate the events and issues you will discuss - the events and issues on the syllabus.

As I said, you cannot anticipate the question, however an argument table takes the most common and adaptable judgements (stuff like effectiveness, contribution, impact etc.) and puts them next to these events and issues, asking you to justify how each event/issue can be used to argue for or against said judgement. This forces you to not only think critically about the content that you have learnt and make connections, but it also allows you to visualise the most powerful arguments, and which events/issues work best for each judgement (because you won't have enough time to talk in depth and all of them).

Unfortunately as I said earlier I don't really have any ancient related examples of an argument table, however I do have one for modern that will at the very least give you an indication of how to structure one of these tables

Hope this makes sense!

Susie

Oh that makes sense now,
interesting way to prepare for questions, only problem I see with ancient (especially Sparta) would be the amount of topics you would have to create/memorise. This would be fine for the personality and historical period since they seem more easier to predict and have less syllabus dot points.
Thanks for the clarification , I'll give it a go with some of the longer responses in Sparta/Pompeii

[sudodds]

Oh that makes sense now,
interesting way to prepare for questions, only problem I see with ancient (especially Sparta) would be the amount of topics you would have to create/memorise. This would be fine for the personality and historical period since they seem more easier to predict and have less syllabus dot points.
Thanks for the clarification , I'll give it a go with some of the longer responses in Sparta/Pompeii

Hmmm the way I can see you doing it for the Sparta long response (because I agree it wouldn't work for the short answers - especially because they won't be asking you to make a judgment anyway) is by listing all the syllabus dot points and writing down "what evidence reveals" about them, because that is the only type of question they ask. Pompeii/Herc long response will be a lot easier as it is only on one section of the syllabus