How do you study for ancient? (1 Viewer)

[senso]

How does everyone study for ancient?
Do you just try to memorise a few core essays and then just hope to mould them to the specific question?
Or do you just memorise all the dates, events, historians, quotes etc. And then write different practice essays, but don't go in with any core strucutres for essays prepared?
Or something else?
Thanks

 

[SmokedSalmon]

firstly I went through all my notes and made summaries for each section. adding on quotes of ancient and modern historians at the end. Then I wrote essays to exam questions i had gotten in my half yearlies, trials and also questions that had been in the previous HSC exams (ask ur teacher if u don't have them!)... then i ended up just reading over these essays. If you can, get ur teacher to mark them. A good thing would be to highlight the quotes in ur essays and notes with a variety of colors to help u remember them better, and perhaps u could color co-ordinate ur notes too if u feel like it.

What topics have u done? I've still got my old notes from last year if u need some.

 

[ay_caramba]

I just read... turns out alright for me.

 

[jimmik]

firstly I went through all my notes and made summaries for each section. adding on quotes of ancient and modern historians at the end. Then I wrote essays to exam questions i had gotten in my half yearlies, trials and also questions that had been in the previous HSC exams (ask ur teacher if u don't have them!)... then i ended up just reading over these essays. If you can, get ur teacher to mark them. A good thing would be to highlight the quotes in ur essays and notes with a variety of colors to help u remember them better, and perhaps u could color co-ordinate ur notes too if u feel like it.

What topics have u done? I've still got my old notes from last year if u need some.

oooh wat notes do u hav?
topics im doing are:
- minoan society
- sparta to the battle of leuctra
- greek world 500-440BC
- akhenaten

i'd b eva so greatful if u could send me notes. i wrote up notes for the greek world (20 pages) n sum guy on this forum stole 'em cuz he asked to swap but he neva sent me his notes afta i sent him mine... =( i feel so ripped off. could ppl b so selfish? *sighz*

to study ive realli jus read off all the sheets n make generic essays from them wif lots of quotes (altho this is very hard cuz ancient is so broad a topic). i memorise the intros n conclusions but thats abt it.

 

[senso]

yeah any notes would be awesome thanks..
i do sparta for society
caesar for personalities
persian wars (greece) for period
and the fall of rome (like 78-30 BC or something.. all the first and second triumvirate stuff)..

and thanks for the study help

 

[Lundy]

Last year, I went through my text book and notes, and I spent hours writing up a summary for each topic, with the structure of dot points and sub-dot points. After each summary I wrote down all the relevant quotes and sources.

This method worked really well for me, because I had to read through all my notes first in order to pick out the relevant points, then those points are memorised again when writing them out. All I had to do was read through it once or twice before the exam and I was set.

Oh, and I didn't do any practice essays. I don't see much point. For ancient they're marking you based on what you can tell them, not so much how you tell them.

 

[-blueblue-]

i highlight key points in my notes

then write summaries out .. standard thing

 

[senso]

Last year, I went through my text book and notes, and I spent hours writing up a summary for each topic, with the structure of dot points and sub-dot points. After each summary I wrote down all the relevant quotes and sources.

How do you guys remember quotes? Like last test i tried to just remember a few historians for each topic and then sort of make up the actual quotes but it didn't go as well as i'd hoped..
How many historians do you remember for each topic? Or do you just remember a bunch of quotes, and don't try to stick to just a few historians?

 

[Gavvvvvin]

Do you have to remember quotes from different historians? Cos if you do we didnt learn that stuff

 

[Lundy]

Um, I think I had like, 3-4 historians (both ancient and modern) for each topic, and several quotes from each. I just went over them often. What I did: Read them, then try to recite them, and just keep doing it until you've got at least most of them carved into your brain. In exams, when I did forget one, I either paraphrased or tried to jog my memory by jotting down what I could remember of it. Or if worst came to worst I just namedropped the historian as having said something on the topic and left it at that.

 

[Lundy]

Do you have to remember quotes from different historians? Cos if you do we didnt learn that stuff

yes, quoting sources is important. both ancient and modern.

 

[senso]

How much do you quote in your essays?

 

[SmokedSalmon]

what i do is not to put any quotes in the introduction and conclusion. In the other paragraphs normally at least 2 quotes to 4 quotes at most. If you get stuck on trying to remmeber the exact quote, paraphrase. (ah love that word!)

 

[SmokedSalmon]

jimmik... the only thing you've done that i have some notes on is akhenaten. so pm me with ur email and i'll send u the notes
senso... nope nothing for u unfortunately. good luck!

 

[Lundy]

How much do you quote in your essays?

I think I averaged around 3 quotes per page (for a 5 page response).

like smokedsalmon I didn't quote in the intro/concl. In the intro I usually wrote something like "historians such as X,Y and Z present us with blahblahblah.."Because then if you don't get to finish, you've still listed some sources.

 

[silvermoon]

Last year, I went through my text book and notes, and I spent hours writing up a summary for each topic, with the structure of dot points and sub-dot points. After each summary I wrote down all the relevant quotes and sources.

This method worked really well for me, because I had to read through all my notes first in order to pick out the relevant points, then those points are memorised again when writing them out. All I had to do was read through it once or twice before the exam and I was set.

Oh, and I didn't do any practice essays. I don't see much point. For ancient they're marking you based on what you can tell them, not so much how you tell them.

this is me too. except i also do lots of practice intros and conclusions. instead of doing the whole essays, i just do essay plans, topic sentences and work out what quotes/theories id put in each question.
oh, and whoever asked - im too lazy to re-read the thread - u should never put a quote in ur conclusion, its very bad technique for the reason that quote=material not your own and therefore should be in body, not the conclsuion where u r summing up what YOU have said.

 

[tina_goes_doo]

I havn't studied for ancient and i'm not going to until all my other exams are finished. I then have a week of cramming til the ancient exam. I get along alright though. Every now and then i re-read my notes and do a plan of what i would actually put in my essays. The most important thing for me is remembering quotes. I have a bucketful of quotes and sources for Hatshepsut and Fall of the Roman Republic but nothing much for NK Egypt. In the trials i got through that by mentioning quotes from Hatshepsut

Generally its good to re-read everything. When you write an essay, you can generally write something decent just by remembering the key points and building on from there. I think it's quite a waste of time writing out whole essays beforehand and trying to memorise them. Planning is the main thing. Try to make a plan for possible questions they might ask you. Remember you have a choice of up to 4 different questions for you essay. Although it is a good idea to plan a body for a whole bunch of practise questions, don't freak out if you havn't. Oh and practise writing intros and conclusions - they are the first and they last things the examiners read so make sure it's good.

 

[SarahMary]

Just in case anyone is interested in swapping notes i have notes on NK Egypt to Thutmosis IV, Minoans, Spartans and Hatshepsut

 

[tina_goes_doo]

I have killer notes on Hatshepsut! Have some stuff on Minoans and Rome 78-28 BC as well. My NK notes are non-existent.

 

[silvermoon]

I have killer notes on Hatshepsut! Have some stuff on Minoans and Rome 78-28 BC as well. My NK notes are non-existent.

thats coz harpy queen was all "Oh New Kingdom Egypt doesn't matter. Only my darling Hatshepsut matters." with many air-kisses to dead hattie-soup to follow. or thats how i remember it anyway...ot that im biased against the evil wench or anything...