How do I study History?!

Shingles!

Hey ppl!
First of all....i just wanna introduce myself and say hi cos i'm new...so hi!

I really need some help. I'm having a lot of trouble with trying to study history. I'm getting on grand with all my other subjects. There's just too much info in history, ya can't bluff it like most other subjects!
Does anyone have any good and effective techniques on how to learn the stuff? All i'm doing now is writing out loads of notes but I still don't know the stuff. Only a few weeks left and i'm starting to panic!
Better yet, does anyone have predictions for this year's paper? or at least can tell me what's safe enough to leave out?
I'd really really appreciate any help ye can give me.

Thanks a million,
Shingles

ShriekingSheet

ask seamus

claire h

Oh, come on, there's two months left, that's plenty of time! Right?

Just keep at it. It'll click eventually. Make out essay plans for various aspects of a topic, not just the basic facts - e.g. for Hitler

- his rise to power
- how the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic enabled him to come to power
- how the political climate in Europe favoured the rise of Fascist dictators (compare with Mussolini and possibly Franco)
- general domestic policy 1933-39
- how he created a totalitarian state
- Hitler as Fascist dictator (compare to Mussolini, discuss elements of fascism in general)
- foreign policy 1933-39
- how far Hitler's foreign policy was to blame for WWII
etc.

Making out general timelines is also handy.

But basically the only way to learn anything is to... y'know, learn it. Only you know what works best for you.

Shingles!

did you know that Hitler stuff off da top of ur head? oh jesus i'm so screwed lol
thanks for da advice i'll try it out

damnyanks

Best thing to do is look over past papers and pick 2 topics per section (Your teacher should of done something like this already) and make essay plans for those 2 sections. Make sure to know your special topic off by heart of course!

Don't try to cover everything because chances are you can't... and if you do your knowledge will be spread too thin.

smelly girl

oh shingles, its too late. Give up, go home, repeat.
DOOMED!!!!

Squall

Its pretty hard to cover the entire history course. Like Damnyanks said, try to cover at least 2 topics from each section.

I usually went through a topic, writing out main points as I went then wrote an essay based on what I remembered. Check through the essay to see if you missed anything(fix it if you did) then in future use that essay to revise the topic. I found it much easier to learn from my own essays than from the book. Its also a hell of alot less intimidating.

andrew12g

take very simple notes e.g

Connoly
born-cowgate, edinbourgh slums
joined brit army
false name+age
................

and then do them in groups of 7 max before moving on to another section of what ever the essay is.
also u dont need to put in stupid words that are irrelivant like is ,and etc.
as long as you can understankeep them nice and short so you can memorise them easily.
also writing things down helps you remember things alot more easily


What course are you doing?

Sarunas

Hey,

Here are my predictions (I worked this out in January)

Section A:

Davitt
Land Q
Parnell
Home Rule
Gladstone

Section B:

Nothern Ireland
Cumann na nGeadheal
Lemass
Inter-Party

Section C:

Bismarck
Eastern Q
Anglo-German relations
Imperialism
Tsarist russia

Section

Cold war
Musssoline/Fasicst Italy
Hitler/Nazi Germany
Spanish Civil War

Some Q *SHOULD* come up, I hope it does... cause thats what I should/have to learn.

The way to learn history that works for me is to visualise it as a film (It kinda works for me). The other way that I learn history is to make very brief notes (say only important things such as dates, events, places...) and read them over and over.

Here goes another day which I did not study at all...

Hope my predictions will help you,

Squall

Thats a fair bit of the course there. Study all of that and youll be perfectly fine. All you ahve to do now is study it