History

rjt

The LC is fast approaching, and although I'm confident for most of my subjects, history is beginning to worry me, so I thought to get some insight from people in similar situations

In the last couple of essays I've done, I've gotten 50-70% from my teacher, even though they were of proper length and (as far as I can see), to the point. This got me thinking, if these are the grades I get with the book in front of me, what'll happen in the exam!

How long are your essays usually? I generally aim for 8 paragraphs with 80 words each, generally going a bit over this to get around 650 words per essay. Would this sound roughly correct? Also, what kind of marks would you get per paragraph (under the new style of marking, with the Overall and Cumulative marks)?

Other than that, what are you going to study from each of your topics?

What I'm doing:
Nation States - Political Germany (Bismarck & Wilhelm), the Balkans, social and political Russia, and Anti-Semitism in Russia and France.

Dictatorship and Democracy - Rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy, Nazism (Propaganda+Church/State Relations) and Russia (rise of Communism and Stalin's reign). I know a bit about Britain between and during the war just in case.

Sovereignty and Partition - fall of HR/rise of Sinn Fein, War of Independence + Treaty, Anglo-Irish policy and Fianna Fail

Corruptedmorals

You'll be marked on your best 6 paragraphs, which should always be over 14 lines (average handwriting). You might not have cohesion? You should have one major point per paragraph, and never introduce new material in your conclusion. try and get the points to be slightly linked to each other as well. For the best essays, you'd need quotes, and also outside information, particularly for stuff there's not much on in the book.

I'm doing..don't know the topics, so I'll just say irish etc..

Irish- 1916 Rising, War of Independence, Civil War, Treaty etc, Cumann na nGaedheal....and church/education social conditions etc...everything to avoid doing a Fianna Fail question.

European- Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin (Stalin came up last year, sadly), Church-state relations, Jarrow March, Inter-War years.

American- Civil Rights, Moon Landing, Concensus and the collapse of concensus.

My teacher said that has me covered, though put in Fianna Fail. I refuse to do a question on FF...

rjt

Corruptedmorals wrote:

You'll be marked on your best 6 paragraphs, which should always be over 14 lines (average handwriting). You might not have cohesion? You should have one major point per paragraph, and never introduce new material in your conclusion.

Isn't that the old marking system? I thought they had a system these days where they grade each paragraph out of 12, and add them all up, and take this out of 60?

Enemy Of Fate

In the LC exam theres 100 marks going for each essay.60 for the overall mark, and 40 for the cumultitive mark.The overall mark is based on your actual paragraphs, and each paragraph is marked out of 12 marks, so you could actually get full marks with just an introduction, 3 paragraphs and a conclusion......although that would be very difficult.I believe (i'm not 100% on this now though) that if you do more than 5 paragraphs then they'll just add the marks for all of your paragraphs together, so its not just your best 5 paragraphs or anything like that.

Anyways the cumultitive mark is based on how well you answered the question, the depth of knowledge you displayed in it and the quality of your intoduction and conclusion.Apparantly its also heavily based on your use of dates and quotes.

Mushy

CorruptedMorals wrote:

You'll be marked on your best 6 paragraphs, which should always be over 14 lines (average handwriting). You might not have cohesion? You should have one major point per paragraph, and never introduce new material in your conclusion. try and get the points to be slightly linked to each other as well. For the best essays, you'd need quotes, and also outside information, particularly for stuff there's not much on in the book.

:eek: You should have something new in the last paragraph. Otherwise its only going to be a summation of what you've said before, and will only get you a max 4 marks for that paragrapgh. In the last paragraph, you should just have some quote or statistic, along with something new thats only minor. Also, they dont pick your best 6, they pick them all, but you can only get a max of 60 for them. So writing 9 paragraphs of 8 marks is the same as writing 5 paragraphs of 12 marks.

Rozabeez

I've been getting Bs for essays with the book and got an A for one without the book, hooray! Sorry, felt like bragging.

Enemy Of Fate

Mushy wrote:

:eek: You should have something new in the last paragraph. Otherwise its only going to be a summation of what you've said before, and will only get you a max 4 marks for that paragrapgh. In the last paragraph, you should just have some quote or statistic, along with something new thats only minor. Also, they dont pick your best 6, they pick them all, but you can only get a max of 60 for them. So writing 9 paragraphs of 8 marks is the same as writing 5 paragraphs of 12 marks.

No I agree with CorruptedMorals.Never introduce something new in your last paragraph.I always just give a brief evaluation of whatever the essay is about, and then allude to what will happen in the future as a result of it, and I always get quite high marks.

Steve01

You're all so well prepared. In my class we haven't even attempted essay writing throughout the 2 years, with the exception of one essay at the start of 5th year. But that was on a section from Movements for Reform thats not even being examined ffs!

I've made it my own initiative to write essays on the important topics and learn them inside out in the hope that they come up. I have to say I'm loving the marking scheme. Considering that I'm averaging 8-9 paragraphs of relative info for the sections I'm learning, the full 60/60 shouldn't be too hard to acheive if I'm in luck. And as for the other 40 marks? I'll make sure I have a good intro/ conclusion and that I'm directly answering the question being asked.

estebancambias

To steve01, your profile says dungarvan but your ''not writing an essay in 2 years with the exception of at the start of 5th year mirrors my situation completely, however i will do good in history, id say a b1

Mushy

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

No I agree with CorruptedMorals.Never introduce something new in your last paragraph.I always just give a brief evaluation of whatever the essay is about, and then allude to what will happen in the future as a result of it, and I always get quite high marks.

But if you include the future you go outside the date parameters(if they are given). Although it is also adding in something new, as it wasnt previously mentioned

Steve01

estebancambias wrote:

To steve01, your profile says dungarvan but your ''not writing an essay in 2 years with the exception of at the start of 5th year mirrors my situation completely, however i will do good in history, id say a b1

Interesting. Perhaps we are two parts of the one person. Or perhaps not

Fraggle Rocks

The old Renaissance history course was deadly. Easy as pie. The above sounds all too difficult...

Corruptedmorals

If you include something new, you'll look like an idiot for not introducing it earlier. Conclusions are meant to be a CONCLUSION, stating the importance of what you have discussed, a summation..and yes, something about the future of what you've discussed.

I did it by accident in the mocks, the propaganda Nazi essay, and the examiner wrote 'It's a pity you didn't expand on this point earlier!' I'm lucky that I didn't get marks taken off me. I generally get full marks for my 'strong conclusions'.

Enemy Of Fate

Mushy wrote:

But if you include the future you go outside the date parameters(if they are given). Although it is also adding in something new, as it wasnt previously mentioned

Don't go into detail, just say something general.For instance if you were writing about the rising you could say something along these lines in your conclusion ''Although the rising was considered by many to be nothing but a failure and a mistake, both militarily and politically, it did play an important role in Ireland's struggle for liberation and played a large role in the eventual removal of Ireland from the British Empire''.Something like that anyways.I'm tired and need food so forgive me if my example isn't up to A grade standard.

Mushy

Ah, but I did say in my original post on this thread about it being something minor, but still new. I know not to include something thats really important for the last paragraph. Its the way you phase it in. Say something on the topic, then add in "just like.........etc.". Its new and doesnt need an overwhelming amount of description.

regob

Rozabeez wrote:

I've been getting Bs for essays with the book and got an A for one without the book, hooray! Sorry, felt like bragging.

thats amazing.

my revision =

pursuit of soverignty

success of sinn fein, dismantling of anglo irish treaty, and then about the catholic church.

european topic 1=

basically everything about hitler and mussolini.

european topic 2=

everything to do wit the cold war

Rozabeez

Thank you for your enthusiasm. Now bow down to me.

Devoted Drog

I did honours history last year for the leaving, failed my mocks but got an A1 in the real thing.On what was said above:

You should have around 9 paragrapghs. Keep them short to moderate but factual. Your better writing 9 short paragraphs then 4 or 5 long ones.

Never introduce new material in your conclusion!!It should just be a summary of what you've said throughout the essay.

And always end each paragraph with some sort of refrence to the question. It makes sure that your paragraph is relevant.

Good luck.If you know your stuff you'll be grand.

Mushy

Rozabeez wrote:

Thank you for your enthusiasm. Now bow down to me.

I'm not bowing down to you. Im getting B's without the book, done in 45 minutes, and A's without the book done in 40 mins:p

Enemy Of Fate

Devoted Drog wrote:

Good luck.If you know your stuff you'll be grand.

.....And if you don't?I swear I'm going to need a miracle to save me in the Irish essay.I just can't remember anything about Irish history, everything is too ****ing similar.

Devoted Drog

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

.....And if you don't?I swear I'm going to need a miracle to save me in the Irish essay.I just can't remember anything about Irish history, everything is too ****ing similar.

One of the reasons my mock result was so bad was because of the irish history. I mixed up the time lines and wrote on a completely different set of years. It is tough but you should get the general jist of questions coming up by looking over the past papers, im sure you have it done! Dont worry, last year was the same.Built up to be one of the hardest tests of the lot and ended up being the easiest. Plenty of waffle mixed in with a bit of fact and use the structure i wrote about in my last post and that will get you through. The structure is the most important imo.

Jbopping

here i was just wondering could anyone help me by telling me what was on the history mock higher level(the one that had the lockout document on it).
i did the other one and am trying to compare the two for any similarities.thanx

Corruptedmorals

Go back and search for the mocks history spoilers. Lockout was on Exam Craft.

Mushy

Nuremburg Rallies, Causes of WW2, Women role in Society, Economies of CNG came up. Thats what I can remember off the top of my head. I had that Lockout one.

Am just about totally finished studying the history course. All the topics in the revision sheets of the past papers, have gone through them over the last few days. Only Irish history left. Hopefully if all goes well, I might sneak an A. Its so much easier studying them without actually having to do the essays

Enemy Of Fate

Devoted Drog wrote:

One of the reasons my mock result was so bad was because of the irish history. I mixed up the time lines and wrote on a completely different set of years. It is tough but you should get the general jist of questions coming up by looking over the past papers, im sure you have it done! Dont worry, last year was the same.Built up to be one of the hardest tests of the lot and ended up being the easiest. Plenty of waffle mixed in with a bit of fact and use the structure i wrote about in my last post and that will get you through. The structure is the most important imo.

Meh.If I got an essay on Fiana Fail 1932-89 i'd be so happy!!I'd definitely get 90+ marks from that one, as its the only Irish history I really know.

Mushy

[Quote=Enemy of Fate[/B]Meh.If I got an essay on Fiana Fail 1932-89 i'd be so happy!!I'd definitely get 90+ marks from that one, as its the only Irish history I really know[/Quote]

I'm predicting a...mistake? Am I right:p Guessing its 39 you mean. That'd be a fine essay: Economy, Society, Neutrality

Enemy Of Fate

Mushy wrote:

I'm predicting a...mistake? Am I right:p Guessing its 39 you mean. That'd be a fine essay: Economy, Society, Neutrality

No I meant 89....... ¬.¬

Yeah I really meant 39.My ideal essay would actually be the threats Fiana Fail faced from 1932-1939 (alliteration is fun!!).An opening paragraph, 2 paragraphs on the IRA, a paragraph on the ACA, a paragraph on Fine Gael, and then 2 paragraphs on the British, and then of course a conclusion.It would be the best Irish essay ever!!

brianthebard

When did FG come into existence? I'm fairly sure it was after 1939. Was the ACA a threat to FF? I wouldn't think of the British as a threat to them either, I mean it was Dev who was aggressive towards Britain first. And you essay can't be the best ever, cause my project this semester was the best ever. <_<

Haven't a Clue

They're not gonna give you something like that though. They'd target a specific policy like their economic policy or, with any luck, their anglo-irish policy. I'd devour the latter of the options.