How to do well in history

Katelynoshea

Hi guys so out of my whole class I'm the only one who passed honours history! I got 51% that was with no study! So I'm just wondering how do I study/maximise my grade for history!

Edrees98

Just make a lot of ESSAY PLANS. Essays tend to repeat themselves quite frequently. What topics are you doing ??

Katelynoshea

Edrees98 wrote: »

Just make a lot of ESSAY PLANS. Essays tend to repeat themselves quite frequently. What topics are you doing ??

I'm doing politics and society in Northern Ireland, division and realignment in Europe, and the pursuit of sovereignity and the impact of partition

Edrees98

Yep, your teacher made a mistake. You should always do a topic that many other schools don't do because examiners won't have much info about it and thus you get higher marks in that essay. We are doing Government Economy and Society which many schools don't do due to it being so boring. Try do a lot of essay plans, like sophisticated ones. Also learn a few quotes associated with each essay, examiners love seeing them and lastly PRACTICE WRITING FAST!!! Unfortunately quantity overpowers quality in history so the more you write does mean you will get a high grade (min 5 pages an essay ) provided that you have some analytical skills. Anyways I hope I helped and GOOD LUCK!

Katelynoshea

Edrees98 wrote: »

Yep, your teacher made a mistake. You should always do a topic that many other schools don't do because examiners won't have much info about it and thus you get higher marks in that essay. We are doing Government Economy and Society which many schools don't do due to it being so boring. Try do a lot of essay plans, like sophisticated ones. Also learn a few quotes associated with each essay, examiners love seeing them and lastly PRACTICE WRITING FAST!!! Unfortunately quantity overpowers quality in history so the more you write does mean you will get a high grade (min 5 pages an essay ) provided that you have some analytical skills. Anyways I hope I helped and GOOD LUCK!

Thanks so much! Should I have a lot of small paragraphs or few big ones?

Edrees98

Max 3 per page minimum 2, thats what our teacher tells us. Fortunately you can cheat the system ! Rather than writing one long half a page paragraph which will probably receive 8 max, you can split it into two and they might give 2 5's which equals 10. I have seen people get 90's in 4 page essays using this technique. Anyways if you have any more queries, im here to help!

spurious

Edrees98 wrote: »

You should always do a topic that many other schools don't do because examiners won't have much info about it and thus you get higher marks in that essay.

Not sure what you mean by this.
All SEC examiners are History teachers and will know the course. They will mark according to the marking scheme and certainly won't give marks because 'they won't have much info'.

Edrees98

spurious wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by this.
All SEC examiners are History teachers and will know the course. They will mark according to the marking scheme and certainly won't give marks because 'they won't have much info'.

Not many schools do Government Economy and Society, therefore there is a good chance that I will get a higher mark in that essay because firstly, there aren't many people doing my essay with and secondly, if the examiner hasn't done a topic in 2 years or ever with his class' then he will know little about that topic when correcting essays so he will possibly be more generous. My teacher has proved it to us by showing past papers from past pupils who wrote average essays in their leaving cert for uncommonly answered topics but achieved top marks.

spurious

The marking scheme will be followed, regardless of how many answer the question. It's a risky strategy to be relying on. Your teacher should know that, if they are an examiner. Rather dodgy method of teaching too. You should be taught the course, not to play games with the exam. Sounds more like a grinds business approach.

At no stage in the marking do examiners compare one answer with another.

Edrees98

I don't want to argue. I just wanted to offer some information about the highly exploited history Leaving Cert.