My friend's elder son will soon be taking his A level history exams, what practical advice do you have to give regarding modern exams and techniques applicable to history exams taken by 18 year olds ?
For my part this isn't special pleading for a adequately supported middle class student in a reasonably well regarded school/6th form; his difficulties are because of his late birthday he's was just two weeks off being in lower year group and is also slightly behind in his academic development.
As I understand it, in the past it would have been acceptable to redo the final year, but nowadays, it appears UK schools really are exam factories and there's no change of spending an extra year doing the exams again, they don't get funding for that.
Now he and his parents are somewhat up up against it, as he needs to do reasonably well in his history A level as a backup source of points for his university entrance, just in case he should have a disaster in one of his other three subjects, which are the where the main effort is being made.
He doesn't intend to do history at college/university, and I'm not seeking advice that will infect him with the 'history bug', you know the one some of us here have. So in one sense I'm almost asking for a bluffers guide to history, but I for a 'good cause'.
I've yet to find the exact syllabus, the UK education sites are a bit confusing, but the final two exams are each 1.5 hrs and ask one mandatory question and the students 2nd question is a choice from two. The subject areas are know in advance, I think the first exam is US policy in SE Asia/Vietnam and the 2nd exam is civil rights in the USA and/or N.Ireland ( I think this may be wrong but will check)
I'll attempt to post links to the actual syllabus when I find them.
What kind of History?
White people scourged the Earth between 1492 and 1945. That's modern history in a nutshell.
Also, we built really cool tanks and airplanes and threw them against each other. That part was pretty awesome. Make sure if he writes an essay, he mentions how tanks and airplanes are really cool. No real World War II historian will admit it, but it's the very foundation of their profession.
Quotehis difficulties are because of his late birthday he's was just two weeks off being in lower year group and is also slightly behind in his academic development.
that poor lost soul, woe is he
anyway, couldn't he just study like everyone else?
Quote from: Ideologue on May 01, 2011, 05:10:41 PM
White people scourged the Earth between 1492 and 1945. That's modern history in a nutshell.
Columbus didn't start the fire. It's been burning since the world's been turning.
My eldest informs me that you have to toe the line, give the examiners the "correct" answer.
I don't get it, how old is he?
Quote from: Ideologue on May 01, 2011, 05:10:41 PM
White people scourged the Earth between 1492 and 1945. That's modern history in a nutshell.
We were not impressed with how much the Mongols left unscourged. Amateurs.
When I did it I was told it was far more about writing bollocks about the sources in the exam paper and how biased they might or might not be rather than actually showing you know your stuff.
When I was trained as an exam machine, the first step was always to take the full length exam under conditions as close to the actual exam as possible. THEN study. This way you'll know what to look for. Then take the exam again (different quesitons, same format). Then study again. There must be a gazillion past exam questions or exam practice books out there. Buy every book out there and do them all.
Quote from: Monoriu on May 02, 2011, 10:36:08 AM
When I was trained as an exam machine, the first step was always to take the full length exam under conditions as close to the actual exam as possible. THEN study. This way you'll know what to look for. Then take the exam again (different quesitons, same format). Then study again. There must be a gazillion past exam questions or exam practice books out there. Buy every book out there and do them all.
Seems a bit overkill to write out answers for every exam question ever asked. I'm not even sure that would really improve one's writing skills - and more importantly test taking.
Quote from: garbon on May 02, 2011, 10:40:56 AM
Quote from: Monoriu on May 02, 2011, 10:36:08 AM
When I was trained as an exam machine, the first step was always to take the full length exam under conditions as close to the actual exam as possible. THEN study. This way you'll know what to look for. Then take the exam again (different quesitons, same format). Then study again. There must be a gazillion past exam questions or exam practice books out there. Buy every book out there and do them all.
Seems a bit overkill to write out answers for every exam question ever asked. I'm not even sure that would really improve one's writing skills - and more importantly test taking.
Well, it's the only way to be sure. You may know the material - but if you aren't used to writing out the answers, you may not know how much time you have, what the optimal format of the answer should be, etc. It also gives the student confidence. If he has done the deed 100 times, he'll be sure that he can do the same thing one more time when it counts.
At least, that was how my school did it. And my school is well known for producing a very high number of As in a largely British system of testing.
Quote from: Monoriu on May 02, 2011, 10:47:51 AM
Well, it's the only way to be sure. You may know the material - but if you aren't used to writing out the answers, you may not know how much time you have, what the optimal format of the answer should be, etc. It also gives the student confidence. If he has done the deed 100 times, he'll be sure that he can do the same thing one more time when it counts.
At least, that was how my school did it. And my school is well known for producing a very high number of As in a largely British system of testing.
I could see how that might make sense for a multiple choice exam...but I don't really see how that works for an essay writing exam unless the practice exam books just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers. I don't know, but I'd think they'd just list the key points and the rubric (like topic sentence first sentence in each paragraph, etc.). If my assumption was correct, that doesn't seem like repeating it 100 times or more would be helpful. You could just read the rubric. :P
Maybe Mono's teachers graded 100 essays for every student? :bleeding:
Quote from: garbon on May 02, 2011, 11:18:58 AMI don't really see how that works for an essay writing exam unless the practice exam books just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers.
The law school versions do just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers. I couldn't really recommend copying them out, though; doing your own essay, then reading the sample answer seems like a better plan. I do highly recommend any sort of sample question / answer book though.
Quote from: garbon on May 02, 2011, 11:18:58 AM
I could see how that might make sense for a multiple choice exam...but I don't really see how that works for an essay writing exam unless the practice exam books just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers. I don't know, but I'd think they'd just list the key points and the rubric (like topic sentence first sentence in each paragraph, etc.). If my assumption was correct, that doesn't seem like repeating it 100 times or more would be helpful. You could just read the rubric. :P
In a high pressure exam, timing is key. You may know all the points and material, but they are not very useful to you if it takes 3 hours to articulate them, when you really only have 2. A lot of people struggle to use the right words in an actual exam situation. Also, a lot of exams are deliberately designed so that there is no where near enough time for students to score all the points. Students need to decide which important points to make, and which ones to abandon. These decisions are not easy, and a lot of people have trouble making them when they sit in the exam hall.
I think I practised for my exams more than 100 times. We spent 5 years preparing for one of the most important exams in HK.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 01, 2011, 07:32:15 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on May 01, 2011, 05:10:41 PM
White people scourged the Earth between 1492 and 1945. That's modern history in a nutshell.
Columbus didn't start the fire. It's been burning since the world's been turning.
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray...
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2011, 11:52:50 AM
Maybe Mono's teachers graded 100 essays for every student? :bleeding:
I bet they graded a lot more than that. 42 students in each class, 6 classes per year, that's 252 students per cohort. How often those essays are submitted depends on the subject. For English language, we did one essay, one multiple choice exam, one non-multiple choice exam, and one listening test every week. That's the case no matter what year we were in. That's at least 4 assignments for every student every week, or a thousand papers to grade per cohort per week. We took 9 subjects per student, so you do the math :contract:
Quote from: Monoriu on May 02, 2011, 08:35:39 PM
Quote from: garbon on May 02, 2011, 11:18:58 AM
I could see how that might make sense for a multiple choice exam...but I don't really see how that works for an essay writing exam unless the practice exam books just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers. I don't know, but I'd think they'd just list the key points and the rubric (like topic sentence first sentence in each paragraph, etc.). If my assumption was correct, that doesn't seem like repeating it 100 times or more would be helpful. You could just read the rubric. :P
In a high pressure exam, timing is key. You may know all the points and material, but they are not very useful to you if it takes 3 hours to articulate them, when you really only have 2. A lot of people struggle to use the right words in an actual exam situation. Also, a lot of exams are deliberately designed so that there is no where near enough time for students to score all the points. Students need to decide which important points to make, and which ones to abandon. These decisions are not easy, and a lot of people have trouble making them when they sit in the exam hall.
I think I practised for my exams more than 100 times. We spent 5 years preparing for one of the most important exams in HK.
I'm glad you spent your time wisely. :P
Quote from: garbon on May 02, 2011, 10:31:14 PM
I'm glad you spent your time wisely. :P
It is a complete waste of time, but short of moving to another country there is no real choice in the matter. It is a race to the bottom. If everybody puts in that kind of effort, I have to do at least as much.
I find myself unable to give advice due to my own experience with History A-level exams.
I actually did have to retake my History exam to get into my university of choice, as I ended up with a C grade instead of the A predicted (after a re-mark, I found out one of my papers was actually a D!)
I'd sold all my books and notes to a student due to start the course, so I borrowed a few of the textbooks from my teacher, asked the school to let me sit the exam with the year below me when they took it, did one practise essay, and got an A!
I took two lessons from this -
(1) It is actually possible to do too much preparation for exams.
(2) The marking of A-level papers is incomprehensible.
When I came to take my exams at KCL for my history degree I followed lesson 1 to a tee; my revision consisted of rereading my course essays the afternoon before the exam. I graduated with First Class Honours...
So, in a sense, I disagree with Monoriu, although I suspect it has more to do with how our respective brains work when learning something than with any hard and fast rules of studying.
bump. :blush: