How to get band 6 answers??? (1 Viewer)

[Tao~te]

I have noticed that modern history is not that hard, but gettin a really good answer like band 6 answer are BLOODY hard. especially in essays and arguments. I have an assignement which is to give an agument, i had all the best possible info and wrote it out in order, but the teacher gave me a band 3 cos the argument wasnt strong enough...now getttin band 6 seems like a dream...help

 

[pig_93]

i think ur partially wrong about mod history 'not being hard' i think it is a hardish subject, hence the pretty good scaling.
it is a subject of lots of words...the way you present your facts HAS to be in a lovely way and a logical way...everything should flow
what topics are you doing? i am doing
* ww1 (as u are)
* indochina
* russian revolution
* trotsky

teachers dont liberally give out band 6s in modern history, you are right, but in this subject
a) the facts should just be a pre requisite...you have to know everything it should be a given
b) work on how u present your answer

what length are u aiming at too? what was the essay you did on??

 

[ameh]

what part of modern history are u weak at? analysing sources or general arguments in essays? be specific and back arguments with evidence (or otherwise u rnt studying/revising enough)

 

[MissSavage29]

If u mention what topics u are doing it would make it a litttle easier to help out -

with modern i found when i was having trouble with my essays i wasn't arguing the facts properly - i knew teh content but you really have to answer the question - the key word is the really important part

these key words tell u what your essay needs to be doing these r some of the common ones for modern

assess - make judgement of value, quality, outcomes or results

describe - provide features and characteristics

discuss - identify poitns for and against

evaluate - make judgement based on a criteria

Explain - relate casue adn effect; make relationship b/w things evident

identify - recognise and name

if u did any of the topics i did (WWI / Russia / Trotksy / Cold War) i could give u an example of how these would apply...

as for anything else with a modern essay you need to make sure that every paragraph explicitly answers teh question - it has to be really obvious to your marker.

the last thing that woudl be important would be the evidence that you use. You need a range of primary and secondary quotes - without these you cannot get a band 6 - i think the highest you can get may be a low band four

if u tell us what topics u r doign i coudl give u some examples or something

 

[Tao~te]

um im doin ww1 rite now, but i think my teacher is gonna do germany and cold war later on..........oh yeh the essay i was talkin about was on the responisbilities given to haig for the failure of the battle of somme. well i got pretty much everything like quotes, correct info, and i did it in a neat order. but the teacher wasnt impressed at all.........how do u make a GOOD argument? thanx for ur time guys

 

[Tao~te]

oh yeh btw.......r u sure modern history is a high scaling subject? i heard its not very good scaling so its crucial to do well.....just curious

 

[ameh]

dont do a subj 4 good scaling, esp when ur not getting over 80% in it...or u havent mastered the art of bullshitting as I have done =)

 

[MissSavage29]

um im doin ww1 rite now, but i think my teacher is gonna do germany and cold war later on..........oh yeh the essay i was talkin about was on the responisbilities given to haig for the failure of the battle of somme. well i got pretty much everything like quotes, correct info, and i did it in a neat order. but the teacher wasnt impressed at all.........how do u make a GOOD argument? thanx for ur time guys

hummm - yeah cold war is great fun - otherwise known as legal form of torture - mmm actually its not that bad - its just slightly difficult

ohk well if u have quotes - both for an against - had teh correct info and structured it well all i can think about was that you didn't answer specifically what the question asked u to - um look at those key words i mentioned above and check that u did what they said

other then that - mabye you need to have a sit down with ur teacher and get him/her to outline exactly what they r looking for - specifically what was wrong with ur responce and how u can fix it - it is really the only way of improving

as for scaling modern does scale well - but there is that catch - it will only scale well if u do well in it - i dont think it starts scaling up unless u get above 80 - but then again there arn't many subjects that do

 

[Silver Persian]

With evidence, are you only allowed to use quotes in essays, or could I refer to a poster or a movie or something?

 

[rama_v]

With evidence, are you only allowed to use quotes in essays, or could I refer to a poster or a movie or something?

I dont think u can refer to movies. But u can refer to primary soruces, e.g. somethign that, say, general Haig said, or some lines out of a speech from Albert Speer. I never heard of anyone quoting a movie, although those doing UN might want to quote "Black hawk Down" for fun

To the topic of essays, the key is to use historians to support your point of view, and to have ONE view and ONE main argument. If you waver on any point, theres a chance the marker will believe that u dont know what your talking about and hence the lower marks. Aim for 1000 word essays in exams, its hard to write mroe than that. You should ask your teacher if you can have a look at the standards package for modern, or just pick up one of the books with student answers from past hsc papers. The thing that gets most people is that they dont link their facts with the question - you should aim to do this often (the marker should never ask "so what" after reading a paragraph). So yeah, stick to the question, argue well, and keep practising

 

[Will_Sparky]

I was having problems with this at the begining of the year, I could get my answer up to Band 5 when i fixed my argument, but couldn't push it over to the 6. Make sure that when you write your answer, you have a single line in your head of what your argument is. When in an exam, write it on your paper below the question. If I look at my HSC paper, Ive got my argument in one consise sentance which i refered back to and a plan.

The issue with band 6 was that I couldn't get my detail up to scratch. The critera for a 6 require detailed historical information. I overcame that by changing the way i wrote points in an essay. It ended up being something like...

ARGUMENT
Explain
DETAIL
Argument

And it would go like that for every point I made.

I ended up with 91 in the exam, but only wished I learned all this so I could have done as well in assesment.

 

[laracroft]

my best advice for history is to have ur essay writing skills up to scratch, but u will see they will improve throughout the year as long as u practice. also for essays in ur national study and the last section you should refer to historians differing interpretations, to show that you have done wide reading. this kinda stuff, n that you must memorise the facts to have a foundation for a band 6 answer is all important, and is what helped me to get a good mark in modern histroy

 

[Sarah168]

haha picking the right question (for you) out of the two choices is a BIG help...sadly, I was a moron and decided to be "ambitious" in the middle of my Modern History HSC exam ...still got a band 6