Delian League PowerPoint and Trial Exam Structure

Hi Guys!

It's been ages, I know. I suppose because all of the stuff went up last year, I haven't needed to update so much...

The Trial HSC will be held in Week 5. The format will be as follows:

5 minutes reading time
3 hrs writing time
4 sections (45 mins per section)
100 marks (25 marks per section)

Section 1: Pompeii. Multiple choice and short answer, using sources (15 marks). One extended response on conservation & reconstruction of the past (10 marks).

Section 2: Sparta. 4 or 5 questions, ranging from a 2-marker to a 10 or 12 marker. Focus on all aspects of Spartan society, government, and economy.

Section 3: Xerxes. One 10 mark question (describe/outline type) and one 15 mark question (explain/assess type). Could be on any aspect of his career or legacy.

Section 4: Greek World. One 25 mark question. You will be given two choices, one focusing on the Persian Wars, one on the Delian League era.

You should aim to write approx. one page per 10 marks.
Make sure you use the sources EXPLICITLY. That is, say things like, 'Source A shows that...' or 'As Source B tells us...'
The best exam prep you can do is to write practice responses. Access previous exams on the BOS web page.

Feel free to email me at thomas.griffith@det.nsw.edu.au so I can give you feedback on your writing.

The PP we did on the Delian League is below. You can download it directly here.

The Delian League

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Lycurgus - Man or Myth?

Hi Year 12. The half-yearly is coming up very soon - Monday - so here is a list of what you should study:

Pompeii - everything in the syllabus, making sure you have plenty of detailed knowledge of large topics such as: public buildings, everyday life (religion, politics, leisure, commerce), and archaeology/conservation.

Sparta - everything in the first two syllabus areas: Sparta's geography, society and government (including areas such as the agoge, the army, women, and Lycurgus).

On that note - here is the PowerPoint we did on Lycurgus...

Lycurgus

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Or download it here

The Agoge

Hi Year 12. Here is the PowerPoint we did in Friday's class, on the Agoge:

The Agoge

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You can download it directly here.

Year 12 Ancient - Spartan Society

Hi Year 12...here is the PowerPoint on Spartan Society I promised to put up. Make sure you know the Kings, Ephors, Gerousia, and Apella, as well as the Spartiates, Inferiors, Periokoi and Helots. Happy revising!

Spartan Society

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Or you can download it here

Year 12 Ancient - Spartan Society

Hi folks. Just a quick link to the HSC Online site on Spartan society (i.e. the homoioi, the Inferiors, the periokoi, and the helots) and the agoge.

You can access the site here.

I will post some links for the exam in the next few days.

Class of 2010 - Welcome!

Hi guys...sorry it has taken me a while to get back onto the blog. Term 1 has been rather hectic. Anyhow, welcome to your last year of high school, and a very fun three terms of Ancient History. I will be uploading powerpoints, resources and links onto this blog, so please feel free to access it whenever you want for revision/study/extension purposes.

I wish you all the best this year, and look forward to sharing some historical knowledge with you. First up: the PowerPoint on archaeology at Pompeii...you can watch it here, or download it from this link.

Archaeology in Pompeii

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Year 12 Ancient - The Exam...

Well, it seems that the exam was quite do-able...no major surprises, apart perhaps from the tourism at Pompeii question. Hopefully you all remembered that we did the gerousia in the trial, and I'm sure that Xerxes' foreign policy was a topic you were completely fed up with. The Greek World questions were both excellent, I thought, although the use of 'to what extent...' rather than 'evaluate' may have thrown you off a little.

Anyway, hope it all went well, and all the best for the rest of your exams. It's been quite a journey...

Year 12 Ancient - The End of The Road

For all the Ancient students sitting their exams on Monday:

GOOD LUCK!

Year 12 Modern - Recent Exam Questions

Hi folks. I thought I would post the Germany and Conflict in Europe essay questions that have been in the past three years' HSC exams. The new syllabus has only been examined since 2006, so these are the best questions to give you an idea of what they will ask you.

Read them, have a go at answering them, and focus on the wording of the questions, and the dot points that they cover.

Germany:

2008: (a) Account for the successes and failures of democracy in Germany in the period 1918– 1933. OR (b) To what extent can Nazism in power be seen as totalitarianism in the period 1933– 1939?

2007: (a) Explain how and why German social and cultural life changed in the period 1923-1939. OR (b) Assess the impact of Nazism on German foreign policy in the period 1933-1939.

2006: (a) Assess the importance of nationalism as a cause of the failure of democracy in Germany in the period 1918–1934. OR (b) To what extent was Hitler responsible for the development and implementation of Nazi racist policies in Germany in the period to 1939?

Conflict in Europe (only tested since 2006)

2008: (a) Evaluate the view that the air war determined the outcome of the European War. OR (b) Assess the significance of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact to the outbreak of war in 1939.

2007: (a) Evaluate the view that Operation Barbarossa was the major turning point of the European war. OR (b) To what extent did Allied and Axis strategies during World War II affect civilians?

2006: (a) Evaluate the view that the dictators Hitler and Mussolini were primarily responsible for the tensions that led to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939. OR (b) To what extent was the Soviet Union (Russia) responsible for the Allied victory in the conflict in Europe?

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Revision Advice

Hi Ancients and Moderns. The end is very nearly nigh, as we cruise into the home straight before the HSC next month.

We have started our revision in class (the whole syllabus has been tackled - hurray!) but you should now be formulating your home study plans.

Everyone has a different way of learning, but I will give you some very general tips.

1) First, print off a copy of the four relevant syllabus pages for your class topics. You can access them via the link to each syllabus to the left of this post.

Ancient: Pompeii, Sparta, Greek World 500-44BC, Xerxes
Modern: WW1, Germany, Conflict in Europe, Albert Speer

2) For each dot point in the syllabus, take a sheet of A4 paper, and try to write a page of notes on that point. You could do it as a mindmap, or as full sentences, or as dot points. Whatever works best.

3) If you can't scrape together a page of notes - you need to study that topic in more detail! Go back to your books and do some reading!

4) Then, have a go at some past exams. Go to this page to access past exam papers, from 2001 to 2008:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc_exams/

5) Download the papers, try writing responses in Word (set yourself the same time limit as you would have in the HSC), and email them to me. I will gladly read and comment on them.

6) Get used to all of the relevant terms used by the Board of Studies. Go to this page to make yourself familair with words like describe, outline, assess, explain, evaluate, account for:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/glossary_keywords.html

7) Make some judgements about what we have learned this year. As you are revising, ask yourself, 'What do I think about this?' Was Xerxes a tyrant? Was Speer a self-serving opportunist? Was Hitler a madman? Did the Great Depression cause the rise of the Nazi party? Was Sparta a democracy? Was the battle of Salamis really a turning point? Why did Germany lose WW1? Was the Treaty of Versailles too harsh? Did the Soviet Union win WW2 for the Allies? What is the most important building excavated at Pompeii? Should we display the casts of human bodies pioneered by Fiorelli?

Remember - take a stance, and support it with evidence.

8) For each topic, memorise four or five short and general quotes. Quotes always look good in an essay! Find some that you could sue in a wide range of essays. Maybe some Pliny for Pompeii, Herodotus for Xerxes/Greek World, Plutarch for Sparta...

9) If there are gaps in your knowledge - now is the time to fill them. Email me - I'm here to help!

Good luck!!