Year 12 Ancient - Exam Advice

Year 12 Ancient students will have their next assessment on Wednesday, in the double lesson. As you know, the format is as follows:

Time Allowed: 70 minutes

Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes)
Essay question on the Persian Wars, using 'assess' or 'explain'.

Assess = make a judgement of value
Explain = relate cause and effect, make the relationships between things evident, provide why and/or how

So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the Persian Wars. Make sure you know:

• the causes and background of the conflict (persian expansion, Ionian Revolt)
  
• the details of the six major battles
• the contribution of Themistocles, Leonidas, Eurybiades, and Pausanias
• why the Greeks won and the Persians lost (you can find a sample essay on this dot point here)
  

Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes)
10-mark question on Xerxes' rise to prominence (spend about 15 minutes on this)
Make sure you know:

• his family background
• his career before becoming king
• how he became king

15-mark question assessing his reign/career (spend about 20 minutes on this)
Make sure you know:

• his achievements/failures as a builder/engineer, a religious leader, a warrior, an administrator, and as king
• ancient and modern assessments of his reign

We will go through some practice questions on Tuesday. Any questions, send me an email. Good luck!

Year 12 Ancient - Work While I'm Away

Hi folks. As you know, I am away for the first three days of next week. I will be back Thursday to help you with any queries regarding the half-yearly.

I have left textbook/booklet work for you on Spartan religion. The most important thing for you to do is add some depth to the general powerpoint we did, by reading the relevant chapters in the Antiquity 3 textbook, and your Sparta booklets. Take notes on the following areas in particular:

1) Apollo, Poseidon and Artemis Orthia
2) The myths of Lycurgus and the Dioscuri
3) The religious roles of Spartan kings
4) The Karneia, Gymnopaedia, and Hyankinthia
5) The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Amyklaion, and Menelaion
6) Funeral customs of Sparta

I will upload the powerpoint soon as well.

There will be a practice exam for you to do on Wednesday. Hand it in to be marked, and I will email you some comments before your half-yearly.

Year 12 Modern - Last Minute Exam Advice

I'm sure you'll all go great tomorrow, but just a final piece of advice...

When analysing sources in your exam (which you will do, as it is a source-based assessment) - make sure you refer to these three things:

1) Reliability - can we trust the source? Is it biased?

2) Usefulness - can we use the source? Does it give us good historical information? What information does it give us? Is it complete? What doesn't it tell us?

3) Perspective - whose opinion are we getting? Is it biased? Is it an official or unofficial perspective? Was it written at the time, or with the benefit of hindsight?

Year 12 Modern - Assessment Week 8

Modern Historians, your first assessment will be this Thursday, so we will be doing a spot of revision in class tomorrow. However, for your home study, here are some resources you could use:

Try your hand at some past HSC papers. The World War One sections are always at the beginning.

2007 paper 2007 source booklet
2006 paper

And finally, the relevant syllabus dot points. You may be tested on any or all of the points below.

World War One

1 War on the Western Front

– the reasons for the stalemate on the Western Front

– the nature of trench warfare and life in the trenches dealing with experiences of Allied and German soldiers

– overview of strategies and tactics to break the stalemate including key battles: Verdun, the Somme, Passchendaele

– changing attitudes of Allied and German soldiers to the war over time

2 The home fronts in Britain and Germany

– total war and its social and economic impact on civilians in Britain and Germany

– recruitment, conscription, censorship and propaganda in Britain and Germany

– the variety of attitudes to the war and how they changed over time in Britain and Germany

– the impact of the war on women’s lives and experiences in Britain

3 Turning points

– impacts of the entry of the USA and of the Russian withdrawal

– Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive and the Allied response

4 Allied Victory

– events leading to the Armistice, 1918

– reasons for the Allied victory and German collapse

– the roles and differing goals of Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Wilson in creating the Treaty of Versailles

National Study: Germany

1 Weimar Republic

– emergence of the Democratic Republic and the impact of the Treaty of Versailles

– political, economic and social issues in the Weimar Republic to 1929

Year 12 Ancient - Practice Essay Questions

The best way to revise your work is to try writing a practice essay. This will stimulate your memory as well as help you hone your essay-writing skills. Below are two practice questions. I'd love you to try writing one, which you can email to me for comments/advice. Or you could do it the old-fashioned way and hand it to me in class...

1) Explain the importance of the army in Spartan society.

2) Explain how the Spartan system of government operated.

Year 12 Ancient - What You Need To Study...

Hi guys, here is the powerpoint we did today listing the dot points you will need to revise for your first assessment on Tuesday.


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

You can download the presentation here.

You can view the HSC syllabus for Ancient History here. The relevant pages are p.32 (Pompeii) and p.43 (Sparta).