VCE exams begin for some students on October 3. While it’s a daunting time for many, there are strategies that can help students prepare and make it easier to get through each exam. This story is part of our series designed to help Victorian students do their best.
There is a wide range of humanities subjects in the VCE, from revolutions to ancient history, but no single writing style will work for all.
University High head of humanities Dave Browning says with at least 11 subjects under the humanities banner, it is important students don’t confuse different writing genres.
“The best advice I can give is particularly if you are a humanities student and doing a number of humanities subjects, you can get the writing genres confused,” he said.
VCE students are getting ready to sit their final year exams.Credit:Craig Abraham
“If you think about it, history is very content and detailed, focused with dates and statistics, but in politics – evidence is important, but it’s more about your understanding of theory and use of political language.”
Humanities subjects include ancient history, Australian history, Australian politics, classical studies, geography, global politics, philosophy, religion and society, revolutions, sociology and texts and traditions.
Browning, who teaches global politics and history, says one way to understand what is needed is to look at the examiners’ rubric to understand how they mark an essay.
University High School humanities teacher Dave Browning.
“In global politics, there are four things: understanding of the question; a well-considered argument; use and understanding of key political terms and evidence; quotes and statistics that support your argument,” he says.
“So you’ll see a history student will dominate the quotes and statistics.
“If you don’t show a sophisticated understanding of the question … you can’t do well on the next three questions.”
Quiz yourself
- When you’re studying, try the ‘red, amber, green’ method. Use highlighters. Green is stuff you know, amber is for things that need revision and red is ‘I have no idea’.
- Try flashcards to learn quotes or make a Quizlet, an online memory game where you enter information.
- Read and record your notes, then listen back to them.
- For theory, Browning recommends learning three to four major words from a definition so you can weave them into short answer and essay responses. For example, for extensive definitions such as globalisation, it’s best to learn three or four words or key phrases such as intensification, acceleration, interdependence and changes in technology.
- Browning says for history and global politics, don’t stress out about learning really long quotes. Learn quotes that are no more than five words. Use ellipses if you want to contract a quote, or paraphrase and use small parts of a quote. You can learn those by playing Quizlet memory games. Learn quotes for key knowledge points to analyse and evaluate.
Use your reading time at the start of the exam
Browning says to look at the difficult short-answer questions, worth between six and eight marks, and highlight or underline key terms, such as globalisation or unilateralism.
“You get marks for your understanding of political language and political theory. Underlining them is really important and then writing down how you are going to get the four marks.”
Browning says that during reading time, you should think about structure and where your marks will be.
There are four sentences in essays that are the most important: the contention and introduction and your three topic sentences – the first sentence in your paragraphs.
By doing this, you are demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of the question and a well-considered argument.
“Those four sentences need to be really well considered and engaged with the question.
“So that’s what you can do in your reading time. You can plan out your topic sentences and underline the key terms.”
Browning says to be aware of timing and leave at least 40 minutes for your essay.
Remember you get marks for your use of political language and understanding of political theory.
“Don’t learn cookie-cutter responses because the examiners are trying to reward students who can think on their feet with original arguments.”
Bethany Feik received a good VCE mark on her revolutions exam.Credit:Justin McManus
2021 VCE University High School student Bethany Feik scored 45 in revolutions. Here are her study tips:
- The most important place to start is knowing you can understand key events and the background to those events.
- Once you have that down, make sure you have two or three statistics and interpretations of each event or topic. “That helps you flesh out your answers a bit more and impress the examiners, I guess. ”
- Form a study group. “I think study groups are very good for humanities. So much is a discussion of ideas. If you can find and get more complex perspectives, that’s great.”
- Feik memorised quotes and learned how to apply them, helping differentiate “OK” answers to “better thought out” ones.
- Find contrasting interpretations to include in your answers to help build your discussion.
- Do practice exams. “Once you’ve done a few, you realise there are only really a few different questions they might ask you.”
- When Feik didn’t have time to write full practice essays, she put together plans for essays.
- She also had teachers go over her practice essays and swapped them with classmates.
“The main thing is don’t burn yourself out. I don’t think I ever really studied after dinner unless the exam was the next day,” she says.
“It’s important to maintain a life outside of high school. I think it’s really important to maintain a healthy perspective in this period.”
Key exam dates:
November 4 – Texts and Traditions / History: History Revolutions
November 7 – Philosophy / History: Australian History
November 8 – Sociology
November 11 – Geography / Classical studies
November 14 – Australian Politics / History: Ancient History / Religion and Society
November 15 – Global Politics
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