Stella's tips for success in legal studies and ancient history

This is my presentation outline to give exam/assessment tips the new year 12's.

ANCIENT HISTORY

- Plan

o For assessments: Each time I received a new assessment notification, I immediately began to plan my workload for each day in conjunction with all the other assessments I had at the same time. Year 12 is an extremely busy year and many of your assessments WILL clash, as much as 7 at a time. For example, in my diary the 25th of April 2011 read: 'Legal notes - half of crime syllabus, Ancient History - 350 words, English Extension Keats notes - La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Extension 2 Maths - start studying conics'.

o Exam essays: YOU MUST PLAN IN THE EXAM. THERE IS PLENTY OF TIME TO WRITE IN THE ANCIENT HISTORY EXAM. IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL!!!!


- Read widely

o The more you read, the easier it gets to connect the dots, esp. Rome. ALL ABOUT READING – concepts are not too difficult to get. READ.


- Share resources

o Use a RANGE of textbooks because often some things are not explained in detail in some books.


- Start studying early as ancient has lots of content but it isn't too difficult

o Don’t leave writing your notes to the end or you WILL end up in tears because there is A LOT to know and you WILL BE overwhelmed. Summarise after every topic, dot point, write notes to continually consolidate your knowledge.


- Smart, effective studying beats writing pages of unnecessary notes and wasting time

o Must realise you have to study for different topics in different ways, depending on format

o E.g. Pompeii is more focused on details of every day life, whereas Rome is more holistic due to the one broader question you will encounter where you make your own judgment -> you think more about cause, effect, why, how, what does this mean?

o Keep in mind whilst you’re studying + writing notes that it isn’t your job to story-tell events, but to use them to support your thesis. Don’t overstudy details or else you’ll never get to the end. Keep continually cutting down your notes as you know them.


- KNOW YOUR SOURCES! This is paramount. And from the beginning of the year, start doing practice essays that INCORPORATE SOURCES.

o Evidence table. Range of modern and ancient sources. I personally try to aim for at least one per paragraph.

o Know the major works that sources come from: e.g. Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars, Herodotus' Histories, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, Xenophon's Constitution of the Lacedaemonians ... you get the idea


- SCAFFOLD, SCAFFOLD, SCAFFOLD for the essay topics. Don’t write all full essays because it takes too much of your precious time. Go down the syllabus, write essay questions and plan in your brain, going down the list. Good practice for thinking on the spot during the exam.


Legal is pretty much similar. Except replace 'sources' with 'legislation/media/conventions/declarations'