HSC Exam Advice – Ancient History The HSC Ancient History examination will be held on the morning of Friday 18 October 2013. Make sure that you are familiar with the syllabus. The Ancient History syllabus is available from the Board of Studies website: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/. You should review the requirements for all four sections of the exam, especially the principal focus, key features and issues, outcomes and contents dot points for each section. Completing past exam papers and having them marked by your teacher is one of the better forms of study because it combines revision and active examination practice. Past papers are also available on the Board of Studies website, but do be aware that the exam format – specifically the core – changed in 2010 so the papers from the years prior to this will be in a different format in that section to the one that you will being attempting in October. The format of the other sections of the paper, have remained unchanged since 2001. The marking guidelines and the examiners’ comments are also available and make for valuable guidance. Read these to see what the markers reward and also what they don’t reward – for example, the examiners’ comments will often mention the problem of students writing pre-prepared essays that don’t deal well with the question asked. Pre-prepared answers are a poor option for the Ancient History HSC examination. There are a number of great websites for the study of Ancient History. Probably the best one to start with is http://hsc.csu.edu.au/ancient_history which is the ‘NSW HSC online’ site. It has primary sources and notes on the most popular options in all sections of the syllabus, as well as links to other websites that you can use to practice your skills of analysis. Another very useful site is http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html which is a great primary source site for all topics and you can go from there to also find websites for specific ancient societies, personalities in their times, and so on. A good site for study tips and discussions on various topics as well as how to survive the HSC is http://www.boredofstudies.org/ Format: The Ancient History exam paper is divided into four parts: Section I: Core Study: Cities of Vesuvius – Pompeii and Herculaneum Section II: Ancient societies Section III: Personalities in their times Section IV: Historical periods Each part is worth 25 marks and you should allow for equal amounts of time to be spent on all four sections. This is a three-hour examination, so allow 40minutes for writing time and 3 minutes to plan per section and you should have a couple of minutes to spare. PTO

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Before you begin writing always take a few minutes to think carefully about the question and jot down a couple of planning ideas so as to ensure that your answer will be coherent. All sections have extended response components but only the last section is an essay response. Every section is structured differently. The first two sections will have sources provided either with or on the exam paper that have to be incorporated into your answers. Students sometimes start writing immediately, but the different formats require some thinking about. Better to plan and make your writing count than produce answers that are undirected and unsure.

Section I: Cities of Vesuvius – Pompeii and Herculaneum (25 marks) There are two distinct parts to the core. You need to answer both. There will be a source booklet with up to eight sources. All answers are written on the spaces provided on the examination paper. The first part is worth 15 marks and consists of a mix of multiple-choice and short answer questions. The written answers need to be succinct. Do not ‘over-answer’ the questions. Stick to the space provided and, where possible, answer simply with direct quotes, statistics, etc, from the texts to support your answer rather than elaborated or lengthy paraphrasing / rewriting. The second part of the core will ask you to answer a question about conservation and heritage issues using your own knowledge and several of the sources. In answering this question you are not to analyse the sources, but rather use or integrate them in an answer that relies largely on your own knowledge. This part is worth 10 marks and you should write in an essay form aiming to use each source at least once. Be sure to indicate source use by, for example, writing see Source B after you have used a quote or referred to information contained within the source. As a general rule your own knowledge should constitute around 60-70% of your answer; whilst source use should constitute around 30-40%. Section II: Ancient Societies (25 marks) There will be one structured question for each ancient society study. Every question will consist of several parts (usually four or five) – (a), (b), (c), etc. – with marks increasing from the lowest for the first to the highest for the last part. The last part will probably be worth 12 or 15 marks (this will vary depending on whether there are five or four parts respectively). It is an extended response, usually with a source provided and your answer is expected to be in essay form that is a well-structured, coherent argument or judgement supported by precise, detailed, relevant historical examples. All parts for this question should be written in order in a separate writing book. The two ‘musts’ of the Ancient Societies section is first, mastering the content, and second, the ability to apply that knowledge in across all parts when answering the question. Be sure to undertake practice writing using previous HSC questions. Getting the right balance between what is required for a 2-mark question and then for a 6-mark question, requires an understanding of the examiners’ requirements and significant practice to get that right in the time allowed.

Part III: Personalities in their time (25 marks) Part III consists of a separate two-part, (a) and (b), question for each of the twelve personalities listed in the syllabus for study. Your answer to each of the parts for this question should be written in essay form in a separate writing book. Part (a) usually asks you to describe a period in the individual personality’s life or describe the role they played in their historical time period. Be sure to break down the question in your opening phrase in order to define it in relation to your chosen study – for example, if the question says ‘Describe how Hatshepsut became Pharaoh,’ you should begin with something like: “Hatshepsut’s rise to the position of pharaoh began with (insert event)...” This allows the marker to see that you understand the core demand of the question and will structure your response accordingly. PTO

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Part (b) asks you to consider to what extent interpretations of your personality have changed over time. This consideration should revolve around the existing historical debate so know your historians (both ancient and modern) and be aware of all interpretive disputes (differences of interpretation and opinion) relating to your chosen personality. Don’t forget that every personality has a broader historical context and it often helps, therefore, to consider the debate in light of this context. Section IV: Historical periods (25 marks) There will be two (essay) questions offered for each historical period study. You must answer one question – either (a) or (b). Be sure that you are very familiar with the key features section of the syllabus. Your essay question will require you to consider the study as a whole so ensure knowledge of each section so that you can talk across developments, rather than offer only glimpses into parts of the period. Do not gamble on the questions being from only two of the key features and, as a consequence, study only two. The questions are more likely to come from the key features (of which there are generally six) and there is nothing to prevent the examiners from asking two questions from one key feature. The key is to have a comprehensive knowledge base and the ability to apply that knowledge in a carefully structured, coherent and well-supported argument / analysis / evaluation, etc. The more you know the greater your powers of explanation and argument. Every point that you make should be supported with detailed, accurate and relevant historical examples. Use historians to support your response and include historiography where there is a debate pertinent to the question. Essay writing is a skill that requires a fair amount of practice. Accessing past HSC questions and writing answers to these by hand in 40 minutes is essential to refine technique and to learn how to address the marking criteria.

More subject specific advice will be issued to students at our “Trial Exam Revision Lectures”.

Good luck with your exam preparations! TSFX