Revising history

[bad historian]

Anyone discovered the secret? I sure as hell haven't. My revision seems to always consist of dipping in and out of endless different texts and never really feeling like I'm getting to the crux of a topic, or learning anything relevant. I just keep starting chapters and giving up half way through, completely overwhelmed. It's such a hard subject to revise for!

[creepy old man]

Download the past exam papers and make a rough chart of which subjects are covered in the exams each year. Often there will be nearly identical questions/subjects each year, which will give you a rough idea of what you should be covering in your revision. Choose to revise on only a handful of these subjects, in detail. I generally prepare to answer 1/4 - 1/3 of the essay topics I expect to come up.

After I've done this, I grab a few crayons, markers, or coloured pens and assign a specific colour to each topic. I go over all my notes (including margin notes in books)from the semester, circling material that is relevant to each subject with the appropriate coloured pen. Then I reorganise the information, rewriting condensed notes on a different piece of paper for each subject. Then I memorise whatever I've written on the new sheets.

This can be a bit time consuming, and it's only possible if you've taken good notes during the semester, but it's really helpful for organising information and giving yourself a reasonable amount of information to memorise.

Good luck!

[Okocim]

Everyone has their own best method of revising, but whatever one it is, make sure that your brain is 'actively' thinking and making connections between facts rather than rote learning books and notes.

My personal approach to revising history was to use spider diagrams. I would have say, a particular event of theme that I wanted to revise, then draw lines going away from that with all the different aspects of it. E.g. If I was revising the impact of the Norman Conquest on England I'd have 'Norman Conquest 1066' written down and then lines going off with relevent themes such as 'society', 'economy', 'language', 'land ownership' or whatever. These would then branch off into different aspects, and usually include some notes reminding me of relevent authors if needed. These disgrams could get quite detailed - I might have to separate them onto different bits of paper - but ultimately there was a logical stucture in my head in order to answer any question posed on the topic.

The next couple of days I'd keep rewriting the diagram (without looking at the original) in order to remember it all. A key tip is to write your key words ALONG the lines rather than at the end of them. This looks messy, but as your eyes will automatically follow the line along, it becomes easier remember which bits are tagged onto which. Also, the need to be constantly turning the paper round as your writing goes in different directions is a way of keeping your brain alert!

Close to the exam itself I'd try some practice questions. These themselves might be reduced to diagram form if I didn't have time to scribble long essays.

I'm not saying I always had perfect exams, but I knew my stuff when going into them and that's half the battle.

[bad historian]

Thanks a lot, those are both really helpful posts. I guess it just all comes down to putting the hours in! Think I'm just lacking in confidence really, I always feel like a bit of a fraud with this subject because you can never seem to know enough!

Cheers though