SA1 - ALL THE BEST!!

Dear all,

Here are some final tips:

By this stage, you should have sat for your mock and at least have completed part of it, so you know what is required of you in a history exam. This is what you need to do to finalise your preparations.

Practice Practice Practice
There are lots of MCQs, SBQs and SEQs in your workbook to practice on - Practice and keep your skills current, do some practice to tune your brain to the skills that you need to exercise during the exam!

Make Notes
For content, you should not just plug in the I-Pod and lie down to read your textbook, NOTHING will go in! Sit down and summarise the key content into notes. Then 2 days before the exam, try to re-summarise all the notes that you have taken into a mind map or if that doesn't work for you, then try to summarise all your notes into one sheet of foolscap paper according to chapter and topic. Then the day before try to summarise everything into half a sheet of paper (3/4 of a page is fine too)!

Read the Questions Carefully
On the day itself, READ the questions VERY carefully! Some questions might be a bit tricky but if you calm down and re-read the questions, you might be able to understand it better. Similarly, don't jump in excitement when you see a familiar word and write everything you know about the topic. Re-read the question and re-confirm what you need to do!

Plan and manage your time
There is nothing worse than knowing everything but not having the time to put it down on paper. Plan your strategies before the paper, know exactly how much time you should spend on each section of the paper and work within the framework of the time.

Your history teachers would have shared some strategies with you on how to proceed, but the basic principle is that you have 90 minutes to do everything. So this means you must prioritise, the MCQs are worth 10 marks, the SBQs are worth 20 marks and SEQs are worth 30 marks. Don't get bogged down with the MCQs, if you are still stuck at the MCQs after 10 minutes, drop it and move on and come back to it later!

To one and all, remember, work hard and remember what you have learnt in class, good luck for SA1 2009!


Best Wishes,
Your History Teachers