“History is like a long story with many events, chapters, and episodes logically linked together in chronological order and always having a cause-and-effect relationship. History gives us valuable reflections on life. If we understand that and know how to study History methodically, students will no longer find it a boring subject” - Dr. Nguyen Quang Lieu (lecturer of the Faculty of History, University of Social Sciences and Humanities) shared his thoughts on how to teach and learn History. He also “revealed” to candidates the secret to studying and doing the History exam in the best way in this year’s university entrance exam.
The content of the Vietnamese history program for grade 12 begins after World War I and ends in 2000. The content of the world history program begins with the end of World War II in 1945 and lasts until 2000. This is a huge amount of historical knowledge that students must grasp in a very short review period. Therefore, we must know how to study and how to do the test to get good results. The following are my personal experiences after many years of researching and teaching History to many students.
The first, students must have an overall view of Vietnamese history and world history in the university entrance exam preparation program. When studying, the first requirement is that students must have a method of historical periodization, must be able to draw a historical picture consisting of many periods with names and characteristics of each period. Next, for each period, students go deeper to grasp the main content and events, which have important meanings. If this is not done well from the beginning of studying, students can easily fall into a "maze" of overlapping events and content without being able to locate the position of each content and each event in which period of Vietnamese history. * For example, in my opinion, the overview of Vietnamese history from 1919-2000 can be divided into 5 major periods: - Period 1919-1930: the period of campaigning to establish the Party. - Period 1930-1945: fighting for power. - Period 1945-1954: protecting the government and conducting resistance against the French colonialists. - Period 1954-1975: Socialist Revolution in the North and the People's National Democratic Revolution in the South. - Period 1975 to 2000. * At the second level, in each period, we must determine the main contents. For example, in the period 1919-1930, we must not forget the following contents: - The second colonial exploitation policy of French colonialists - The national democratic movement in Vietnam - The patriotic movement with the proletarian tendency associated with the role of Nguyen Ai Quoc. - The conference to unify and establish the Party. * At the third level, when developing the content about the patriotic movement of the proletariat associated with the role of Nguyen Ai Quoc, it is necessary to grasp the following contents: - The circumstances of Nguyen Ai Quoc's search for a way to save the country. - The process of finding the way (1911-1920). - The process of political, ideological and organizational preparation for the birth of the Party (1921-1929). If we grasp the problem according to the "tree" diagram as above, it will be very easy to understand, easy to learn, easy to remember. But in reality, many students learn in the "bottom up" direction, that is, learning from specific events and stages without having an overall view and linking them together.
MondayHistory is a flow of continuous events, taking place in chronological order. Historical events are often logically related to each other, one event is the cause of another. If we understand this rule, learning History is very easy. But if we learn by jumping, rote learning, lacking connection, it is very difficult to remember. * For example: Why was the Communist Party of Vietnam born? It was because the colonial exploitation of French colonialism created classes in Vietnamese society. Unable to bear the yoke of oppression and exploitation, the classes rose up one after another to fight against French colonialism. A patriotic movement with a bourgeois democratic tendency appeared, but this movement quickly failed. Next, the spark of struggle belonged to the proletariat. And after the proletariat determined its mission, there was a need for a political organization of the proletariat. This led to the birth of many different organizations such as: Indochina Communist Party, Annam Communist Party, Indochina Communist Federation and finally the conference to unify those communist organizations to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1930.
TuesdayFor each lesson, students must grasp the main events and answer the questions: where did it take place, when did it take place, how did it take place, and what is the significance of the event? * For example, the exam asks about the 1950 Border Campaign, students must closely follow and answer the questions: what were the enemy's plots and tricks? our plans and policies? developments, results, and significance?
WednesdayMany people think that learning History is simply memorizing, which is a misconception. Memorizing must be based on the important foundation of understanding, of being able to string together events into a historical story, with order, with satisfactory causes and effects, with value and meaning in the historical process in particular and in life in general, then you will find that historical story very attractive.
Thursday, students must draw a diagram of each historical period, then develop detailed content. Learning History must pay attention to the synchronic method: presenting an event but placing it in the domestic and international context. The learning content must be systematized into detailed ideas. Doing this will help students score points when taking the exam. * For example: the exam asks about the role of Nguyen Ai Quoc in the founding of the Party? Students need to build the following outline: domestic and international context; the process of finding a path; the process of political, ideological and organizational preparation...
Friday, when reviewing for History exams, you need to write it down on paper. Each review content needs to be detailed in a diagram style as mentioned above, to see how many ideas there are, how many important events to grasp. If students understand the lesson, write down the ideas and remember the events in order, logically, and linked, they will never forget the lesson. Avoid studying by just holding the book and reading it absent-mindedly, causing a feeling of fatigue, boredom, and lack of interest. When looking for reference books, you must pay attention to the origin of the book because there are currently many books with content that is very far from the knowledge in textbooks, not to mention the poor quality of History books. Students should only use reference books with advanced knowledge on the basis of having mastered the basic knowledge in textbooks. Otherwise, reading reference books is not effective, only distracting and confusing. After finishing the course, students must check the systematicity of the entire content they have learned by writing it down in a tree-like directory system, to see if there is any “missing” part of the historical picture. If there is, it means that there is still content that they have not grasped firmly and need to be supplemented. The special thing to remember is that all the content that has been included in the textbook is equally important, students need to grasp it firmly. Omitting any content will cause students to lack knowledge, leading to uncertain perception of the problem. Currently, even many teachers when teaching students unintentionally encourage them to learn by heart by thinking that: content that was tested last year will not be asked this year, which is not advisable. * For example: if you do not study the content about building socialism in the North, how can you understand that the North has firmly supported and is an important factor for the victory of the Southern revolution in the resistance war against the US?
Seventh, about how to do the test: - The first principle is to read the question carefully, underline the important phrases in the question to determine what is asked. This is the most important principle, because if this orientation is wrong from the beginning, the test will also be wrong. - Next is to outline the answer. The more detailed the answer outline is, the higher the result will be. In addition, this action also helps students not to miss any ideas when answering. - Choose the easy questions to do first, but focus on the questions with many points. Because if you focus on writing a question very well, but that question gets few points, and ignore the other questions, your score will only be the maximum according to the "scale" of the question. - Balance the time to do the test, distribute the time evenly for the questions. This can be done very simply by dividing the time to do the test by the number of points to find the maximum time you can spend on a question. - When doing the test, go straight to the point, avoid rambling and long-winded presentations. Answer exactly what is asked. * For example: the test asks about the historical significance of the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam, you do not need to present the circumstances of your journey to find a way to save the country, the role of Nguyen Ai Quoc in the founding of the Party... Because even if you spend time presenting very well, you will not get points for content that the test does not require. - When you finish, you should check the test one last time to make sure that the events and numbers stated in the test are correct. You need to pay absolute attention, anything that is uncertain should not be included in the test content, especially numbers, times...
Eighth, some very common mistakes in university exams in History: - Determining the content of the answer incorrectly, asking one thing but answering another because of mistakes right from the stage of determining what the exam is asking about. * For example: the exam asked about Nguyen Ai Quoc's political, ideological and organizational preparation process for the birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Many candidates rambled on about Nguyen Ai Quoc's process of finding a way to save the country. You should answer straight to the point in the following way: "After finding the right truth to save the country, Nguyen Ai Quoc carried out a persistent and persistent struggle to spread Marxism-Leninism, actively preparing political, ideological and organizational conditions for the birth of the Party, that process is shown through the following events....". - Missing an idea because of rushing to do the test right away, not outlining a detailed outline. This mistake is very common, leading to many candidates finishing question 2 and then writing additional information about question 1. - The presentation is unclear, the writing is rambling and general, the test is two or three pages long but does not state the main idea. - The dates and events are not remembered accurately, so they write "randomly" because many candidates think: writing more is better than not enough. - The beginning is an elephant, the end is a mouse, meaning that the answer is long and drawn out, and there is no time left, so the answer is very short and to the point.
Ninth, among the mistakes made when studying History, the most common and "serious" mistake of students is not being able to differentiate historical periods, that is, not being able to draw a complete picture of Vietnamese history according to the periods. That is because teachers have not taught students the right learning methods, which unintentionally makes History heavy and unattractive. According to many years of experience in marking tests, History tests that score 9 or 9.5 all have the following common characteristics: candidates have a very solid grasp of the lesson, the content is presented fully, the presentation is clear and especially know how to analyze advanced. Many students know how to combine historical methods, logical methods, and contemporary methods to answer, so their answers are very clear and profound. * For example: the test requires presenting the reasons for the victory of the nation's resistance war against the US to save the country. The essay presents the following four reasons: the Party's correct leadership, the people's tradition of steadfast struggle, a solid rear base, and good use of international relations. In addition, taking it a step further, the candidate also presents and analyzes that: among the four reasons above, the Party's correct leadership is the decisive reason because only with the correct leadership can other factors be promoted.
