To study and do well in History

On March 14, 2009, in the direct admissions consulting program of Hanoi National University on VTV2, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Quang Hien (Faculty of History - University of Social Sciences and Humanities) gave detailed advice to students on how to study and skills to take the History exam. The website of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities would like to summarize the content of this answer.

* What should students pay attention to when reviewing history?

[img class="caption" src="images/stories/2009/03/16/img_1042.jpg" border="0" alt="Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vu Quang Hien answers at the live consultation program" title="Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vu Quang Hien answers at the live consultation program" width="320" height="214" align="right" ]

Some people think that History is a subject that only requires memorization like textbooks to pass all exams. That notion is completely wrong. If so, students only need to buy textbooks to memorize at home, without having to go to school. "Parrot learning" is a phenomenon that needs to be combated in the entire teaching and learning process, as well as in testing and evaluating learning. Current forms of testing and evaluating students' learning capacity are built towards assessing understanding and application of knowledge, that is, knowing how to select, analyze, synthesize, compare, and evaluate historical events and processes.

In the process of reviewing history in high school, students need to pay attention to the following points:

• Every historical event or process is associated with a certain context, that is, it is subject to the influence of specific conditions.
• Events, aspects of each historical event or process do not take place independently next to each other, or successively, but are related to each other in a certain space and time.
• A historical event can take place at one point in time, but it can also take place over a long period of time, presented in different lessons in the textbook.
• Every historical event has its own cause, content, result, and meaning. Some events include content, but there are also contents that include many events.

* How should students review?

Understanding, discovery and creation are the styles of learning history. When reviewing history, you must always ask and answer three basic types of questions:

1. "... how?"(present, state, generalize, summarize)
2. "Why?"(explain)
3. “Analysis”(present, explain, prove, compare, evaluate, criticize)

Students need to repeat or write down the answer, not just visualize it in their head. When writing, do not use documents. After writing, compare it with documents to correct any mistakes. If there are many mistakes, they need to study and rewrite.

It is worth noting that students are not required to present all historical issues mechanically, sentence by sentence, word by word like in the textbook, but can change the sentences and layout, as long as the content is correct. On the other hand, it is possible to present knowledge that is not in the textbook.

* Some points to note about test-taking skills

1- Analyze the questions in the exam

You must read and understand every word in the question. In the exam, a tight question will not have any “extra” words. Read the question carefully to determine the time, space, historical content and requirements of the question (presentation, comparison, explanation, analysis, evaluation...)

2- Allocate time reasonably. Based on the score of each question, calculate the time, each point about 15 minutes is appropriate.

3- Make an outline

Treat each question as a short essay, outline it, identify the main ideas and the order of the ideas. Then “introduce” the essay, don’t spend too much time thinking about “introduction”. Once you have determined the content correctly, you will know how to introduce the essay, and it should be direct and concise. After you have written all the content, you will know the conclusion. Don’t think about the conclusion in advance, and the conclusion should be very brief.

In terms of form, not everyone can write beautifully or have good sentences, but try to write clearly, correctly, and with correct spelling. Don't use empty, wordy words or abbreviations. Always remember: Correct, sufficient, and clear are good; simple writing is good.

* Mistakes to avoid

1- Off topic, redundant or lacking basic knowledge. This is a fairly common mistake. For example, when answering the question: Describe Nguyen Ai Quoc's activities abroad in the 1920s, there were the following mistakes: (1) Re-presenting Nguyen Ai Quoc's activities in finding a way to save the country from 1911 to 1920 (off topic, incorrect basic knowledge, because of not determining the correct time; (2) Only presenting Nguyen Ai Quoc's activities in France and the Soviet Union from 1920 to 1924 (missing basic knowledge, lacking events in the years 1924-1929); (3) Presenting unnecessary events from 1917 to 1919 (redundant).

Sometimes the test asks for “explain” or “analyze”, but the essay only asks for “presentation”.

To overcome the above situation, you need to read the exam questions carefully, clearly identify the requirements of the questions and prepare a brief outline before writing the essay.

2- Confusing events between different historical periods and stages. A candidate wrote: “One of the conditions for the outbreak of the Vietnamese revolutionary movement in 1930 was the leadership of the Party, the Government and President Ho” (At that time, there was no Government, Ho Chi Minh was not yet the President). Or: “The Dien Bien Phu Campaign brought the August Revolution to success”. “The success of the August Revolution in 1945 was thanks to the correct leadership of the Vietnam Workers’ Party” (the Party had this name in 1951).

The main reason is lack of alertness, or losing your cool, not thinking before writing. Sometimes it is due to subjective habits, leading to unconscious mistakes.

3- By default, the latter must be more complete than the former.. A candidate wrote: The October 1930 Political Platform was “developed and complete” compared to the Brief Platform and Brief Strategy approved by the Party Founding Conference (it should have been written as “limited”). The reason for this error was not understanding the lesson.

4- In addition, in the tests, candidates often make mistakes in expression, spelling, and grammar.. The main reason is lack of practice during the learning process.

* Special note for independent candidates (who studied under the old program)

In the 2008-2009 school year, the high school history textbooks were replaced, which are the basis for teaching and assessment. The new textbooks do not stop at the year 1991, but extend to the year 2000, with corresponding historical content.

The content, structure of chapters, lessons, events, review questions after each section and lesson in the new book are also different from the old book.

Independent candidates need to read the new textbooks to update their knowledge. If there is anything unclear, they should meet with teachers for further help.

Finally, the exam is just a scale to test our knowledge. Let's focus on studying, not on the exam. The purpose of our study is to gain knowledge. The greatest benefit of a student is to have a lot of knowledge. If you love to study, you will succeed.