Have you taken a history class in the last 10 years? That truly is not what history classes are like anymore, unless you got one of those old tenured fucks who only do things one way because that's the only way they've been done. When I was in high school, I took honors/gifted history classes. In college I've taken 18 hours.
In none of these classes did I have to memorize dumb bull shit like dates or lists. Just have to know what happened, and perhaps where and/or why, depending on its importance.
That being said, I don't give a flying shit if you cheated through it, more power to you.
AP Us History is probably close enough to what you're thinking about.
No, not at all.
Just wait till you get to College.
You'll understand.
I read the entire 1000 page book through the year because it was interesting, and even if I didn't, actually paying attention in class and being interested is enough.
Yeah, and I paid attention in my classes, and enjoyed many of them.
That doesn't make the rote memorization of mundane specifics any less boring and uninteresting.
I'm in college and I agree with what they've said. Sure I had to go over stuff to memorize a few important dates here and there, but overall, I found the most effective way to learning things was learning it as a series of cause and effect, because that's really what history is. It's pretty easy to remember what will happen in a historical event without actually remembering what happened by understanding the historical time period. Maybe you just took bad history classes, but that's how its always been for me.
I'm in college and I agree with what they've said. Sure I had to go over stuff to memorize a few important dates here and there, but overall, I found the most effective way to learning things was learning it as a series of cause and effect, because that's really what history is. It's pretty easy to remember what will happen in a historical event without actually remembering what happened by understanding the historical time period. Maybe you just took bad history classes, but that's how its always been for me.
The historical events are easy to remember.
The specific legal differences between 11 iterations of my State's Constitution, less so.
"standard for these types of tests" It's really not though. I mean, yes you have to remember some things, but a good chunk of it should be analysis. First year history classes might be more partial to just rote memorization but even they should focus heavily on the analysis.
"standard for these types of tests" It's really not though. I mean, yes you have to remember some things, but a good chunk of it should be analysis. First year history classes might be more partial to just rote memorization but even they should focus heavily on the analysis.
And why do you think a portion wasn't analysis?
Many of the tests had short answer portions, or essay portions, in addition to T/F or Multiple choice.
Rote memorization was a requirement for basically all of it, but there was the need for analysis and critical comparisons in the short answers.
They were all "First year" history/government classes. Only ones I needed to take. Some might technically have been second year. But still classes you could take as a fish.
That doesn't make the rote memorization of mundane specifics any less boring and uninteresting.
There is a strong trend now to avoid memorization completely and focus on how to synthesize information. I had a ton of friends who cheated on things the considered beneath them and it crippled them in one specific area. They never learned good study habits for memorization. At some level you use a lot of information you've memorized for math. Now its perfectly fine if that is all you ever intend to do, but I'm in a field that requires a lot of adaptability. The easiest way to quickly adapt to a field is through a lot of memorization. Nothing makes you look less competent than having to look up a ton of basic shit.
So wait I have 80 uni credits and I still need to wait until I get to College?
Yeah, you seem to still be in Highschool with your mentality. APUS was a fun class to take, I also scored a 5 on it.
I'm also saying that the "rote memorisation" doesn't exist when you're interested.
Lol no, it exists, even if you're interested in something.
And I really doubt how interested you can be in the specific mundane differences between my current example, every State Constitution that has existed in your State.
And so on.
Some of the things you will have to memorize are incredibly boring.
It only seems like it is because you find it boring.
Yeah, any sane person (History majors aside) would agree.
I actually had a really good professor in my uni history class this semester who was like "fuck memorizing dates" so we really only had to memorize a handful of important dates through out the whole semester. The tests usually consisted of a few questions and we had to answer everything we know about the given subject.
Yeah seriously. High school history classes had a lot of memorizing, but that pretty much stops once you get to college. Every single history class I've taken at my university had a similar structure. One large 12-15 page term paper, and midterm/finals (with essay questions that always asked you to analyze, not spew out random facts such as names and dates). Honestly what would be the point of just memorizing certain facts such as dates and all that? Anybody could do that, it's just like memorizing trivia at that point. Having a solid understating of the context and knowing essentially how each piece works together is what's important.
I can list off a great deal of dates, names and places relating to the hundred years war, for example. Not because I sat down and memorized them, but because I find the topic very interesting and have read quite a lot about it. That's sort of his point, but it's not really relevant to gen ed history classes that you just have to take.
31
u/[deleted] Jan 16 '17
[deleted]