How to Improve Your Knowledge
or
How to Remember all of this Stuff		 Go Home

 
One of the best ways to improve your understanding of the vast quantity of material you're being bombarded with in this class is to reorganize it in a way that makes sense to you. Here are a few ideas to help you along the way. 

1)The Venn Diagram. This is great for organizing info on two topics that can be easily compared or contrasted (Austria & Prussia, Luther & Zwingli, Swanson and Kilmer would not work because we have no common traits, thank goodness). 
 
 




2) The good old-fashioned timeline. For understanding a long drawn out topic like the English Civil War, the reign of Louis XIV, or the Thirty Years War. Take the most important events and actions and lay them out in chronological order. Be sure to point out important connections between items on your timeline (cause and effect, combination, etc.) 

     
    Date Action (connection)
    April 1775 Lexington and Concord (shot heard round the world)
    June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill
    January 1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense

    This is most effective when your timeline contains only events related to each other, leave the confusing unrelated stuff out. This forces you to evaluate what is truly important and related to the topic at hand.

3) The organizational web. This allows you to take a large topic and break it down to several levels. 

4) The Compare/Contrast chart. Great when you have more than just two straightforward comparisons.  This can be extremely helpful in writing a C & C essay as paragraphs can be easily organized by letter or number. 
 
   
1
2
3
    Economy / Domestic Policy Government / View of the Constitution Foreign Policy
A
Federalists
 Aid Business, National Bank, Tariffs Strong Central Gov't / loose interpretation Pro-British
B
Antifederalists
 Favor Agriculture, No National Bank, No Tariffs Weak Central Gov't / Strict interpretation Pro-French

 
 

5) Cause and Effect. Good for major events and the minor events that follow them. This can be extremely helpful in organizing and writing essays and to better understand a major event.
 
Event -  France sides with the United States in the American Revolution
Causes - France's desire to break up Britian's empire
- France's desire to protect its West Indies holdings 
Effects - Spain joins in the war against Britain (France and Spain are ruled by the same family)
- US gain use of New Orleans port
- Britain loses European support 
- Britain loses the war.

 
 

 

 
Back to Important Stuff