American West-Edexcel help?? how many marks would i lose

The 16 mark question part b. I didn't include a counter argument. It was an awkward question.
Along the lines of "were the cattlemen and homesteaders equal to blame for the Johnson County War"
I got carried away and wrote an intro 4 long para and conclusion saying yes they were. I done lots of description anf linked back to the question Explaining why they were equal. did write "although some people may disagree with me i think that they were equal to blame " in my conclusion. I just completely missed out a counter argument. How many marks would i lose for that if any? Ive been told exam technique is more important than content. But surely if there's not really any good reasons to disagree that shouldn't be too bad?

Reply 1

RiahDawson

OP

17

Long story short: i didnt include counter argument in 16 mark question. How *imagine word here**** am i?

Reply 2

M463

6

Original post by RiahDawson

Long story short: i didnt include counter argument in 16 mark question. How *imagine word here**** am i?

Moderately xD Try not to worry yourself - to get into band 4 you do need to be weighing up the extent to which they were equal, so you need to present a balanced argument. You'll probably be limited to band 3 9-12 marks maximum if everything else was perfect and focused, if not you could be looking probably at band 2 5-8 marks, but by the sound of it the former is more likely. I guess you could have talked about the that the cattle barons were more to blame because they assumed homesteaders were all rustlers, when mostly they were just ordinary people. Or, you could say that homesteaders didn't have to fence off water supplies with barbed wire, and they could have just co-existed. Idk.

I hated the look of that question, and thought the "Why did people move West in the 1840s" one was an absolute gift, so I did that one. What did you do for the others? I did about Railroads + Homesteaders and Custer. I loved the paper, I actually finished with 20 mins to spare, whilst in medicine I had 5 mins to do q1 and 2 XD

Reply 3

RiahDawson

OP

17

Thank you. I end up worrying a lot after the exam as i realize all the stuff i done wrong.yay.

Hopefully it'll be band 3 as i did mention the fencing off water. But the thing was both sides done it. Homesteaders fenced off first which annoyed those doing cattle runs forcing them to abandon and do open range. Then the closed range fenced off larage amounts of land. I also put that all that previous conflict anf mistrust led to the Johnson county war and briefly stated the JCW facts (25 gun men hired by Wyoming stock association) and 300 men from homesteaders trapped them. So i thought they both hated each other equally. I could have tried to side withh one i guess but i didnt..
For the other questions i chose Custer (i had no clue who or what red cloud was) and the Donner party as describing problems they faced was easier than vigilantes which i didnt think was too much i could write abouty. Plus writing about cannibalism in exam is always fun. They made sure no one ate their husband /wife.how considerate.

And i done cattle question about the rise in the cattle industry.
Choosing which question to do was annoying. Although i kinda had more time than medicine i was less prepared and rushed through it and my exam technique probably consisted of "yep 12 marks so 3 para and conc.. 9 marks? Lets do the same thing! " I'm predicted an A i just hope i get at least a B. I used to like history but now it's so many exams so close together and since I'm not doing it next year i couldn't spend much time revising Which sucks. I hope the surgery paper isn't too bad.

Original post by M463

ModerateDxD Try not to worry yourself - to get into band 4 you do need to be weighing up the extent to which they were equal, so you need to present a balanced argument. You'll probably be limited to band 3 9-12 marks maximum if everything else was perfect and focused, if not you could be looking probably at band 2 5-8 marks, but by the sound of it the former is more likely. I guess you could have talked about the that the cattle barons were more to blame because they assumed homesteaders were all rustlers, when mostly they were just ordinary people. Or, you could say that homesteaders didn't have to fence off water supplies with barbed wire, and they could have just co-existed. Idk.

I hated the look of that question, and thought the "Why did people move West in the 1840s" one was an absolute gift, so I did that one. What did you do for the others? I did about Railroads + Homesteaders and Custer. I loved the paper, I actually finished with 20 mins to spare, whilst in medicine I had 5 mins to do q1 and 2 XD

Reply 4

KtLouise0709

I thought the exam was ok, it put in some lovely questions like the travel west for wealth and the homesteaders, but I thought they put in some really unfair ones like vigilantes, donner party, Custer and red cloud! I chose question 6 as part b was nice, but I just waffled on for vigilantes about being corrupt and catching criminals- there was no way there's enough to write for 9 marks! Then I did question 3 about the homesteaders, which was great! And I did Custer as all I know about red cloud is that he was in a war and was a chief!?! I thought the source was quite hard too actually?

Reply 5

RiahDawson

OP

17

Original post by KtLouise0709

I thought the exam was ok, it put in some lovely questions like the travel west for wealth and the homesteaders, but I thought they put in some really unfair ones like vigilantes, donner party, Custer and red cloud! I chose question 6 as part b was nice, but I just waffled on for vigilantes about being corrupt and catching criminals- there was no way there's enough to write for 9 marks! Then I did question 3 about the homesteaders, which was great! And I did Custer as all I know about red cloud is that he was in a war and was a chief!?! I thought the source was quite hard too actually?

I remember there being "red clouds war'? So he was a chief? Oh. Okay. So important i barely remember him. I wanted to do moving west for wealth and i did know quite a bit about moroms and them being persecuted but just couldn't do vigilantes. I thought the source question wasn't exactly the best but it was okay. I put tipis- move easily so nomadic lifestyle. Horses- travel, important possession.

Reply 6

M463

6

Original post by RiahDawson

I remember there being "red clouds war'? So he was a chief? Oh. Okay. So important i barely remember him. I wanted to do moving west for wealth and i did know quite a bit about moroms and them being persecuted but just couldn't do vigilantes. I thought the source question wasn't exactly the best but it was okay. I put tipis- move easily so nomadic lifestyle. Horses- travel, important possession.

Red Cloud attacked the army and miners on the Bozeman trail didn't he? I think it was something to do with the discovery of gold in Montana? They trapped the army in the Fetterman Massacre and like 80 were killed or sth. I did the Custer one though as I knew alot more about him, and about his seventh Cavalry in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

I agree about vigilantes - that was the toughest part of the exam for me; I spoke about how some marshalls like Wyatt Earp were corrupt and perpetuated violence caused by brothels as they owned them. Vigilantes dealt with them and people grew to fear them, because federal judges only toured around the western communities, so they were hardly ever there. But yeah, not enough for 9 marks at all xD I just talked about the Californian Gold rush with dates and statistics and the dates for Abilene and Dodge City just to get in a bit more historical knowledge!

Ikr about the source - It was a bit odd. I said that they lived together in communities as all the tipis were close together, and that they moved around, living a nomadic lifestyle as there are many horses and a person was mounting a horse. D Idk what else you could have put tbh.

Reply 7

Adeel Ali

3

Lol @ all you guys worrying. I've failed!

Reply 8

Olmeister

12

I'm not trying to worry you guys, but if you looked at the context of the source question you would've seen that it was taken from the 1880's when all the Indians were now on the reservations. This may mean that saying they were nomadic may well be incorrect. Also, the buffalo were all but extinct at this time, as we couldn't see any from the source.

Reply 9

RebeccaHollins

for the role of Custer i wrote about how his mistakes lead to their defeat, is that right?

Reply 10

Olmeister

12

Original post by RebeccaHollins

for the role of Custer i wrote about how his mistakes lead to their defeat, is that right?

Depending On the points that you've made about his mistakes and the detail you've included, yes I would say that you've done fine

Reply 11

RiahDawson

OP

17

Original post by Olmeister

I'm not trying to worry you guys, but if you looked at the context of the source question you would've seen that it was taken from the 1880's when all the Indians were now on the reservations. This may mean that saying they were nomadic may well be incorrect. Also, the buffalo were all but extinct at this time, as we couldn't see any from the source.

Is this the time before of after horses and weapons were taken away from the Indians? Pretty sure there were horses for a while longer But they did get taken away and Indians couldn't trade Horses anymore. Well i also put they lived in big bands as lots of people in the picture But that was pretty vague.

Reply 12

M463

6

Original post by RiahDawson

Is this the time before of after horses and weapons were taken away from the Indians? Pretty sure there were horses for a while longer But they did get taken away and Indians couldn't trade Horses anymore. Well i also put they lived in big bands as lots of people in the picture But that was pretty vague.

I put about communities and being nomadic too, and besides - isn't the criteria of the inference question that you make a reasonable inference supported with detail from the source? There isn't any requirement of context or historical knowledge, so I think guessing that somebody moves around a lot because they're mounting a horse is a reasonable assumption and will get the marks. I hope so anyway, else that was an evil question!

Reply 13

RiahDawson

OP

17

Original post by M463

I put about communities and being nomadic too, and besides - isn't the criteria of the inference question that you make a reasonable inference supported with detail from the source? There isn't any requirement of context or historical knowledge, so I think guessing that somebody moves around a lot because they're mounting a horse is a reasonable assumption and will get the marks. I hope so anyway, else that was an evil question!

Yep definitely an evil question.

Reply 14

Lauren__PPP

1

Original post by Olmeister

Depending On the points that you've made about his mistakes and the detail you've included, yes I would say that you've done fine

I did exactly the same and that's what I'm worrying about also. I said he was a poor leader as he went through Wolf Mountains and not around it. He was greedy and didn't wait, etc. I really failed on that question, it was the only part I didn't revise! After the exam I realised a huge point I could have put about Custer: his role was to encourage other chiefs to win future battles with the Indians which led to their wipe out, e.g. Sand Creek Massacre. Such a shame I didn't put it :frown:

Reply 15

joddcfc

12

Any grade boundary predictions? Personally reckon I'll have got 2/4, 7/9, 9/12, 5/9 and 13/16, plus 3 for QWC so that's 39 altogether, which is probably just about an A?? Thought the exam was okay but I did better on Medicine (reckon I'll get around 42) and the coursework (48/50).

Reply 16

Lauren__PPP

1

Original post by joddcfc

Any grade boundary predictions? Personally reckon I'll have got 2/4, 7/9, 9/12, 5/9 and 13/16, plus 3 for QWC so that's 39 altogether, which is probably just about an A?? Thought the exam was okay but I did better on Medicine (reckon I'll get around 42) and the coursework (48/50).

If you double everything, e.g the coursework is out of 100... It's usually 320/410 for an A. An A* is usually about 350 :smile:

Reply 17

KtLouise0709

Yeah, well hopefully as everyone felt the same the boundaries will be low? What's annoying is that it really depends on how much you have been taught and in how much detail, as I didn't do much on red cloud or vigilantes, but oh well it's done now I suppose! I just have one exam left which is surgery so I'm going to really work for this one which will bring up the American west one

Reply 18

RiahDawson

OP

17

Original post by KtLouise0709

Yeah, well hopefully as everyone felt the same the boundaries will be low? What's annoying is that it really depends on how much you have been taught and in how much detail, as I didn't do much on red cloud or vigilantes, but oh well it's done now I suppose! I just have one exam left which is surgery so I'm going to really work for this one which will bring up the American west one

Yeah I agree that it depends on how much detail. Lucky I have 4 exams left. How do you revise history? I end up reading through the book and making notes. There isn't much information to learn about surgery though as it's a whole sources paper.