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History HL internal assessment

I am having major problems trying to decide on a topic for my History HL assessment. I'm wondering if somebody could give me an idea. And maybe a link to the criteria standards. My teacher hasnt done a great job on making it too clear to me.

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Reply 1

snorlax

basically, just pick a random paper 2 or 3 question and write about it.
my teacher had a list of about 200 different questions and he said that if a student wanted to, they could sign their name next to a question and use it.

i compared/contrasted the successes and failures of vargas and francia.
not sure where the criteria pages are on the internet, though :frown:

my teacher just copied some sheets for us

Reply 2

SapphireOfNada

hmmm if i were to do a second internal assessment i would do something about the cold war... something about the spies maybe (james bond etc lol). It's a very interesting period, and it has influenced a lot how the world is today, plus it resebles US attitude(the govt's, dont take me wrong) today

Reply 3

jcdoughty06

I did mine on the Progressive movement (USA) and it was quite easy. Just try to find something that seems somewhat interesting and fairly easy to research and you won't have any problems...

http://linskontakten.com/teachersupportmaterial.pdf
^
Helps to clear up any questions and gives sample IA's

Reply 4

Garibaldi

I would agree with Snorlax, pick a question that always comes up in Paper 2 and do a slight twist on that. I did foreign involvement in Spanish Civil War, but from a perspective of whether religion made people volunteer.

Reply 5

SapphireOfNada

very interesting topic garibaldi.. its these aspects of history that i like!
Actually i did mine on the causes of such a devastating holocaust for the Jews of Ioannina (a small town-village in Greece), i just read some fiction books that are at the same time testimonies of these people, called some survivors on the phone and talked with them.. I wanted to study why people hadnt left and the role played by the communities leader mostly

Reply 6

skillette

I dunno my teacher says to do something closer to home. like your Jews in Greece. Since I live in Utah the graders wont know much about it and wont grade it as harshly. Thanks for the link and the ideas.

Reply 7

LindyGirl

It probably would have been smart to do something on the papers, but I was so fed up with American History, that I wrote about the Maori in New Zealand (I had just visited there that summer). Anyway, honestly, just pick something you're interested in, even if it's way out there 'cause you'll do a better job writing on it.

Reply 8

Stevewu9000

you mean you havn't submitted your internal assessments?

Reply 9

Stevewu9000

hmm, yea, definitely pick a topic that'll be on the paper 1s, 2s, or 3s...trust me...it really helps...haha
I was stuck today writing about something i hardly knew about on paper one, because I had NO idea about the other two...

and yea, i did my internal assessment on the nuremberg trials...NO HELP AT ALL ON MY EXAMS...

Reply 10

ad_infinitum87

I did the British Mandate in Palestine. I wish I'd done something a little more relevant to the syllabus though, as I suspect it would have helped me on Papers 2 and 3. I could have stabbed the people I heard say, after the exam, 'I wrote my IA on that topic!' >.<! lol.

-Becs

Reply 11

kilwag

my teacher advised the whole group to investigate some local problem since then it is much easier to access a lot of historical sources...i completely surprised him by choosing to analyse the influence of breweries on the economy of 17th century Crown Prussia!! :biggrin:

It turned out to be a great laugh and a succesfull essay on indistrial history in the end :smile:

Reply 12

DanMed

I did mine on:

"To what extent was the United Fruit Company influential to the overthrow of the established Guatemalan government by American-organized forces in the year 1954?"

It seems like a very obscure topic, which it is, but it had a lot of tie-ins and influences in major events that happened later (El Che, Domino Effect and the such). That seems like the best combination.

Good luck!

Reply 13

shakes1327

I was just assigned that IA today. I doubt I can be much help to Skillete, but perhaps someone else on this board could help me out?

I have to do my IA on Canadian history. I was going to do something to do with Japanese Internment during WW2, which is a pretty common topic, but something I'm definitely passionate about. My teacher warned me that it's a common topic and that I need to be careful not to get too "cheesy" (his words, not mine :p:

). In other words, not to write a paper that just concludes that Japanese internment was bad. Of course, that certainly isn't my intention, but I'm worried that that's where I might end up.

Any suggestions on where to focus on Japanese internment and what questions I should be using to avoid becoming "cheesy" would be much appreciated. Also, if I can't find a way to make this topic work, I might just change it altogether. Any topic ideas pertaining to Canadian history would also be much appreciated. :smile:

Reply 14

annandale

Is Gandhi overrated?

That's my topic for next year. I am thinking of changing it doing something "withing the region." So I might pick something about Cold War. But the Gandhi topic has some potential too. What do you guyz think of it?

Reply 15

LindyGirl

Shakes, Select a small piece to analyze, ie the effect of the internement on the moral of the generation, or the value of religion within camps...or...well...I know ZERO about this time period, especially in Canada, so I'm making this all up, but you get the idea. The more specific your topic is, the more likely you are to be analytical (Even with a focused point, the word limit is TOUGH!), and make it an aspect of the situation that you relate to.

Good luck!

Reply 16

Monii

i'm doing mine on the consequences of the nazi occupation of prague on the charles university :smile:

Reply 17

maneetchoksi

hey..i was just wondering are quotes included in the word count? I know for the Extended Essay they are, but my teacher's unsure for the Internal Assessment. Thanx

Reply 18

Switzerland

maneetchoksi

hey..i was just wondering are quotes included in the word count? I know for the Extended Essay they are, but my teacher's unsure for the Internal Assessment. Thanx

Unfortunately quotes are included in the word count. Unless you haven't done so already, when you reference your quotes, footnote the author etc. instead of including it in your text, decreases the amount of words. Good luck!! :smile:

Reply 19

LindyGirl

maneetchoksi

hey..i was just wondering are quotes included in the word count? I know for the Extended Essay they are, but my teacher's unsure for the Internal Assessment. Thanx

If you're using a long document, you can make it an appendix and reference it, but careful - IB is not required to read appendicies, so don't make it vital info.

In other subjects, like English A1, you can actually footnote the quotes to save on word counts...definitely had to do that for the EA! :smile: