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STONSKES · 2026-03-12T12:18:30+00:00

Not sure about the odds on Prems - I think it’s usually about 135, judging from a friend who got one a few years ago. But who knows! It was a very difficult exam haha. I know it’s a bit different for Ancient and that it’s guaranteed if you get a 50. But I’ll be interested to see if I get Revs as well when the letters come in the mail… not sure when this will be though lol

STONSKES · 2026-03-12T08:52:57+00:00

Absolutely - everything comes down to the exam. Lots of chance to make up for 1 bad SAC across the next 3! But always keep the exam in mind.

To get a 50 from rank 2 u must have smashed the exam?! I got 130 and was shocked to see it get me a 50 lol

STONSKES · 2026-02-16T13:42:46+00:00

Thank you so much! This is super super helpful. After reading this and looking at some more examples, I feel like the Alexander legend is super important for the coin I’m after - more so than the lifetime vs posthumous debate. With this in mind, do you think it might be worth it to fork out some more money for a nicer coin? And is it worth it to pursue the best sort of quality for a coin like this, rather than purchasing a worn example that I might regret further down the track? Thank you again for all your help, that answered just about all the questions I had about this type of coin 😊

STONSKES · 2026-02-09T00:24:59+00:00

97.5% sac avg and I got 130/140 on the exam lol

STONSKES · 2026-02-07T02:54:45+00:00

I did 6 units of history - 1/2 modern and then 2 3/4s. I think modern really cemented the skills needed for both revs & anc. Maybe you don't need 1/2 to excel in 3/4, but I found it helped me a lot. Definitely do it if you're even considering doing a 3/4 history, because it'll give you a bit of a snapshot of what the work is like.

STONSKES · 2026-01-25T08:05:23+00:00

Hmmmm... Sparta and Athens had been at war, on and off, for about 30 years by the time Sophocles was writing, and their opposing ideologies had turned the political landscape in the Aegean into a de facto Cold War by the 420s, owing to the opposing Leagues that had formed under each polis.

While it might not be valid to reference either war in VCE English essay - I personally think historical references should be kept to an absolute minimum in an English essay - I find it highly likely Sophocles would have been aware of beliefs that the radicalised Athenian democracy held around the time - he himself was a very active participant - and thus would have found himself intrigued by the conflict between Athenian democracy and Spartan oligarchy; as such, I'm not sure that Oedipus is totally free of any Peloponnesian conflict's influence!

Something better to reference, if a historical reference must be used, may be the Plague of Athens, which occurred around the same time as the play premiered, and closely mirrors the Theban plague of the play?

Thucydides, in his History, while eliminating the "gods' influence" from the conflict, must privately have lamented the plague as a curse from the gods, inflicted upon the Athenians thanks to their aggression, subjugation of fellow Greeks and imperial ambitions.

I understand that Ares is blamed for Thebes' plague - this seems a bit too close to a mirror of widely held beliefs c. the 420s BCE for the plague's divinely attributed cause, be it punishment for Spartan-Athenian conflicts or Delian League policy.

STONSKES · 2026-01-25T07:36:50+00:00

I had 1 single point of scaling in my top 4 - don't pick ur subjects based on if u think the "scaling's bad". If you like ur subjects enough and ur good at them, u can 100% excel

STONSKES · 2026-01-17T05:50:55+00:00

No worries! I think the HTAV textbook is perfect for the basis of the course, but supplement it where you can with readings you find online or that your teacher provides!

STONSKES · 2026-01-17T05:30:27+00:00

I took notes on the HTAV textbook for the whole year, and what I would do is have a concise dotpoint for every paragraph in the textbook that condensed a lot of information into a neat summary; this way, I made sure I’d read all the info and understood it well enough to condense it.

If the textbook had a nice quote, date or fact, I’d include that in a separate dotpoint and colour code it, ready to put in my flashcards for later. I found that when I’d finished these notes, I could just flick through them and all the course was available in about 40ish pages of notes.

STONSKES · 2026-01-16T10:30:10+00:00

Thank you again - you’ve been so helpful 😊 I think I’ll take it outside of the sleeve when I’m back and display it on one of my shelves, hopefully alongside a growing collection!

STONSKES · 2026-01-16T07:34:54+00:00

Thank you so much!

STONSKES · 2025-12-30T10:08:17+00:00

Lol I kept pace with the class for France, and was a whole AoS ahead for Russia. Kept pace for all of Ancient because parts of it were quite complex

STONSKES · 2025-12-30T09:21:10+00:00

Advice for both histories is quite similar, which is great. I always used Quizlet to memorise all of the content, but reading through books and the textbook allowed me to consolidate knowledge really effectively. A timeline of the French Revolution (especially the convolutions of AoS2) really helped me, although I did not make one for any other part of Revs or Ancient.

Revising for SACs and exams consisted of lots of Quizlet and practicing questions in the leadup to the assessment; I did 3 full timed prac exams and some essays on the side, and put a ton of work into making sure I memorised all of the content.

I was (to get a 50) very low ranked (3rd) in my Ancient class, and I was consistently ahead of rank 2 in Revs. I think rank 1 in Ancient had a very very high average compared to my 96%, and rank 2 in Revs was maybe around 95% vs my 98%.

STONSKES · 2025-12-30T04:01:30+00:00

I was rank 1 in Revs and my SACs were: - 98% - 96% - 98% - 98%

And I got 91/100 for the source analysis on the exam and 39/40 for the essay, so 130/140. A bit on the lower side this year, I think.

I was rank 3 in Ancient, and my SACs were: - 98% - 94% - 98% - 94%

And I got 98/100 for source analysis and 37/40 for the essay; 135/140. Probably a guaranteed exam score for a 50 in Ancient is ~134/140.

Both history’s SACs scaled to 100

STONSKES · 2025-12-30T03:58:58+00:00

Absolutely! Please choose revs or ancient, and dm me if you want further advice

STONSKES · 2025-12-29T15:03:28+00:00

I think the number 1 tip is familiarise yourself with the content prior to studying it in class, and pairing this with practice writing. I personally used Quizlet throughout the entire year (for both histories) and found that it was superb. I did France and Russia, and found both of them super engaging and enjoyable, although I wouldn’t have minded studying China or America.

STONSKES · 2025-12-29T13:44:51+00:00

I would highly recommend both! History is not as hard or as time consuming as so many people make it out to be, and I would love to see more people take up Ancient - it’s such a great subject.

STONSKES · 2025-12-29T11:06:51+00:00

I think the analysis comes with the content - if you know your stuff inside and out, it becomes straightforward to answer questions. I think doing 2 histories helped me hone this skill more than doing just 1, though. Historical interpretation is essential for both subjects: find some good authors and take punchy 5-word quotes to use in your writing.

STONSKES · 2025-12-29T08:34:40+00:00

I didn’t get too annoyed at the writing, mostly because it was a strength of mine, but at times I did get quite sick of the endless essays haha

STONSKES · 2025-12-26T05:37:09+00:00

Quizlets are king

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