HIST20060: Total War: World War II

2000 word essay due during the middle of semester - worth 50%; 2 hour sit in examination - worth 50%. Additionally there is a hurdle requirement of a minimum threshold of 75% tutorial attendance - including the week one online survey.

I took this subject as a breadth and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. That said, I was very interested in the topic matter of the subject and already had a fair amount of background knowledge about World War 2 prior to taking this subject.

The lectures were delivered in the chronological order of the war and were pretty straightforward. Tutorials discussed the weekly subject reader readings (both primary and secondary source documents about the war and its nature). Additionally, there were optional tutorials run by students who had previously taken this subject known as PASS (peer assisted study sessions). I attended several of these sessions and found them to be pretty helpful, especially when it came to examination preparation. Although it is possible to do well without attending PASS, I would recommend attendance to these sessions as it allows for extra time to discuss matters that were missed during the weekly tutorials.

The mid semester assessment was a speech analysis that was handed in electronically. It required a fair bit of research along with some deep analysis of the selected speech. It also requires an understanding of the idea of Total War and its application.

The examination was 25% multiple choice, 25% short essay and 50% long essay in a 2 hour span. The multiple choice was on various facts of world war 2, and a list of important words was given to students around week 10 - 11 to allow us to prepare for this. The short essay required us to analyze a short primary source document from a selection of several source documents. The documents were selected from the subject reader. The long essay required us to write an essay expressing their own opinion and providing evidence towards a certain question/topic about world war 2. A list of essay questions/topics were also handed to us well in advance of the examination, however only a select few actually appeared on the examination.
I would like to stress that this is no pushover subject. To do well, it is essential that you read the subject reader, and thus get the most out of tutorials. The reader was also invaluable for examination preparation - in particular, the short and long essay. I also highly recommend that you read Total War II: A New History. Although, lectures do indeed cover most of what you need to know about World War II, the multiple choice section of the final examination may encompass information that can only be found via reading Total War II: A New History.

Yes, with screen capture.

Steven Welch

No

4.5 out of 5

Essential: Total War Subject Reader (Note: the subject reader was also available free on the LMS)
Recommended: World War II. A New History by Evan Mawdsley

1 x 1.5hr lecture and 1 x 1hr tutorial each week (In week one, there was an online survey instead of a tutorial class)

Semester 1, 2015

H1