Top 11 Tips for Effective History Revision to Succeed in the National High School Exam

Practicing past papers regularly offers the following benefits:

• Familiarity with the exam format
• Improved response time for difficult questions
• Effective time management and exam strategy
• Evaluation of your knowledge
• Better long-term retention of material

Avoid overloading with too many practice papers in a single day; limit yourself to 2 papers/day. While practicing, use a timer and take the process seriously to assess your knowledge and get used to exam conditions.

Don’t waste time on irrelevant, complex questions. Plan your practice time wisely—assign specific minutes for each subject and prepare backup plans for missed study goals. After a week or month, review your results and adjust your study schedule and goals accordingly.

To score well on the exam, students must master the fundamental knowledge required to effectively answer the questions. History is a broad subject and can be confusing due to the many events, figures, and dates. Therefore, to accurately remember the key concepts of History in Grades 11 and 12, students need a structured study approach.

Students must have a solid grasp of the core content from the Grade 12 History textbook. Since History must be precise, they should study in chronological order, linking related topics. For multiple-choice exams, the first thing students should do is to organize the entire textbook content based on the Ministry of Education's study guide. Typically, 10% of the questions are from Grade 11 material, while 90% focus on Grade 12, with no questions from Grade 10. The Grade 11 content mostly tests knowledge recall, understanding, and application, without any high-level application questions.

Historical events generally include: time, context, causes, developments, outcomes, lessons learned, and historical significance. For each specific event, chapter, or historical period, students should review summary sections to strengthen their ability to generalize knowledge and connect concepts. The most important and significant historical facts often appear in these summary sections, yet many students overlook them.

One of the biggest mistakes students make today is ‘rote learning and cramming,’ which leads to confusion between different historical events. Often, exam answers are similar, and without a solid understanding of the material, it's easy to choose the wrong option.

For example: the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the 12 days of air raids over Dien Bien Phu, or the differences between the Geneva Accords and the Paris Peace Accords. Therefore, students should make sure they remember and fully grasp the knowledge as they study to avoid careless mistakes.

To better remember important dates, stages, and document contents, you can organize them in a clear, chronological order and ask yourself why a certain document was created during a specific period.

Vietnamese history is a part of world history, so it is heavily influenced by significant external events. In exam questions, you may encounter questions that link global history with national history.

For example, understanding the victories of the Allied forces from late 1944 to mid-August 1945 will help you grasp how those victories impacted the Vietnamese Revolution (the external conditions that contributed to the success of the August Revolution in 1945)...

The “5W – 1 How” formula stands for key questions in English: What – What event occurred, When – When did the event take place, Who – Who was involved – individuals, classes, organizations, etc., Where – Where did the event happen, and How – How did the event unfold.

By applying the 5W – 1 How formula, you can clearly visualize the essential details of an event and avoid confusing it with others. However, avoid over-applying the method, as some historical events don’t require precise dates and can be understood in a more relative sense.

Event timings vary; they can be in minutes (e.g., 10:45 AM on April 30, 1975, when tanks and infantry of the Liberation Army entered Independence Palace, capturing the entire Saigon government), in seasons (e.g., Summer 1920, when Nguyễn Ái Quốc encountered Lenin’s Theses), decades, or centuries (e.g., early 20th century or late 19th century). Sometimes, relative phrases such as “in the 1920s” or “early years” are used (e.g., during the 1920s, two political trends coexisted in the Vietnamese nationalist movement: bourgeois and proletarian).

Similarly, historical event locations can be specific landmarks (e.g., Tân Trào tree, where the first unit of the Liberation Army led by Võ Nguyên Giáp began the August 1945 Revolution), military bases (e.g., Dien Bien Phu), or regions (e.g., Northern Vietnam, Southeast Asia, etc.).

Currently, History has shifted from a 180-minute essay exam to a 40-question multiple-choice test with a 50-minute time limit. However, candidates should not focus solely on events and ignore the 'Essay' section, which involves explaining, commenting, evaluating, proving, and clarifying historical events.

For instance, when discussing President Hồ Chí Minh's call for nationwide resistance against French colonialism on December 19, 1946, students should explain why the Party and Government chose this date for the call to arms, rather than another time. Of course, to 'discuss' history effectively, students must remember the details of the '5W – 1How' process (which differs from rote memorization).

During the exam, students often face time pressure and psychological stress, which can lead to memory lapses. Studying the 'Essay' section helps students retain information more deeply and ensures smoother exam performance.

Additionally, in multiple-choice exams, alongside questions testing factual knowledge, there are often questions that require reasoning and analysis, where answers are similar, often a 50/50 choice. In such cases, students must understand the material and analyze the options carefully. These types of questions are where students commonly lose points, and they serve as a way to filter and assess candidates.

In addition to self-study, you can explore various review methods such as discussing with friends, or using platforms like YouTube and Facebook to enhance your learning. This makes studying History more engaging, fun, and easier to remember. Regularly discuss with classmates or teachers to clarify any doubts, or share different problem-solving approaches.

There are numerous Facebook groups and forums dedicated to History. For example, the 'Vietnam History' page, with 32,000 members, regularly posts about Vietnam’s wars, presenting the content in a softer, more approachable manner than traditional textbooks.

On YouTube, there are many channels dedicated to History, offering content in audio or video formats to help you better memorize events and historical figures. Watching historical battles, images, and key figures will certainly be more memorable and easier to visualize compared to dry textbook knowledge. Additionally, the national educational TV channels also air History programs that are both informative and engaging.

Finally, regularly assess your progress with timed mock exams. Take the tests seriously, check your own answers, and ask teachers to grade them. Identifying mistakes and gaps in your knowledge will help you improve each day.

Using mind maps in teaching new knowledge encourages students to learn actively and enthusiastically, allowing every student to contribute to building the lesson. With the unique combination of 'knowledge + art,' it becomes a fun and creative daily activity for students, as well as a source of joy for teachers and parents witnessing their children's learning achievements.

This method also develops the individual abilities of each student, not just intellectually (what to draw or write on the mind map), but also in organizing knowledge (reviewing past lessons to select key points), artistic skills (combining drawings, writing, and colors), and applying knowledge from textbooks to real-life situations. In History, this approach proves especially effective due to the large amount of content and difficult-to-remember facts. Learning through mind maps will help you retain information longer and think more scientifically.

In the National High School Exam, confusing questions and tricky answer choices can easily cause panic. Therefore, arranging the sequence of events is crucial.

Once you become familiar with these sequences, you’ll no longer feel confused by similar-looking answers. Knowing the correct order of key events will help you study faster and retain the material longer.

You need to clearly distinguish between objectives, strategies, and meanings of each battle. While this may seem simple, during the exam, you may become confused as these concepts often overlap and can lead to mix-ups.

Therefore, in this final review period, you should focus on understanding the key aspects of each event and internalize them. When you're well-prepared, no matter how challenging the exam questions are, you'll be able to handle them with ease.