11 replies to this topic

[chocolatecereal121]

well, in social studies my class has a paper to write and we have to write a diary page about being a citizen in germany and now i have a question, what do you think was life was like as a citizen in Germany during WWII?

I AM SO CONFUSED!

[MrJohnDClare]

This article tells you the events of the war from Germany's point of vew.

This webpage has a little on the German Home Front

For great detail, read this google book on the German Home Front.

If I were doing this, I would add a section on the Dresden bombings.

[jsmith613]

I did this question and got 3/10

what SHOULD i include

i included;
- youths
- women
- minorities

(its from History OCR B - German Core Study - 2003)

please help

[MrJohnDClare]

I would guess that your problem was not so much what you included, but how you used that information.

If you are anything like my own pupils, you will simply have answered the wrong question.
SO... did you answer the question by writing about what life was like in nazi germany for the youth, for the women, for the minorities?
If you did, there's no wonder you got a low mark.

Look again at the question.
It asks you how did life change with the coming of WWII.
That's a very different question to what was life like in Nazi germany.
For a start, it's going to be about more groups than youth, women and minorities.
EVERYONE'S life in Nazi germany was affected by the war.
What about all those ordinary people who suffered the 1000 bomber raids. What about the people who suffered the firestorms in Dresden? What about all those ordinary people who starved at the end of the war because of the food shortages? What about all those people in eastern germany who were conquered by the Soviet Army - what happened to them? What about all the refugees who FLED from the Soviet Army into western Germany? What about all those teenagers who, at the start of the war, collected scrap metal for the war effort, and at the end of the war were drafted into the army to be slughtered by the advancing Soviet and Allied forces? The war affected germany hugely, and there were many many ways and many many groups affected by it.
If you wanted to research this topic, this thread will help you find out about the home front in germany during WWII.


BUT LOOK AGAIN at the question.
It doesn't just say 'What was life like in wwii for the german people?"
It says 'how did life change?'

So to answer this you need - for each group - to say:
1. what their life was like before the war
2. what their life was like during the war
3. HOW things were different


BUT LOOK AGAIN at the question.
It doesn't even say "how did life change"
It says "HOW FAR did life change" = 'how much', 'to what extent'

So to answer this, you need - for each group - to say:
1. (as above) what life was like before the war and what life was like during the war
2. HOW MUCH things were different during the war than before it - HOW BIG A CHANGE had taken place - each paragraoh needed to end with a sentence which started something like: 'And this was a HUGE (or 'minor', or 'earth-shattering', or 'small' etc) change because...' and then explain why you consider it to be such.


Does this help you at all?
To be fair to you, it's a VERY sophisticated and difficult question, especially if all this wasn't explained to you before you tackled it.

Get back if it doesn't - I'm only guessing.

[Mr. D. Bryant]

I did this question and got 3/10
what SHOULD I include?
please help

If your teacher has not had time to write a comment on your answer, why not ask him or her how to do better next time? Very few teachers, however busy, mind pupils asking how to do better.

Don't worry that you haven't got a higher mark this time. Now you know what to do to produce a better answer. It's a process and very few students arrive fully ready at the start of the course.

I had hoped to obtain some information from the OCR website. However, it is still not working properly. Hopefully OCR will be able to sort this out soon.

[jsmith613]

So to answer this you need - for each group - to say:
1. what their life was like before the war
2. what their life was like during the war
3. HOW things were different

but the question is how far did the COMING of WWII change life in germany.

Why should i be talking about their life during the war?

[jsmith613]

as its asking how far did life change then if should be talking about that time period in general (1933-1939) and not beyond Therefore talking about the roles of women, youths and the persectuation of minotorities should get some marks.

I admit i did not say what their role was like before so that must have lost me some marks

[MrJohnDClare]

but the question is how far did the COMING of WWII change life in germany.
Why should i be talking about their life during the war?

If you were aged 50 and happily married with two children and i asked you: 'And how did your wedding change your life?' you would NOT talk solely about the time leading up your wedding day, on the grounds that that was when you got wed and anything after that is a separate subject.
Similarly, when you are asked how the coming of war changed life in Nazi Germany I can assure you that your teacher did not mean your thinking to end on 1 September 1939.

The OCR specification specifically gives the dates 1933-1945 for this part of your study, and your teacher is addressing the focus point: 'How did the coming of war change life in Germany? - Impact of the Second World War on Germany; conversion to war economy; the Final Solution.' Thus I can say with some certainty that you were meant to address the period 1939-1945 in your essay.

as its asking how far did life change then if should be talking about that time period in general (1933-1939) and not beyond Therefore talking about the roles of women, youths and the persectuation of minotorities should get some marks.

I LIKE your ability to argue 'as.... therefore...'. You are clearly mentally able.
But the answer to your point is still no - you can be wrong, even when your line of argument is very clever!
Again, to take an analogy, if you were aged 50 and happily married with two children and i asked you: 'And how has your life changed since you were a teenager' - and ALL you did was to tell me a few anecdotes about your life as a teenager, I think I would say that you had not answered the question AT ALL.


What you are trying to do is actually to complain about the mark you gained, and to argue that you should have gained more marks for what you did.
At the moment, your answers suggest that you are not really trying to understand where you went wrong and how you might get more marks.
Am I correct?

Go back, and read what I wrote above.
Then I strongly urge you to take Mr Bryant's advice and go and have it out with your teacher.

[jsmith613]

What you are trying to do is actually to complain about the mark you gained, and to argue that you should have gained more marks for what you did.
At the moment, your answers suggest that you are not really trying to understand where you went wrong and how you might get more marks.
Am I correct?

I guess that is correct. But I am very grateful for you explanation in showing me where I went wrong. Clearly, it was my misunderstanding of the question that resulted in the poor mark i gained, but at the end of the day, it is all a learning process and I hope I wont make the same mistake again.
I spoke to some other people as well, and they commented that the question '...coming of...' means (as you correctly said) the time period of WWII, rather than the time leading up to it.
I will re-write my answer and submit it to my teacher - this will obviously be based on the advice you gave me;
i) what was life before
ii) what was if like after / during the war
iii) how big a change was it

Much thanks for yours and Mr. D. Bryant time. I very much appreciate it.

Happy New Year!

[Mr. D. Bryant]

I guess that is correct. But I am very grateful for you explanation in showing me where I went wrong. Clearly, it was my misunderstanding of the question that resulted in the poor mark i gained, but at the end of the day, it is all a learning process and I hope I wont make the same mistake again.

Exactly, a learning process which we are all taking part in, teachers as well as students/pupils. The key is to want to learn, which you obviously do, and then follow the advice given, which you are also doing. Although you were not quite right with your interpretation of this question, careful attention to what the examiners are asking is very important. Furthermore, your posts are going to help other people in the same situation.

I'm glad we could help. Thank you very much for your kind wishes and let us know if we can help you again.

[jsmith613]

I'm glad we could help. Thank you very much for your kind wishes and let us know if we can help you again.

After handing in my re-draft I received 9/10, a great improvement. This improvement reinforces my gratitude towards everyone who helped me with this question.

Much Thanks

[MrJohnDClare]

After handing in my re-draft I received 9/10

Well done - what a delightful outcome!