SURVEY: Fall 2009 (High School experience with history classes, positive or negative learning experience?
How much reading per week? What kind of exams? How much writing? Etc.)
Selected student comments:
1) U. S. history was useless, my teacher would give us handouts that coordinated with the book and fill
in the blanks. He didn’t check the answers…
2) Some m.c., true or false, and short answer. I would study an hour the night before class.
3) Not very much writing, I didn’t have a research paper and no essays.
4) Usually it was just dates & times…Not much reading 5 pages a week tops.
5) M.C. matching, T/F. Study guides & notes. Studied them for about a half hour. No essays, not a
whole lot of writing.
6) Minimal writing. One or two research papers. No essays.
7) Very little writing and 1 research paper that I remember, just a lot of fill in the blank handouts.
8) A lot of m.c. & fill in the blank… We didn’t have essays.
9) Tests were mostly m.c. with some fill in the blank and one writing question. Most students and
myself would cram 5-10 minutes beforehand.
10) I usually didn’t study, I just payed attention in class.
11) I was a good experience it was just easy because my teacher was my football coach so he took it easy
on us… No writing, just projects & review questions.
12) No reading, not enough books for everyone. And all notes were written on board and that’s what we
had to do… A study guide was provided with exact questions as on the test… No writing, no
papers/essays, no assignments. All grade was based on attendance and tests. Just copy notes exactly
as they appeared on overhead.
13) Usually m.c. I liked using study guides because usually all of the answers were there.
14) We used m.c. and I just looked up all the vocab words.
15) We took m.c. and short answer tests. I usually just looked over the study guides, along with names
and dates. Not a whole bunch of writing… Not really any essays. We did a lot of worksheets and
projects.
16) We had m.c. exams and I studied our notes and study materials. We hardly ever had to write any
papers or essays. We had review sheets for assignments.
17) We really didn’t have any research papers, we never wrote essays. The only assignment we had was
to read pages at home. M.C. were the tests used. What I did to prepare was use flash cards.
18) My history teacher was also the football coach that should pretty much sum it up right there.
19) I really enjoy history, so it was a positive experience for sure. Our class did a lot of discussions and
had bubble sheet, m.c. tests. I didn’t really read at all in high school. We had unit tests on bubble
sheets that consisted of m.c. and T/F questions. I didn’t really study for them, but did pretty well. I
can’t remember doing any essays. [Dropped]
20) I didn’t really write very much in history. No papers or essays, mostly just short answer questions.
21) M.C., short answer, essay. Just read the book for a little bit.
22) M.C., T/F, matching. I just crammed the night before.
23) We rarely wrote papers and never had to write very long papers…. We only had to read around five
to ten pages a week.
24) Negative learning experience because I don’t remember much of what I learned. Probably 10-15
pages per week.
25) M.C., matching, T/F. I memorized study guides. Never papers. Worksheets with fill in the blank
questions mostly.
26) I don’t feel the teachers put enough effort into making it interesting. [F student]
27) I went to class… that’s positive. No reading what so ever. M.C. Carni Day—in school study
activity. Nope [no writing at all]. [F student]
28) M.C., T/F and short answers. I didn’t really study that much, just reviewed notes day before. Not a
lot of writing, we did not have a research paper, and didn’t really have essays either. For homework
we did worksheets.
29) We really didn’t read, just mostly work. We usually had m.c. and open response questions as our
exams. [F]
30) Mostly m.c. and short answer. I never did anything in particular to study, aside from reading the
material.
31) One teacher was/is a politician and spent more time gathering votes and hitting on girls… M.C.,
short answer, short essay. Cram the night before over chapter… All writing done within 10-15 min.
32) Usually m.c. and sometimes we had maps to illustrate. Almost no writing….. I don’t think I ever
wrote an essay in a history class.
33) M.C. just studied from the packet we were given. None [writing], no essays or papers, just a chapter
packet.
34) My teacher was the wrestling coach, and as a result I can honestly say I learned very little… Not
very much reading, maybe 10 pages a week.
35) We took notes on a projector and always had plenty of time to write and that probably didn’t help us
learn how to take our own notes in college. Not very much reading…. Probably 10-15 pages a week.
36) Not much reading was assigned… Not much writing, 1 research paper, and no essays as far as
assignments given were usually worksheets.
37) Probably ten pages max, so I’d say slim to none. M.C. with short answer questions too. I never
prepared for the tests, I just showed up and took them. We had no essays or research projects. We
just had worksheets that they handed out.
38) M.C., T/F, and matching. Looked over notes, memorizing, honestly didn’t have to study much.
Didn’t do a ton of writing…hardly any essays.
39) Negative, I never studied because I didn’t really like history. Zero reading. M.C. & essay. Just sat
in class and listened.
40) History in high school was extremely boring for me. The class was very dull… Not a lot of writing
was done. No essays. Our homework was a lot of fill in the blank papers.
41) M.C. tests, honestly, I didn’t study much in high school Actually, I don’t remember any assignments
that we had other than simple Q/A sheets.
42) I didn’t read at all. T/F, M.C., short answers, essay, fill in the blank. Just read through notes taken
in class and in class reviews.
43) It was positive because the teacher did other learning styles other than just having us copy notes.
Maybe 3-10 pages of reading per week. Everything was mainly multiple choice. We did not have
research papers or essays in history. [Dropped]
44) M.C., matching, T/F and essay. I would study and look over the notes and the book the day before
the test. We didn’t do very much writing… Our assignments were usually to read, take notes, and do
a worksheet.
45) History in high school was easy to do minimal work and studying to pull off a good grade. Multiple
choice tests given were too easy and I don’t feel like the classes prepared me for college level…
There was never a lot of writing. One of my three classes had an essay section of the test… I’ve
never had a research paper in a history class. [Dropped]
46) I was mostly m.c. and short answer. I would study for them using the study guides provided.
47) Not very much writing other than note taking…. I don’t like reading and we had a lot of reading for
homework, so I struggled some.
48) Always M.C. and we usually go a study guide to go thru. The only “history” paper I remember
writing was on Roe v. Wade.
49) We had M.C. and I would just look over my notes. I think was probably only read bout 10 t0 15
pages.
50) Hardly any reading, if we had any.
51) High school teacher was clueless, spent more time on his basketball rosters than actual teaching. Not
very much reading… Multiple choice dribble. Honestly, it was fairly easy to ace the tests if you did
the chapter post-reading tests, most of the questions were word for word from them. Absolute nil
[writing] All my teachers were rather adamant against it, except _________, who had us write a 3page essay.
52) History in high school was too boring. I had a hard time paying attention. The teacher didn’t care.
They were worried about coaching more than teaching. M.C. via study guides over content. Exact
questions on the test were often found on the study guide.
53) I hardly remember any writing, I actually can’t recall a single written assignment. M.C. and
matching, I studied for these by cram memorization and then forgot the information almost
immediately. The way history had been taught is by throwing a packet at me and telling me to fill in
the blanks.
54) We did not do very much reading at all, maybe 10 pages a week… Fill in the blank and m.c.
[Dropped]
55) M.C. I had study guides. No writing in history. I didn’t enjoy it very much. I don’t feel like I
learned anything worthwhile & certainly nothing that grabbed my attention. [Dropped]
56) I didn’t learn much because I didn’t find it interesting or fun. It was boring! I personally never read,
I just listened to class discussions. [F]
57) Reading wasn’t really necessary, class covered everything… M.C., use notes to prepare.
58) Fill in the blank & M.C. Not too much writing…. Mostly worksheets out of book for assignments.
[Dropped]
59) I hated high school, no challenges, no motivation. Negative, I’m not very good at History 1) because
I’m not very interested in it 2) because I’ve never had any good teachers to teach it. My high school
teachers would rather talk about things in the news the whole class period or about prom or
whatever. [Dropped]