The Hindu Business Line : Master those maps

Web sites can help students relish History and Geography. You can stop groaning when you see those maps or dates, because the Net can help you remember and apply facts better.

NOBODY really likes to be tested, true. But then exams are exams and they have to be written, passed and got on with.

While subjects like Mathematics and Science seem to have quite a few online help lines, history and the other humanities subjects aren't also lagging behind.

Mapping it accurately

Geography certainly won't be a complete stranger to students who have solved the papers available at the http://sify.com/education/, a site where geography question papers for ICSE and CBSE students are on hand but it takes ages to download.

Probably the most challenging aspect of the subject is marking the maps.

Regular practice is the key here. http://www.edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension_ Geography_153_1.html will take searchers to a site meant for children but it has many printable maps of India that can be used for marking the various geographical regions and serve for great `map practice'.

While the maps available at the local stationers may serve the purpose, the accuracy of the diagrams on the sites is faultless.

The site http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxindex.htm has printable versions of maps of various countries of the world.

And http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcindia.htm has a good printable version of a political map that can be downloaded and compared against the blank maps worked on.

Unlike the political maps found in the Atlas, this one isn't confusing with all the latitudes and longitudes marked. Its clarity makes it seem friendlier somehow.

The areas are demarcated with different, easy to distinguish, colours that might just help one remember the positions of the states better.

Also look up http://geography.about.com/

gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=

http://lcweb2.loc.gov

/frd/cs/intoc.html, which is a site that has links to all aspects of India, geographically and historically, like the Principal Regions, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Himalayas, the peninsula, offshore islands, coasts and borders, rivers, climate, earthquakes, population, structure and dynamics, population projections, population and family planning policies from the library of Congress.

All in all, great resource material.

Historically right

The site http://sify.com/itihaas/fullstory.php?id=13221083 takes students through a short rerun of that all important topic of the Indus valley civilization, a must in every history paper. But do not try to go through it just before the exam.

Read it a month or so before so that the pictures do not distract but stay in the mind to help you do better in the exams.

This is especially useful since both the ICSE and the CBSE patterns have objective-type questions.

Jayanti of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Chennai, says, "Leave nothing to chance. Study everything and read all textual matter very thoroughly." In such a context, the Sify Itihass section is very functional since it has the main events presented in a very tight and concise manner.

Check out the Medieval Section and the Modern India section. The information here is very basic. Do not expect an analysis of the events, instead the presentation will help one quickly refresh facts.

For those wanting to look up information on Independent India, http://sify.com/itihaas/independent_india/index.php is the site.

Quiz lovers can look up http://sify.com/news_info/itihaas/quiz/index.php

Online quizzes are fun and can help one remember important points better.

Especially useful for group work either at school or home or a quick run through in class since they review via active recall rather than just passive re-reading.

Solved papers

Pramilla, Samuel Anderson Girls Day High School, says, "The questions papers of the previous years are important indicators of question trends and have to be carefully examined."

Look up http://learning.indiatimes.com/test_papers/icse/history/2000/hqp.htm for solved history and geography papers while http://learning.indiatimes.com/test_papers/papers/solvedpapers.html is a haven of solved papers that can be easily accessed and downloaded.

Kamala Vishwanathan, vice-principal, Sri Sankara Vidyashramam Matriculation Higher Secondary School, says the CBSE syllabus is very `application-oriented' and the questions are usually set from within the syllabus.

She offers some advice: in case the application questions seem tough, then students must move on to the text-based ones without wasting time.

Finally, keep your teacher's advice in mind about first reading the question paper clearly.

How the question is worded is crucial here.

Look out for terms like discuss, contrast, trace, justify, evaluate, critique and answer accordingly.

Picture by K.V. Srinivasan

paromita@thehindu.co.in

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