william55 Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 hey guys..i have made the most devastating mistake ever...instantly as I saw one of the question is about "Discuss the ideology of one left-wing ruler of a single-party state"..Hitler popped up my mindnaturally, i wrote 4 pages on Hitler and his ideology. After the exam, whilst i was discussing with my peers, i realized i have made the worst mistake you could possibly imagine..anyone of you know what will happen to the paper? would i score 0? How would the examiner mark this?sigh..i am still in misery... 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruan Chun Xian Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 The Nazi was National Socialist, so in principle it was left-wing. So...technically Hitler was leader of a left-winged party. What I find confusing is, was this an actual IB real exam question? I'm surprised that IB would use such rather wishy-washy qualifier such as left-wing and right-wing because it can be rather ambiguous.It definitely won't get 0, I'm just not sure where the emphasis are in this question. If it's the ability to recognise which country are left and right winged and the examiner (or the markscheme)specifically say that Germany was right-winged, then you'd score rather poorly. But if the emphasis was on the ideology and you covered that well then you might not do so badly. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PositiveVibes Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Hitler was right-wing. My friend made the opposite mistake (answering a right-wing question with Lenin!) I think that unless you argue convincingly for why he's a left wing then they would probably give you very low marks since you misunderstood the question. Sorry. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
soadquake981 Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Yeah, I thought it was really sleazy how IB wrote two questions that required you to determine whether a dictator was right-wing or left-wing. I could have written a great essay on the conditions in Cuba that allowed Castro to rise to power, but I couldn't because I wasn't sure whether Castro was left-wing or not.Instead, I made up stuff about Hitler's use of propaganda. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PositiveVibes Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 How can you not know if they're right or left wing? Anyone who's communist is obviously left wing.. Anyone who crushed the communists are right wing. I've seen plenty IB question asking you about left or right wing folks. I'm sorry, I just thought it was common knowledge, my twelve year old nephew laughed when I told him my friend thought Lenin was rightist.. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetnsimple786 Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Well I thought that Communist countries were left-winged and anti-Comm dictators would be right winged, but my teacher says that's not how it's determined, PositiveVibes. It's based on the ideology regarding the role of the government. I believe my teacher said that those who want the government to control more things and have more influence in people's lives are leftist, and the opposite would be to the right. I always associated Communism with left and fascism with right, but Mussolini was actually leftist? According to my teacher, anyways. I agree with Hien that it's ambiguous, and I don't know which characteristic is the defining one which decides if a leader or party is left or right. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PositiveVibes Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Well I thought that Communist countries were left-winged and anti-Comm dictators would be right winged, but my teacher says that's not how it's determined, PositiveVibes. It's based on the ideology regarding the role of the government. I believe my teacher said that those who want the government to control more things and have more influence in people's lives are leftist, and the opposite would be to the right. I always associated Communism with left and fascism with right, but Mussolini was actually leftist? According to my teacher, anyways. I agree with Hien that it's ambiguous, and I don't know which characteristic is the defining one which decides if a leader or party is left or right.Of course it's not as simple as communist and anti-communist, but it's an easy way to remember it for exams and such - Mussolini's early ideology was leftist but his regime was right wing. Nazism too had early trends of leftism but the rule as a whole was rightist. The determination of a ruler as right or left isn't any different from how we classify the politicians we have today. I'm sure you can relate the terms of right and left according to the political system of your nation. In that way the socialists are left and the conservatives etc. are right. Same for rulers. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetnsimple786 Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Definitely, but from what I understand our leaders aren't purely left or purely right. I can name things that are stereotypical of leaders to the left or to the right, but I think I simplified it in my mind too much, and I only realized this because my friend may or may not have done the same thing as your friend. She confused the two. Although the OP didn't not know... just haste. Hope everything turns out okay. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PositiveVibes Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 I hope it turns out good too Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss_Metaphor Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 I totally agree with the above comments- the question was pretty vague and the definitions can be a little too open to interpretation. To a certain extent Hitler was somewhat left wing- in terms of the party name. Yet, he is usually defined as right wing. In terms of ideology, well, it's all open to interpretation and you can't be 100% this or that. If you're in History HL then you've had another two papers and the internal assessment- it's all marked on a curve so it should even out your score. Have faith, you've made the effort and hopefully something will good will come out of it! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vahl Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 As far as I can tell from former mark schemes you'll be graded from an upper boundary of 15 or the like .. so you still have a fair chance when you think of it.I agree that it can cause a little confusion to know that his party was called Nazionale Sozialistische ArbeiterPartei (PRETTY leftist name, sorry for my crappy German spelling), but generally he was just rightist when it really came to it. Opposing communism and keeping the worker's pay down. Btw he actually said himself that he was neither, comm. or cap. but going in the third direction, whatever that might be according to the poor Lunatic Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikki02 Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 When I saw paper 2, I was stuck for a couple of minutes. Obviously, anyone could write the Hitler and use of propaganda question... i was not sure enough about the right wing and left wing stuff, so I didn't do that. For a second question I had no idea what to choose. I finally wrote about the total and limited war.... Im so happy paper 3 was so much better. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
soadquake981 Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Well, in my defense, my history teachers never explicitly stated which dictators were left- and right-wing. I guess they thought it was obvious too, haha. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimii Posted May 12, 2010 Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 omg! i almost did that and then I wasn't sure if he was left wing or right wing so I picked Hitler's quote question as well ahahah Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruan Chun Xian Posted May 13, 2010 Report Share Posted May 13, 2010 Personally, I think for that question, your safest bet would have been to discuss Stalin's ideology. That said, I don't think the crux of the question should be whether you can recognise left- or right-winged. In theory it's easy to determine, but in reality, most politicians are somewhere in the middle, leaning towards either left or right. Classification for the sake of itself doesn't get you anywhere. Personally, I think that the point is whether you can discuss their ideology, so if you did that, you should at least get some mark. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hermine0817 Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 Personally, I think for that question, your safest bet would have been to discuss Stalin's ideology. That said, I don't think the crux of the question should be whether you can recognise left- or right-winged. In theory it's easy to determine, but in reality, most politicians are somewhere in the middle, leaning towards either left or right. Classification for the sake of itself doesn't get you anywhere. Personally, I think that the point is whether you can discuss their ideology, so if you did that, you should at least get some mark.Castro would also have been a good choice, especially one can analyze a lot with his policies. Cuba is also one of the few countries that stayed communist, too. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidkong0987 Posted May 15, 2010 Report Share Posted May 15, 2010 An 8/20 means that you passed.Don't expect to pass. Hitler is no doubt right wing. So i disagree with the assertion that it is "wishy washy". Most leaders, at least the ones that are interesting candidates for an "ideology" question can be easily categorized into left or right.Usually a mistake like that would say mark out of 8/20. So you can potentially still get some marks.Sorry. And the fact that you come from a left-wing country, IB might penalize you more so you don't make that mistake again..hey guys..i have made the most devastating mistake ever...instantly as I saw one of the question is about "Discuss the ideology of one left-wing ruler of a single-party state"..Hitler popped up my mindnaturally, i wrote 4 pages on Hitler and his ideology. After the exam, whilst i was discussing with my peers, i realized i have made the worst mistake you could possibly imagine..anyone of you know what will happen to the paper? would i score 0? How would the examiner mark this?sigh..i am still in misery... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetnsimple786 Posted May 15, 2010 Report Share Posted May 15, 2010 Sorry. And the fact that you come from a left-wing country, IB might penalize you more so you don't make that mistake again..What? How is that possible? What would be the rationale for that? We're held to the same standards. Plus, would they even know what country a student comes from? All they're working with is a name and number, from what I imagine. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. C. Posted May 15, 2010 Report Share Posted May 15, 2010 Hey, don't fret.There were four of us in my school who made the same mistake - given a question on the significance of the circumstances of a country in regards to the rise to power of a right-wing ruler, we answered the question using the rise of Lenin.BIG mistake, but we've been told by our History teachers that we'll be docked marks for obvious inappropriate answer, but we will also be given credit for the knowledge that we show.We won't be getting full marks, but we won't be getting 0 either. I wouldn't worry about it, to be honest it's one out of five essays so the damage is minimal.I've learnt an extremely valuable lesson now though - Communism is left-wing! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Glau Posted May 15, 2010 Report Share Posted May 15, 2010 Yeah don't worry at all. You will not get a 0, Much higher probally. Hitler isn't really that far of from left wing, and the question isn't to clear on what defines right and left wing in that context. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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