Calling all those who did well in English Advanced (1 Viewer)

[O( '_' )O]

Um, just wondering for those that did well in English Advanced and Extension last year or even now...what did you guys do to prepare for the HSC in the last coming weeks. I'm one of those people that don't enjoy doing englsih which means that i end up having a lack of enthusiam for it..especially when it comes to writing responses...how would you guys think about changing that around?

 

[hipsta_jess]

im only in yr 12 now, but im doing fairly well in adv.
what exactly is your problems so we can try and combat it? is it that you just cant string an essay together, or do you not understand your texts or what?

 

[O( '_' )O]

probably more the former, but my lack of enthusiam is because I have this reallly bad teacher compared to last year and thier teaching may have demotivated me...

well in a response, i get this mental block and I have this stack of notes but I don't know how to go about learning the things I have to know...

what AOS and modules are you doing?

 

[hipsta_jess]

AoS- Changing Worlds (core, Ender's Game)
Module A- In the Wild (The Explorers/The Tempest)
Module B- Critical Study (Citizen Kane)
Module C- Telling the Truth (Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters, supplementary material Sylvia Plath)

 

[hipsta_jess]

My teacher suggested this method for learning stuff. I will uses technological changes as an example, but it is really easily adapted to whatever texts you do.
1) Draw some concentric circles
2) In the center place what you are talking about (technological changes)
3) In the first circle put a sentence or two explaining technological changes
4) In the 2nd circle put the impact of these changes
5) In the third, put the technique
6) In the fourth place a supporting quote

 

[Frigid]

have you read my thread yet?
it's on top of this forum, titled "studying - by Frigid"... should help a bit

 

[Misturi]

Originally posted by Frigid
have you read my thread yet?
it's on top of this forum, titled "studying - by Frigid"... should help a bit

geez Frigid, maybe you should put an advertisement to that thread on your siggy, in BIG BOLD letters!

 

[Skunkylicious]

what modules are you doing? i ended up only studying the night before the english trials and ended up with 102/105, but i enjoy english. i find it easier to already have a plan of what i wnat to write about. so for example in my modules
emma/clueless- i focused on context, themes, characters and language techniques
king lear- themes, characters and dramatic techniques
frontline- linking the additional material really well with the episodes of frontline
change- a prepared introduction and key sentences
if you already have planned introductions and key sentences they are really easy to adapt to the question.
good luck
~jessie~

 

[freaking_out]

well i'm demotivated for english as well....all i do is memorise a general essay for all my modules, as well as know some stuff about the texts....then all i do is practice how to manipulate my prepared essay to the question.....thats pretty much it for me.

 

[coroneos]

Originally posted by hipsta_jess
My teacher suggested this method for learning stuff. I will uses technological changes as an example, but it is really easily adapted to whatever texts you do.
1) Draw some concentric circles
2) In the center place what you are talking about (technological changes)
3) In the first circle put a sentence or two explaining technological changes
4) In the 2nd circle put the impact of these changes
5) In the third, put the technique
6) In the fourth place a supporting quote

WTF.. that is a very weird way of preparing.

My way of preparing is to not study at all and go in half-cold to the exam.

I usually just do 1 really good practice essay in the allotted time and I never lose track of what I am going to write. I have a visual blueprint imprinted in my head.

 

[hipsta_jess]

Originally posted by coroneos
WTF.. that is a very weird way of preparing.
I usually just do 1 really good practice essay in the allotted time and I never lose track of what I am going to write. I have a visual blueprint imprinted in my head.

yeah, i didnt explain it very well, i will try and get around to doing an example and posting. it makes a heap of sense to do it that way.
oh, and memorising one essay, what happens if you get in there and cant figure out how to adapt it to the specific question? or you write mainly about xyz and you really need to write about 123.
and what if they dont give you an essay?

 

[freaking_out]

Originally posted by hipsta_jess
yeah, i didnt explain it very well, i will try and get around to doing an example and posting. it makes a heap of sense to do it that way.
oh, and memorising one essay, what happens if you get in there and cant figure out how to adapt it to the specific question? or you write mainly about xyz and you really need to write about 123.
and what if they dont give you an essay?

na memorising an essay, is just like memorising notes...u can adapt it to other text types easily. also they can only make the quesiton specific to a certain extent, bcoz rem. there are always other texts that r involved as well. for eg. if ur doing changing self, then gwen hardwood is not the only text, the question also has to allow ppl doing other texts (such as my place) as well....but all in all for lot of ppl, memorising essays works best.

a good example is Minai...all he did is memorised essays, and learnt how to manipulate it...he got 93 as his hsc exam mark-no joke!

 

[hipsta_jess]

ok, this is a really rough, shit one i have done on the comp, but it gives you the idea.

 

[hipsta_jess]

oops, sorry, screwed up in that last one..ok, here it is

 

[timmii]

Originally posted by O( '_' )O
Um, just wondering for those that did well in English Advanced and Extension last year or even now...what did you guys do to prepare for the HSC in the last coming weeks. I'm one of those people that don't enjoy doing englsih which means that i end up having a lack of enthusiam for it..especially when it comes to writing responses...how would you guys think about changing that around?

I also had a dreadful eng adv teacher last year and was just soooo unmotivated to study for exams. I tried to make myself find *something* in each unit that i liked and so would motivate me to work. I love frontline, so that was ok. I enjoyed the play Lear but hated the readings element of it - but i had a study session with friends, so that made it an enjoyable way to go over my stuff. I also made up an imaginary production for myself - not because i expected to use it in the hsc, but because it was a) amusing b) prorastinating and c) a good way of consolidating wat i knew/finding out what i still needed to know.

By that stage i'd done 3 harwood assessments, so was ready to tear her stupid book up, but i liked my related material so that made me like going over it a bit. I also wrote up a whole heap of quotes and stuck it up on my bathroom mirror, so when i was being vain (which is often) i was absorbing knowledge somehow...

Same for BR/BNW regarding quotes. By HSC i didnt need to really go over themes, i just needed to refresh my memory and i found relearning the quotes did that, because each quoted i learnt was linked to a point/theme i was prepared to bring up in an essay.

get some friends together to study - it makes it a lot more interesting and can be productive if you are all determined to get the stuff done. Take breaks, reward urself with watching movies/lollies/time on BoS or wateva...and pick related material you like so that at least the end parts of the essays u're practicising is interesting!

Good luck!

P.S I'm definitely an advocate against prepared essays...but then again if you do do enough practice essays u eventually realise some standard phrases/points keep coming up, but learning a stock response is a waste of time - its much more efficient to actually learn the *content*

 

[Nick]

my whole school survives on pre prepared essays and we came second in state in english last year..

as long as u address all the rubric shit, and know ur text types etc.. should be fine.

 

[timmii]

True - prepared essays do work for some, but if you do it you have to do it well you can't do it half-heartedly.

I'm just saying that if you don't know entire essays off by heart, its not the end of the world, don't get intimidated by others saying that they do know entire blocks of text by heart

 

[ND]

Originally posted by timmii
but if you do it you have to do it well you can't do it half-heartedly.

Can you please elaborate?

 

[freaking_out]

hey, i did exactly the same modules as u timmi, can u pls. upload your essays?

 

[timmii]

I don't have anything on my computer, otherwise all my notes would be already "uploaded" for u guys.

As for the half-heartedly comment. If you're not going to learn the material and be comfortable enough to discuss it, learn at least 2 essays *really* well. Practice using them with enough of a variety of questions so that u get used to manipulating them and make them have just a bit more content than u'd normally write so that u basically have a pre-prepared para/stance on anything askable, so that u wont use the whole essay, but "cut and paste" the relevant paras...Well thats what i'd suggest, but u should probably ask someone who used prepared essays rather than me, coz i don't know how to work with them really well, coz i didnt use them.