For the reading task, since you can't annotate during reading time, what would be the best strategy? I am finding that by not being able to annotate, it becomes harder to unpack questions and quickly choose the right piece of evidence. Also in paper 1, do you think it would be better to start with the common module essay then do the reading task?
-
Finished your HSC? Check out our University Discussion, Non-School forums or help out next year's HSC students! -
YOU can help the next generation of students in the community! Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
Advice for reading task (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Leggie
- Start date
goblinslayer
Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2022
- Messages
- 37
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- HSC
- 2022
I think it might be better to start with the short answers, as they are easy marks.
Yeah no I do that but it is more to do with the fact of what I should use my planning time for. Should I just focus on the short questions' passages and questions so that I could knock them out quickly or would it be better to read everything then start?
goblinslayer
Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2022
- Messages
- 37
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- HSC
- 2022
During ur planning time first have a look at the essay question, if its a q you can comfortably adapt to and answer then don’t spend any time at all. However if its a shocking question then you’ll need to spend time some time mentally planning out ur response
and honestly you don’t even need to spend that much time breaking apart the stimuls for the SA Q’s, just see whatever techniques you can find first then take the quotes (idk if that makes sense). because you’re just displaying to the marker ur concept of the text and hence you only choose what you think will answer the q. for me, the case of the big texts, i just look at the first and last paras, and identify whatever techniques i find first, then apply the quote and its effect in relation to the q.
in regards to reading everything, maybe quickly skim it during the reading time and mark whatever textual evidences stand out, but you should always reach the SA Q first so yk exactly what ur looking for
i hope that makes sense..
and honestly you don’t even need to spend that much time breaking apart the stimuls for the SA Q’s, just see whatever techniques you can find first then take the quotes (idk if that makes sense). because you’re just displaying to the marker ur concept of the text and hence you only choose what you think will answer the q. for me, the case of the big texts, i just look at the first and last paras, and identify whatever techniques i find first, then apply the quote and its effect in relation to the q.
in regards to reading everything, maybe quickly skim it during the reading time and mark whatever textual evidences stand out, but you should always reach the SA Q first so yk exactly what ur looking for
i hope that makes sense..
always start with the reading task no matter what since essays r marked holistically - effort to reward ratio decreases as u put in more time and effort so allocate about 35 mins to the essay and spend the rest of the time on the saq
honestly saq was my weakest section pre-hsc however i ended up getting a raw 18/20 in saq when i actually sat the hsc exam
the way to get better at saq is do tonnes and tonnes of practice --> force urself to do as many saq as possible and give urself that extra time to really do well in saq and dw if ur common mod essay is shorter bc if u have a highly sophisticated piece of writing which is around 800 words it will probably be marked higher than someone who has 1000 words of waffle
Last edited:
yep this is also great advice
i found that often in saq i was drawing on evidence that was primarily in the first and last paragraphs
i would also definitely spend my reading time reading the saq, finding a few notable pieces of evidence and maybe just having a glimpse of the essay question