2005 CSSA English Advanced Trial (2 Viewers)

[~ ReNcH ~]

Hmmm...roughly 9-10 words per line. I'd memorised a number of key paragraphs and such though, so I was pretty much writing constantly throughout.

Sounds ok, but I imagine that your hands would be either sore or numb after that
25 pages x 30 lines per page x 10 words per line = 7500 words in 2 hours...my hand was dead after about 3000 words

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

I reckon 1100-1200 words is good for me. In that, I usually have about ~1000 actual essay words, and about 100/200 to suit the question/text type etc...

I think 1100-1200 words is a reasonable length for an essay...anything more is a bonus and would probably push an essay from ~18.5-19/20 to a 20/20 (provided the essay is of a good quality).

 

[ishq]

I think 1100-1200 words is a reasonable length for an essay...anything more is a bonus and would probably push an essay from ~18.5-19/20 to a 20/20 (provided the essay is of a good quality).

True for Module A and C.
But not Module B - That one, according to Standard Packages and marks going around for assessments, is usually short and sweet with every second word being a quote. (For Gwen Harwood Poetry)

For AOS, as its all the same thing anyway, its more how much you are able to incorporate the question again and again and again...

Or am I completely off track?

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

True for Module A and C.
But not Module B - That one, according to Standard Packages and marks going around for assessments, is usually short and sweet with every second word being a quote. (For Gwen Harwood Poetry)

For AOS, as its all the same thing anyway, its more how much you are able to incorporate the question again and again and again...

Or am I completely off track?

For AOS, I think the mark comes down to:
a) How much you can write
b) The quality of your writing
c) How well you integrate your set text, related texts and the SB

a) and b) apply for all responses. c) is particularly important for AOS as an unintegrated response is virtually limited to 12/15.

Integration/synthesis, to my knowledge, is not necessary to get 17/20 for Advanced (judging by past answers) but connections must be made between texts. However, I'm sure that thorough integration would push a response into the high portion of the A-range i.e. 18-20/20.

 

[Sphyx]

I aim to write 7-8 pages, and my writing is of average size, meaning that in my half-yearly for AoS I wrote 1,700 words in 40 mins and got 15/15. Now, I write very, very fast, my hand doesnt actually stop writing at any point during the exam. I simply cannot understand how James_C can write 9 pages in 40 minutes, unless you writing is illegible, OR you use a computer.

 

[ishq]

I aim to write 7-8 pages, and my writing is of average size, meaning that in my half-yearly for AoS I wrote 1,700 words in 40 mins and got 15/15. Now, I write very, very fast, my hand doesnt actually stop writing at any point during the exam. I simply cannot understand how James_C can write 9 pages in 40 minutes, unless you writing is illegible, OR you use a computer.

1700 words? Your hand must be a blur.
In AOS, I usually do my Section I in about 35 minutes, so I have 45 to do Section III - and I average about 1500 in that time.

*wow* to you

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

If all I do is memorise quotes with little idea about hopw I'm going to structure my response, I max out at around 1100 words per 40 mins
If I memorise it then my hand can only manage ~1400 words in 40 mins and that's basically all I can do. That said, I usually allow about 50-55 minutes for AOS Section III which gives me enough time to write around 1600-1900 words. On Monday I wrote around 6.5 pages @ 30 lines per page and 8-9 words per line

 

[Sweets]

Hmm personally I don't think it comes down to how much you write but how you write it, obviously you need a certain ammount of substance but going through exemplar trial responses from my school, who seem mark significantly harder then the HSC markers, I noticed that for non-essay responses the length wasn't that much of a big deal but the form. I saw one which i calculated to be about 600 words on telling the truth which got 20- it was excellent and another which was about 1000 words which ONLY got 18. I even saw a essay response on WW/Malouf which got 19 which was only about 980.

Thats why in my trials i focused on answering the question as best i could, although I am convinced I stuffed up module A. I wrote 9, 8 and 12 for each module respectively but it was in booklets, which have very big lines and are smaller then normal pages.

You guys write really fast!! 1700 words in 40 mins, that is nuts!!

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

The problem is that you generally need at least 1000 words to address every part of the question i.e. techniques, connections between texts, context, intro/conclusion + relating your thesis back to the question. Even in the 1200 words that I write for BNW/BR, my teacher has only ever really given me 17-18/20 for practice responses. Given that I need to write more on context, I'd be looking at a 1300-1400 word response to reach that elusive 19-20/20

 

[LaCe]

Well i had the trial today. They integrated the CSSA paper with a couple of others with the insight question for module A, the CD question for module B and relationships for module C.
I think I did pretty well but I do not want to talk it up cause u dont know how they will mark it. The marking at our school is very bias and the teachers just place a mark next to the students name and may skim over the essay but it ultimately comes down to who u are in our school. The english dep. is absolutely shithouse and the marking is really bad (very bias) and also the marking is very subjective too.

When I got an assessment task bask i got 15/20 and i was really disappointed cause i put heaps of effort in and the comment was absolutely random. Im getting so angry as I type this... hate that stupid english department! That is why our school does so shit in English

 

[king_of_boredom]

oh i believe in quality over quantity.

 

[c_james]

I aim to write 7-8 pages, and my writing is of average size, meaning that in my half-yearly for AoS I wrote 1,700 words in 40 mins and got 15/15. Now, I write very, very fast, my hand doesnt actually stop writing at any point during the exam. I simply cannot understand how James_C can write 9 pages in 40 minutes, unless you writing is illegible, OR you use a computer.

Nah, it's rather readable...I've just always been a fast writer. I wrote somewhere in the vacinity of 7000-8000 words for legal today; about 40 pages (was a 3 hour exam though, and yes, my hand is swollen and sore).

I believe in quality IN quantity. Yes, you can get full marks with about 4-6 pages, but in the HSC I just wouldn't risk it - I'd want to demonstrate as much knowledge as I possibly could that's relevant to the question. It just so happens a lot of it applied in these trials, but that might not be the case in the HSC.

EDIT: I just realised that chick who supposedly came first in the state in legal and wrote 45 pages mightn't have had huge writing after all...as long as you cruise through mc and short answer you've got about 2.5 hrs to write the responses, which is more than enough for 7000-8000 words if you're fast enough.

 

[bigwillz]

I wrote somewhere in the vacinity of 7000-8000 words for legal today; about 40 pages.

no you didn't.

 

[c_james]

no you didn't.

That's right...reassure yourself .

That was with 21-line, 8-page Board of Studies booklets, champ, not lined pages.

 

[bigwillz]

reassure yourself .

i dont think im the one with assurence problems. i dont need to lie. i dont need to write a tome to ace tests either.

 

[c_james]

i dont think im the one with assurence problems. i dont need to lie. i dont need to write a tome to ace tests either.

Right, whatever. We could go endlessly back and forth with the "Yes, I did" and "No, you didn't" routine, but I really don't care all that much what some faceless person the net thinks, who I'll likely never meet. I know what I wrote, and that's all that really matters. I hardly think answering a question to the best of one's ability constitutes a "tome", either. If you'd bothered to read, I was talking about legal studies, a THREE hour exam.

 

[pLuvia]

Right, whatever. We could go endlessly back and forth with the "Yes, I did" and "No, you didn't" routine, but I really don't care all that much what some faceless person the net thinks, who I'll likely never meet. I know what I wrote, and that's all that really matters. I hardly think answering a question to the best of one's ability constitutes a "tome", either. If you'd bothered to read, I was talking about legal studies, a THREE hour exam.

well, i agree with c_james good work mate, it goes to show how one person's ability can be reached just by focus and concentration good work c_james, good luck in the HSC

just one thought, the average number of pages my tutor said for each module should be about 4.5 pages or more. If you have a lot of spare time left, extend that 4.5 pages, never use the time of the other essays
QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

 

[bigwillz]

yeah, i did that exam today, twas long. But i just think that 40pgs, is fairly copius for what the question/s were asking. I only put in 10 pages per response to keep them relevant. Anyway goodluck.

 

[goan_crazy]

Did you guys get to write in the booklets?
Coz at our school people wrote on normal paper
if it was on normal paper, you guys r writing heaps
if not, then its not that bad because the booklets have heaps of space between the lines.

 

[Sweets]

Persoanlly I think for legal it is a little excessive to write 40 pages, not that i do legal but my sisters friend came first in the state in legal in '01 and i'm pretty sure he didn't write that much.

Joe, I wrote in booklets but I'm not sure about everyone else. I really doubt I could write 12 pages otherwise