idk how to write a good exam essay (1 Viewer)

[iloveeggs]

i know my texts well and stuff and i have good notes and stuff but i feel like im going to screw up my english assessment tasks (e1 and adv). my school kind of spoon-fed us up until now (hand ins, in-class essays but we get the question, get to take in a page of notes, get a set of possible questions or we already kind of know what the question is). but this term we have essays with unseen prompts. i have always messed up a little bit for essay writing exams but this is so far out of my comfort zone i feel like im going to fail

i have no strategy as to how to approach unseen prompts (especially bc they are a bit random) bc i got away with writing a great draft and memorising an outline of it and the analysis and quotes i used in it etc. im not sure how i can do that in this situation bc the past questions ive seen so far are way more diverse and demand different viewpoints etc. so that would mean id have to memorise a master list of everything and be able to adapt the thesis entirely to fit the question. like do all of that on the spot while also stressing under exam conditions. obviously what i did in the past wont work anymore so i need help

TLDR: i need advice on how to revise for my prelims bc i didn't develop good exam technique over the years and now im paying the price

 

[earlgreyteawithmilkfoam]

have a good general essay & thesis for the different modules, unless you're doing something like a suite of poetry, then what i'd do is write a paragraph on each poem/memorise quotes and analysis for all the poems + have multiple theses (this isn't a must but if there's theme variation amongst the poems i'd definitely recommend it).

something my teacher likes to make us do to train our adaptability is getting a random essay question from a past paper/the hsc and giving us 10 minutes to write a thesis and topic sentences based off said question. honestly just keep doing this activity until you get better, it's really all about practice, and it's going to be hard at first but it will get easier.

i know you're doing prelims so there's probably less resources but i think art of smart has some prelim essay qs and you'll probs have your school's past papers as well. depending on your texts, i may also have some past paper qs but ngl i doubt it'll be useful for you since my school does less common texts for prelims.

also make sure you know your rubric statements well since many qs are just taken from the rubric

 

[iloveeggs]

have a good general essay & thesis for the different modules, unless you're doing something like a suite of poetry, then what i'd do is write a paragraph on each poem/memorise quotes and analysis for all the poems + have multiple theses (this isn't a must but if there's theme variation amongst the poems i'd definitely recommend it).

something my teacher likes to make us do to train our adaptability is getting a random essay question from a past paper/the hsc and giving us 10 minutes to write a thesis and topic sentences based off said question. honestly just keep doing this activity until you get better, it's really all about practice, and it's going to be hard at first but it will get easier.

i know you're doing prelims so there's probably less resources but i think art of smart has some prelim essay qs and you'll probs have your school's past papers as well. depending on your texts, i may also have some past paper qs but ngl i doubt it'll be useful for you since my school does less common texts for prelims.

also make sure you know your rubric statements well since many qs are just taken from the rubric

thank you for your advice! i do have access to past questions for this specific assessment so i can definitely try writing theses for those.

but how do you write a general essay? how do you make your essay general enough to be adaptible?

 

[earlgreyteawithmilkfoam]

thats a good question. for me i typically do my general essays off of key ideas/a progression of a key idea, so I'm not really answering a specific q if you understand what I'm saying, just focusing on key ideas. (the progression of a key idea thing is more for common mod though and i doubt you guys have a common mod essay in your prelims).

for something like module a (which is basically really about how context shapes meaning), i have paras which are basically just about how context has affected two main ideas (eg. for one of them its like context has completely reshaped how the treatment of minorities is handled, whilst another is about how an idea promoted in the original text can be applied to the modern world if that makes sense). it should be decently easily to make a general thesis for module a as well because the key idea no matter what is just about how context reshapes meaning (just word it like more fancily ofcofc).

 

[earlgreyteawithmilkfoam]

i also just briefly skimmed the year 11 mod a rubric, i also see they emphasise the role of storytelling and the impact it has as well, so also consider that, but that also ties into the whole context part

 

[hscccc]

take 5 mins to plan your response before you start writing and come up with a thesis - that is so fundamental, it is your argument. You cannot 'top and tail' (only answering the question/linking in the point and link sentences) you need to have a consistent argument throughout with all your evidence linking back to your thesis and q, so its rlly important you have a clear focus before you start the essay. Id also say do not become reliant on prepared responses as many fall into the trap of "top and tailing" and blurting out a pre-prepared response that doesnt answer the q. the hsc is throwing out specifications and stimuli to prevent a reliance on pre-prepared responses so you really need to be flexible and practice responding and evaluating unseen extracts or poems/parts of a text that arent in your essays. I memorised quotes and the first evaluation of the evidence and general topic/thesis statements for my essays which related to a theme in the text or form etc. common to previous qs or likely qs based on the texts. I've never specifically written a 'general essay' tho, i think around trials there was a heap of content posted about general essays on tik tok so you could look there

 

[hscccc]

i also just briefly skimmed the year 11 mod a rubric, i also see they emphasise the role of storytelling and the impact it has as well, so also consider that, but that also ties into the whole context part

YES so true, a good little quote/thesis statement on the importance of literature is so good for yr 11 and really adaptable to essay qs

 

[earlgreyteawithmilkfoam]

take 5 mins to plan your response before you start writing and come up with a thesis - that is so fundamental, it is your argument. You cannot 'top and tail' (only answering the question/linking in the point and link sentences) you need to have a consistent argument throughout with all your evidence linking back to your thesis and q, so its rlly important you have a clear focus before you start the essay. Id also say do not become reliant on prepared responses as many fall into the trap of "top and tailing" and blurting out a pre-prepared response that doesnt answer the q. the hsc is throwing out specifications and stimuli to prevent a reliance on pre-prepared responses so you really need to be flexible and practice responding and evaluating unseen extracts or poems/parts of a text that arent in your essays. I memorised quotes and the first evaluation of the evidence and general topic/thesis statements for my essays which related to a theme in the text or form etc. common to previous qs or likely qs based on the texts. I've never specifically written a 'general essay' tho, i think around trials there was a heap of content posted about general essays on tik tok so you could look there

yeah i defintely agree with the top and tailing part. generally if you're doing a general essay and adapting it, you want to make sure you can set up a good progression of argument specific to the q in your topic sentences. also yeah ik many ppl who have done hella well just memorising quotes/general analysis like hscccc said, so that's for sure another way you could approach it, but i like having a general essay just cause it gives me good refined analysis to fall back on, and its worked pretty well for me. the good thing about y11 is that you can try both methods with low stakes involved

 

[gammahydroxybutyrate]

i know my texts well and stuff and i have good notes and stuff but i feel like im going to screw up my english assessment tasks (e1 and adv). my school kind of spoon-fed us up until now (hand ins, in-class essays but we get the question, get to take in a page of notes, get a set of possible questions or we already kind of know what the question is). but this term we have essays with unseen prompts. i have always messed up a little bit for essay writing exams but this is so far out of my comfort zone i feel like im going to fail

i have no strategy as to how to approach unseen prompts (especially bc they are a bit random) bc i got away with writing a great draft and memorising an outline of it and the analysis and quotes i used in it etc. im not sure how i can do that in this situation bc the past questions ive seen so far are way more diverse and demand different viewpoints etc. so that would mean id have to memorise a master list of everything and be able to adapt the thesis entirely to fit the question. like do all of that on the spot while also stressing under exam conditions. obviously what i did in the past wont work anymore so i need help

TLDR: i need advice on how to revise for my prelims bc i didn't develop good exam technique over the years and now im paying the price

an essay question is still a question, which you can view as having a one or two sentence answer and that is in effect, your thesis. your answer needs to come from somewhere, the basis on which your answer came from are essentially the topic sentences of each body paragraphs.

if you are asked, 'to what extent does peppa pig reflect the intricacies of the human experience', the first question to ask yourself, is does peppa pig grapple with any complexities in the human experience, and if so, how? from there, you might posit that peppa pig's difficulties with the intricacies of socialisation with peers and exploration of family dynamics reflect some common denominator in the human experience via caricatures. those can be body paragrahs 1 and 2, and if you can't think of anything else, you can spend a third paragraph linking the two to the aspects of human nature from which they arise (e.g. age and maturity as a factor from which the lens of the individual experience is formed).

you would think to specific examples; if in an episode, peppa pig had a dispute with a peer leading to her having a tantrum, you would explore the circumstances in which the conflict arose, which parts were material to the outcome and which parts contribute to your hypothetical argument that peppa pig suffers difficulty with socialisation because mummy pig and big lad daddy pig did not discipline her properly and therefore she does not understand the concept of sharing, in making some sort of sacrifice for the benefit of another. your "quotes" and "techniques" are really just the manner in which we derive meaning from language and communication. if peppa says "george, shut up and hand over the dinosaur, you ungrateful little ingrate", you know immediately she isn't happy with george the pig. this response comes from somewhere, being an emotional outburst rife with derogatory remarks, out of circumstances where peppa exhibited an intrinsic human emotion of jealousy for george's dinosaur. this in turn, provides insight into the factors of individuality which might weigh upon the manner in which family dynamics rest in the span of the overarching human experience.

the point is, firstly that i am of the view that memorising essays is a fundamentally wrong approach to not only high school english, but any form of higher level academia in general and you will suffer in university for it, but also of the fact that although essays are intimidating in that they demand a rather extensive response to an otherwise simple question, they are just questions and you should know the answers if you've read the text with some degree of engagement. exploring a text from an alternative viewpoint simply involves putting yourself in the shoes of said viewer, and hypothesising as to what sort of meaning they might glean from the text relative to the views that they are probably subconsciously looking to confirm. if you read a text, and have any sort of thoughts whatsoever as to what sort of message you took away, or that the author was trying to convey, it came from somewhere at some point, and from there it might be a matter of which linguistic techniques gave you that impression. the most valuable thing english can give you, writing skills aside, is the ability to think critically for yourself.

 

[iloveeggs]

thats a good question. for me i typically do my general essays off of key ideas/a progression of a key idea, so I'm not really answering a specific q if you understand what I'm saying, just focusing on key ideas. (the progression of a key idea thing is more for common mod though and i doubt you guys have a common mod essay in your prelims).

for something like module a (which is basically really about how context shapes meaning), i have paras which are basically just about how context has affected two main ideas (eg. for one of them its like context has completely reshaped how the treatment of minorities is handled, whilst another is about how an idea promoted in the original text can be applied to the modern world if that makes sense). it should be decently easily to make a general thesis for module a as well because the key idea no matter what is just about how context reshapes meaning (just word it like more fancily ofcofc).

thanks this is super helpful!!

 

[iloveeggs]

i also just briefly skimmed the year 11 mod a rubric, i also see they emphasise the role of storytelling and the impact it has as well, so also consider that, but that also ties into the whole context part

omg all of our past q's have smth to do about storytelling so i think you are onto something

 

[earlgreyteawithmilkfoam]

omg all of our past q's have smth to do about storytelling so i think you are onto something

yeah then in that case def ensure that storytelling and its role/impact is incorporated your thesis

 

[iloveeggs]

take 5 mins to plan your response before you start writing and come up with a thesis - that is so fundamental, it is your argument. You cannot 'top and tail' (only answering the question/linking in the point and link sentences) you need to have a consistent argument throughout with all your evidence linking back to your thesis and q, so its rlly important you have a clear focus before you start the essay. Id also say do not become reliant on prepared responses as many fall into the trap of "top and tailing" and blurting out a pre-prepared response that doesnt answer the q. the hsc is throwing out specifications and stimuli to prevent a reliance on pre-prepared responses so you really need to be flexible and practice responding and evaluating unseen extracts or poems/parts of a text that arent in your essays. I memorised quotes and the first evaluation of the evidence and general topic/thesis statements for my essays which related to a theme in the text or form etc. common to previous qs or likely qs based on the texts. I've never specifically written a 'general essay' tho, i think around trials there was a heap of content posted about general essays on tik tok so you could look there

thank!! yes im super conscious as to not "top and tail" thats why im skeptical about memorising full essays and just spamming them. i dont think its worth memorising an intro/conclusion only just more generic body paragraphs/analysis so that writing the intro will force me to articulate my points in response to the question and then i go from there

 

[iloveeggs]

an essay question is still a question, which you can view as having a one or two sentence answer and that is in effect, your thesis. your answer needs to come from somewhere, the basis on which your answer came from are essentially the topic sentences of each body paragraphs.

if you are asked, 'to what extent does peppa pig reflect the intricacies of the human experience', the first question to ask yourself, is does peppa pig grapple with any complexities in the human experience, and if so, how? from there, you might posit that peppa pig's difficulties with the intricacies of socialisation with peers and exploration of family dynamics reflect some common denominator in the human experience via caricatures. those can be body paragrahs 1 and 2, and if you can't think of anything else, you can spend a third paragraph linking the two to the aspects of human nature from which they arise (e.g. age and maturity as a factor from which the lens of the individual experience is formed).

you would think to specific examples; if in an episode, peppa pig had a dispute with a peer leading to her having a tantrum, you would explore the circumstances in which the conflict arose, which parts were material to the outcome and which parts contribute to your hypothetical argument that peppa pig suffers difficulty with socialisation because mummy pig and big lad daddy pig did not discipline her properly and therefore she does not understand the concept of sharing, in making some sort of sacrifice for the benefit of another. your "quotes" and "techniques" are really just the manner in which we derive meaning from language and communication. if peppa says "george, shut up and hand over the dinosaur, you ungrateful little ingrate", you know immediately she isn't happy with george the pig. this response comes from somewhere, being an emotional outburst rife with derogatory remarks, out of circumstances where peppa exhibited an intrinsic human emotion of jealousy for george's dinosaur. this in turn, provides insight into the factors of individuality which might weigh upon the manner in which family dynamics rest in the span of the overarching human experience.

the point is, firstly that i am of the view that memorising essays is a fundamentally wrong approach to not only high school english, but any form of higher level academia in general and you will suffer in university for it, but also of the fact that although essays are intimidating in that they demand a rather extensive response to an otherwise simple question, they are just questions and you should know the answers if you've read the text with some degree of engagement. exploring a text from an alternative viewpoint simply involves putting yourself in the shoes of said viewer, and hypothesising as to what sort of meaning they might glean from the text relative to the views that they are probably subconsciously looking to confirm. if you read a text, and have any sort of thoughts whatsoever as to what sort of message you took away, or that the author was trying to convey, it came from somewhere at some point, and from there it might be a matter of which linguistic techniques gave you that impression. the most valuable thing english can give you, writing skills aside, is the ability to think critically for yourself.

yeahh ik in an ideal world id also not like to memorise essays or anything. the good thing about my school is that they give us a lot of freedom for ext english essay responses at least. they expect them to reflect a personal voice and understanding and be a bit creative (e.g. some kid last year wrote an epigraph before their essay, other times that i have looked through sample responses they used interesting sentence structure and were really fun to read). with enough practise i aim to be able to compose something like that just on my own but for now im gonna memorise at least a bit of analysis bc im not really used to coming up with things on the fly and im also not confident like that loll

thanks for your response!!