Need some tips please. (2 Viewers)

[T-R-O-L-O-L]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently in Year 10 and got my report realizing my English mark really sucks compared to the rest of my subjects. I know a lot of people may ask this question but:

How do I improve my English Skilss ( like writing, vocabulary and comprehension )

All answers are appreciated.

 

[iJimmy]

this link is great for any yr 10 entering yr 11 http://community.boredofstudies.org...ar-studies-yr-11-12-a-317056.html#post6499862

all credit to strawberrye

 

[BiasedBuffalo]

You've probably heard this from every man and his dog but READ. I remember my Year 10 teacher giving me a handout with study tips, and over the 5 pages all it said was READ!.

It seriously works, my worst subject used to be English but now it is one of my best.

Of course, if you don't know about essay structure etc that's also pretty important, needless to say.

 

[T-R-O-L-O-L]

Thanks for the link and information it was really helpful. I'll see if it works.

 

[strawberrye]

Thanks for the link and information it was really helpful. I'll see if it works.

Remember that you have two entire years to improve your English skills-so even if they 'suck' right now-if you work hard over the next two years, you can transform and sharpen them-don't give up on English-ever-since it is compulsory towards the calculation of your ATAR. Best wishes for the next two years and I hoped you did found my guide for acing senior studies helpful

 

[rumbleroar]

vocab - get into reading, especially romanticist stuff (so much vocab there, far out. Try Frankenstein for a relatively easy read)
writing - follow the technique of ITEE: idea, technique, example, effect/link. It will structure your responses a lot better
comprehension - hard to really give you tips without knowing what you're weakest at, but generally, read the questions first, skim/speedread and pick out techniques from there and use ITEE technique to answer the questions

 

[T-R-O-L-O-L]

Thanks Strawberrye I found your tips extremely helpful and hopefully I can make use of some of the holiday tips before the holiday finishes. Also thanks rumbleroar for the advice on the english techniques. Also do you guys recommend iwrite practise essays every week while I'm still in year 11?

 

[BiasedBuffalo]

Also be sure to ask your teachers how you can improve - they've read your work, and read the rest of your cohort's work, so know exactly where you need to focus in terms of your writing.

IMO 1 essay a week would kill me; I'd say write maybe 1 essay a week for a month before your exams, in addition to the odd essay during the year. 1 a week sounds like too much though.

 

[T-R-O-L-O-L]

Yeah thanks for the advise. I don't wanna burn out beforw the HSC

 

[strawberrye]

Thanks Strawberrye I found your tips extremely helpful and hopefully I can make use of some of the holiday tips before the holiday finishes. Also thanks rumbleroar for the advice on the english techniques. Also do you guys recommend iwrite practise essays every week while I'm still in year 11?

I don't think you need to write practise essays every week-it is pretty intense-I basically did that in year 12, but I don't think it will work for other people. The reason is to write practice essays-you need to have read the text two times ideally, analysed the text yourself, understand the conceptual ideas of the module and how it related to your texts, before you actually start writing essays, and this process of familiarising and developing personal response to texts takes time. Furthermore, you need to be getting COMMENTS on your essay before you write a second one-otherwise you will be writing 20 essays, not knowing you've made the same mistake 20 times. QUALITY IS ALWAYS MORE IMPORTANT THAN QUANTITY.

 

[study1234]

Spend a lot of time revising your practice essays/creative, and constantly give it to teachers/tutors/peers to read and criticize.

 

[umbreller]

For in-class essays, use the exam paper to plan out your essay. It's way better than sitting down, looking at the question, freaking out and vaguely planning in your head. + always keep question in sight - this goes for every single exam really haha, but it's important to explicitly demonstrate that you're answering that *specific* question, using it's key words, and linking back really well ...... like a sandwich. Sandwich all of your paragraphs with linking sentences. Answering the question head-on and explicitly usually secures you A-range marks. Also don't focus on or worry about many of your peers' essays in comparison to yours, because the odds are most of them are not going to get full marks.
Also, don't ahead and write practise essays on topics you have not been taught formally/do not fully understand ahead of everyone else. It's a waste of time and therefore disadvantageous because it's more likely you'll write a flawed essay and rely on it for your assessment.
Dw too much about year 10 marks, they mean dogshit tbh. gl c:

 

[dtmtrano]

Just practise structuring and planning your essays. Try to always plan what you want to write about and what evidence you want to use. Learn to be super critical when answering the question. Ask yourself how and why. When writing essays, understand that you always need evidence and with that, have the ability to relate to the question. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND WHAT THE QUESTION IS SAYING/ASKING. Another thing that could help you when writing essays is to always empathise with the text - what and how does it relate to your life. What issues are you dealing with in your life?

Also when planning, it is a good idea to tabulate your key themes. On the horizontal axis, you would list your texts. On the vertical axis, write the themes. Then you just fill in the evidence and its meaning. In the final column, write the relation between the texts for each theme.

In all honesty, you dont have to be the biggest reader to be really good at english. Just learn to be analytical and critical when writing essays. As for comprehensions just read through the text and choose the most correct answer. For creative writing, the first thing I would do is to brainstorm ideas that correlate with the genre. Then just choose the ones you feel most confident and comfortable about writing about. An idea that can be adapted into all parts in your creative piece of writing.

English is a pretty easy subject, just learn how to be critical and analytical and you'll be fine.

 

[rumbleroar]

Thanks Strawberrye I found your tips extremely helpful and hopefully I can make use of some of the holiday tips before the holiday finishes. Also thanks rumbleroar for the advice on the english techniques. Also do you guys recommend iwrite practise essays every week while I'm still in year 11?

I made that kind of promise to myself, and I don't think I write a single English essay until a week before prelims...I think you might burn out if you write essays on a weekly basis :/ It counts more in year 12. Year 11 AoS is a joke. (didn't have to write essays for our modules and stuff)

Try and do comprehension like once every two weeks or something as practice...1 essay a week is excessive ahah

 

[strawberrye]

I made that kind of promise to myself, and I don't think I write a single English essay until a week before prelims...I think you might burn out if you write essays on a weekly basis :/ It counts more in year 12. Year 11 AoS is a joke. (didn't have to write essays for our modules and stuff)

Try and do comprehension like once every two weeks or something as practice...1 essay a week is excessive ahah

Totally agree with this-you definitely will be on the verge of burning out if you write an essay every week-particularly if it is a practice essay and NOT UNDER EXAM CONDITIONS. But I guess for me, I enjoyed English quite a lot-so I didn't mind putting in the hard yards and it was a study method that worked for me, but obviously for most people-it is unlikely to work. I think regardless of the study techniques you adopt-you will need to trial and error and find the best ones for you-there is no one model fits all stuff After all, we are all UNIQUE individuals

 

[KrystalBanner]

Hi there,

I'm going into year 10 this year and I have also realised my English marks haven't been consistently good.

So what I have done is ask one of my friends who got full marks in an essay to let me borrow it over the weekend I basically compared hers with mine to see what she did that I didn't. It did help me understand what sort of things teachers/markers generally look for...

Also, my mum suggested that I borrow/buy magazines and newspapers from the library/stores and read the articles, just to see what made the articles successful, well-written, appealing, etc. I have 3 copies of The Economist on my desk right now. After reading 1, I felt so aware.

Yeah, so these are the sort of habits I've adopted, I hope I've given you some inspiration.

Sigh, I wish I could be like most of my friends; writing last-minute essays and getting really good marks. But it seems no matter when I start I nearly always get a poor result :/

 

[strawberrye]

Sigh, I wish I could be like most of my friends; writing last-minute essays and getting really good marks. But it seems no matter when I start I nearly always get a poor result :/

Don't be disheartened, in the long run, if you put in the effort to write practice essays, to come up with strong conceptual ideas, to adhere to the demands of the marking criteria, you will improve-it takes consistent effort to achieve better results-you need to be willing to run this marathon race.

It may have seemed like that in the past, but with every essay you write, every note you make, every thesis idea you come up about your text, every question you ask or answer in class, you will increase your interest in English and realise you can ENJOY it as well as get a GOOD result in it. Don't define yourself by the past, use this year as a new opportunity to TRY HARDER and compare with yourself-HARD WORK and an OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE always will win over pure intelligence. Don't give up and work hard-

My best wishes for you to improve in your English results this year Hope this helps and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me

 

[KrystalBanner]

Thank you for the encouraging advice, strawberrye! I will be trying my best this year