Quick way to improve english marks (1 Viewer)

FCB

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I just got my marks back today and i was quite beat up by them =(

English just takes that much out of me (time consuming) and the marks are still poor, Time wouldnt be an issue if i did okay but i spend the same amout of time as most people and they end up with 95% and i end up with 70% (in truth its probably worse then that)

Is there any way to simply get better marks? I really dont want to be spending my weekends writing essays and as arrogant as that sounds, thats the truth.

I am thinking maybe a tutor and then having them help me write a essay for each module and then re-wrting over and over again and then making sure that i dont do to badly in assesment task and that way i should be okay.

I dont even know if there is a nice way to say this but IMO English sucks d**k. Now my ATAR is f*cked and i will be cleaning the streets.

I know this has been a bit of a rant but i had to get it out of me.
 

mitchy_boy

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For fucks sake. English does not come easy. You haven't fucked up your ATAR.

Get a tutor, stay back after class, whatever. You obviously aren't doing what they want you to do. Get someone who knows what they want you to write, to show you HOW TO WRITE IT.

I got 50% in my first assessment, and I did just fine. You just need to work at it.
 

slyhunter

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for fucks sake. English does not come easy. You haven't fucked up your atar.

Get a tutor, stay back after class, whatever. You obviously aren't doing what they want you to do. Get someone who knows what they want you to write, to show you how to write it.

I got 50% in my first assessment, and i did just fine. You just need to work at it.
+1. Practice.
 

FCB

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What is the best way to 'practice' for English? What should I do to get me on my way?
 

mitchy_boy

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Ask your teacher for a practice question. Write out essay. Get them to mark it. Repeat. REALLY FUCKING TAKE NOTE OF WHAT THEY'RE SAYING, your teachers no so much it's not even funny(generally).

You should see a pattern of how to answer questions form.

Learn your texts well.

And engage with the rubric. If you really know your rubric(the thing that the board of studies gives you for each topic ion english), you can figure out what they may ask you in the exam.

English is not about formulating unique and interesting ideas. It's about regurgitating someone elses, and trying to make it seem unique.
 

FCB

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Ask your teacher for a practice question. Write out essay. Get them to mark it. Repeat. REALLY FUCKING TAKE NOTE OF WHAT THEY'RE SAYING, your teachers no so much it's not even funny(generally).

You should see a pattern of how to answer questions form.

Learn your texts well.

And engage with the rubric. If you really know your rubric(the thing that the board of studies gives you for each topic ion english), you can figure out what they may ask you in the exam.

English is not about formulating unique and interesting ideas. It's about regurgitating someone elses, and trying to make it seem unique.
I will most likely seek a tutor and then have english essays marked over and over again. If you memorise essays after they have been well written is it hard to then mould to fit the question?
 

slyhunter

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Can't your teacher mark it for you?

Memorising essays isn't recommended unless they're easily molded to ANY question.
 

gesh17

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Is there any way to simply get better marks? I really don't want to be spending my weekends writing essays and as arrogant as that sounds, thats the truth.

I am thinking maybe a tutor and then having them help me write a essay for each module and then re-writing over and over again and then making sure that i don't do to badly in assessment task and that way i should be okay.
Well personally, I only wrote a handful of essays during the HSC - the vast majority of my time was spent just thinking about the different texts and what ideas I could construct from them. Fortunately, I had an awesome teacher with whom I had several deep discussions over the course of the year and pretty much used that as the basis for a lot of the thesis concepts in my essays.

Beyond that though, you probably need to be able to memorise AND be able to adapt different essays to score well. A tutor certainly might help - at least for a few sessions.

You obviously aren't doing what they want you to do. Get someone who knows what they want you to write, to show you HOW TO WRITE IT.
This.

English is not about formulating unique and interesting ideas. It's about regurgitating someone elses, and trying to make it seem unique.
Yes and no. A lot of different students and their ideas are conceived from already prevalent ones but there is enough room I think to create something of your own - especially with Shakespearean texts like Hamlet imo. That's what I tried to do during my HSC anyway.
 

student6625

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I recommend the method that worked for me- Write practice essays, give them to your teacher/tutor to mark, take note of feedback, submit a refined essay (repeat this until you've been told that your essay's all set to go), memorise it, practise adapting it to all sorts of questions.

Memorised essays aren't very useful in themselves, but once adapted to a question, they will definitely give you the top marks. There aren't actually that many students who go into an HSC exam without a very clear idea of what they're going to write, but just make sure you do not regurgitate everything.

This method was undoubtedly the most effectual in improving my English marks, it eliminated the perpetual worry that I was going to fail HSC English.

Btw, some people may find adapting an memorised essay to questions difficult or in some cases, impossible, but at the end of the day, the module/area of study will be asking for the same thing- YOUR understanding of the topic and HOW they are portrayed (techniques). As long as you modify your thesis to suit with the question, and link everything you say back to the core of the question, you cannot go wrong.
 

jamesfirst

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I'm getting a tutor for English from now on because it's my weakest subject and I can't study myself


But I've improved my marks on my own from Prelim to HSC

What I did was understand the syllabus rubric and try to focus on that only. For essay and short answer I tried to keep using TEE. Technique, Examples and Explanation.
 

Absolutezero

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We lost some of our old posts Tacticus, when the site was restored. So that's why it's missing.
 

ImAgInE94

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my marks dropped when i got to year 11 in english, but i got an english tutor and she taught me to amke summary tables for each topic, then made me write essay after essay and improve them and my marks are getting better so i say the best way is to make summary tables of each topic, they help you memories and without looking at them write a few essays and give them to your teacher or tutor to mark. OH AND ALWAYS ASK FOR FEEDBACK-WHAT WENT WRONG? GOOD? WHAT CAN YOU PUT IN NEXT TIME? CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE I WENT WRONG? things like that
 

kooltrainer

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this is a one off tip:
go to dr du coaching center located in hurstville, find the fat teacher named helen.. give her your essay for whatever module.. her feedbacks relate directly to what markers are looking what (ie what concepts u need to cover) not some bull shit grammar mistakes tht ur typical school teacher picks out..
 

Chrasity

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Attached is a copy of Tacticus' essay guide as a word document. Full credit goes to him.
Wow, thank you so much, I've been trying to get into the thread for awhile! This really helps a lot! Thanks so much Absolutezero! :)
 

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