Recovering from a very bad result. (1 Viewer)

Joined
Jan 5, 2021
Messages
106
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2021
Hey everyone, i just got back my English marks 3 days ago and I've gotten a 15 and a 16, so 31/40. Im feeling very very bad about this. My goals are to get a 92 or 93 for English advanced in the hsc. Usually, for most of my assessments, I've gotten 17s and 18s (from my schools hsc markers) but this was my first HSC assessment and it went really badly. Any advice on how to improve, and what I should do from this point on? I don't think I've never felt this bad about a result ever.

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks
i feel the same, its so demotivating :(
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,569
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
Firstly, your competition is much less the other people in your school, though that can be motivating... your competition is the tens of thousands of students in the state. Ranking is more important thank marks, and ultimately the HSC is a hoop to jump through in pursuit of your personal goals. If you are going to use every disappointment in an assessment as a reason to beat yourself up, you are setting yourself up for a daunting task. Learn some self-compassion and try for some perspective on strengths as well as weaknesses. I never made it into the top 5 of my school... but I did comfortably make the top 100 in the state and the top 500 nation-wide. Should I regret not doing better against my classmates or rejoice in the achievement of being near the top of NSW and Australia?

Secondly, a truth that far too many students fail to accept: You can't control what questions you are asked. If you have an absolutely brilliant 25 / 20 essay memorised and it doesn't suit the question, writing it out is not going to make the question better suited to your response. You can only control the response and that means being too prepared to give a particular answer is dangerous. If you must have a memorised response, perhaps try to take in pieces on different areas that you can arrange into an argument based on the question?

Thirdly, remember that the criteria for each band cover necessary components. In the sciences, for example, I could ask a 6 mark question that starts with "assess"... A student response could make six solid points about the topic, without any inaccuracies, and get at most 4 / 6 because the answer did not include the mandatory aspect of an "assess" question - a judgement based on the evidence presented. A band 6-level response must answer the question, and an essay that does not give a persuasive response to the question put will never earn a band 6 mark - even if it would be at the very top of band 6 for a different question.
why does every single grammar kid on this forum get 99.90 percentile.
@vernburn @black.mamba @CM_Tutor
 

black.mamba

Active Member
Joined
May 15, 2020
Messages
213
Location
Vern Gang
Gender
Male
HSC
2020
He only does 2 of the subjects listed lol. The others are trolls
*3 (expected better of u @vernburn)

ur forgetting @J530

(tbf they got mid and high 99 respectively)




back to the actual topic, i think that it's always important to view each result in perspective (i.e. don't beat yourself up too much about a single assessment result)

in OP's case, you have 3 more internal assessments blocks to improve your internal ranking, and then the HSC

rather, it's more important to take away why your results were below your standards. work on your weaknesses, maybe change up your study techniques, or ask your friends/teachers/tutors for help

edit: i think @CM_Tutor hit pretty much all of the points already
 
Last edited:

JeydinNewWon

Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2017
Messages
49
Gender
Male
HSC
2020
Hey, there!!! I know it might seem bad at the moment but keep in mind it is just your very first assessment task. Trust me, I had a meltdown after my first Extension 2 Maths task and I came the last rank. Super demoralising. But honestly, there's no point in moping around because it isn't going to change anything. Any feelings you have at the moment, are still super valid, and you should take some time to process/accept them.

However, what isn't going to change is that you're still aiming to get the highest rank possible. That's what I did. Rather than focusing on "I'm not getting first rank, ever", I focused on turning around my Extension 2 study so I can push my marks highly as possible. After 3 assessment tasks later, I ended up with the first rank, which; I was VERY shocked by but also impressed at. You'd be surprised at the complacency of some students and how inconsistent their marks can be (unless you're in a selective school). Even if you get 2nd or 3rd rank, it's still fine, and that means you just need to achieve as highly as possible in the final HSC exam. A score of 92 or 93 is still VERY much achievable with those ranks, it's all up to you.

I first would start by taking some time to reflect on your result. I would ask the teachers for specific areas I could've worked on/improved for next time. Taking in feedback is REALLY essential for English courses, and it should be done on a regular basis if you really want to improve. Try to incorporate your teacher's feedback into your future writing practices, always keeping it in mind.

But also take time to focus on how YOU felt when preparing for your task. If it was an exam, did you feel nervous/unconfident on the day? Were there questions you couldn't do or struggled with? How was your time management? And how'd you feel after the exam? If it was a hand-in task, ask how did you feel about it when you prepared for it? Were you confident in getting a good score? Did you read the marking criteria and address all the outcomes they were looking for? Did you ask your teacher for feedback/tips beforehand? These are just example questions, but you should reflect on your process and decide for yourself how you could've improve for next time.

I hope this first task doesn't put you down so much!!! What matters now is that you work really hard to achieve high as possible for the next tw tasks and try to smash the Trials. The Trial exams are generally when ranks shift the most due to the nature of the exams. I wish you good luck for your HSC and I know you can do this!
 

VeryBoredOfStudies

New Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
23
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
Hey, there!!! I know it might seem bad at the moment but keep in mind it is just your very first assessment task. Trust me, I had a meltdown after my first Extension 2 Maths task and I came the last rank. Super demoralising. But honestly, there's no point in moping around because it isn't going to change anything. Any feelings you have at the moment, are still super valid, and you should take some time to process/accept them.

However, what isn't going to change is that you're still aiming to get the highest rank possible. That's what I did. Rather than focusing on "I'm not getting first rank, ever", I focused on turning around my Extension 2 study so I can push my marks highly as possible. After 3 assessment tasks later, I ended up with the first rank, which; I was VERY shocked by but also impressed at. You'd be surprised at the complacency of some students and how inconsistent their marks can be (unless you're in a selective school). Even if you get 2nd or 3rd rank, it's still fine, and that means you just need to achieve as highly as possible in the final HSC exam. A score of 92 or 93 is still VERY much achievable with those ranks, it's all up to you.

I first would start by taking some time to reflect on your result. I would ask the teachers for specific areas I could've worked on/improved for next time. Taking in feedback is REALLY essential for English courses, and it should be done on a regular basis if you really want to improve. Try to incorporate your teacher's feedback into your future writing practices, always keeping it in mind.

But also take time to focus on how YOU felt when preparing for your task. If it was an exam, did you feel nervous/unconfident on the day? Were there questions you couldn't do or struggled with? How was your time management? And how'd you feel after the exam? If it was a hand-in task, ask how did you feel about it when you prepared for it? Were you confident in getting a good score? Did you read the marking criteria and address all the outcomes they were looking for? Did you ask your teacher for feedback/tips beforehand? These are just example questions, but you should reflect on your process and decide for yourself how you could've improve for next time.

I hope this first task doesn't put you down so much!!! What matters now is that you work really hard to achieve high as possible for the next tw tasks and try to smash the Trials. The Trial exams are generally when ranks shift the most due to the nature of the exams. I wish you good luck for your HSC and I know you can do this!
Yeah, I've started working on my Mod A stuff. Idk if trials will change too much of my rank because our school has weighted trials at 28% (I know very odd to be so specific but that's what it is). This task was 25%, the upcoming task being 25% and the last task before Trials being 22%. In your experience how much does ranking change after trials, and in my case would it change much? (Im approx 11th, my school usually gets like 4-5 b6s)
 
Last edited:

VeryBoredOfStudies

New Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
23
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
They do, more than you people think tbh.

I got it from the verdict of 2020 students.

In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Tasks, it's rather easy to get good marks. Like the only thing that separates people is if they could write a bibliography or not (in my case). You can easily have a lot of equal 1st or 2nd places from rather easy tasks. There is really no excuse to do poorly in a take-home or a test that only examines content learned over a term.

Trials determine ranks not only because of their nature, being a 3-hour exam and their weighting, but how many people can do badly in the trials. My school reportedly gets about a 25-30% grade average (top 5 iirc in Maths ADV was only 43%) in their trials, so pulling a say 85 can really pull you from saying mid-rank or even bottom to top 3. This is why I'm a bit concerned so I want some type of insurance policy by acing all the tasks and even if I don't do as good in the trials, I would still be ranked high overall.

A girl was pretty smart in their other tasks and was equal first though her rank plummeted after bombing the trials.

That's why many people are like don't give up after task 1, there's still TRIALS left.

My goal is to be an outlier for all my trials, while everyone falls, I'm going to reap the rewards.

Bad Rank = Keep Pushing and fight for a better rank using the trials
Good Rank = Don't celebrate too early and hang onto it tightly for trials.
But in most schools trials are weighted 40% or so, our school is retarded, so we weight trials pretty much like the assessment I just fucked up then. So in my case would I have to totally obliterate everyone in trials or hope they bomb it whilst I do well as well to get a better rank? (I know rank doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things cuz it all gets moderated and whatnot, but considering our school isn't the best, and because we get so few b6s, AND because I feel like our cohort is significantly weaker than most, rank would really matter for me)
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top