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Author Topic: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion  (Read 11829 times)

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literally lauren

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VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« on: October 26, 2016, 12:44:44 pm »
+7
What did you think of your prompts this year? Bit of a mixed bag, but hopefully you managed to get through it all!

Let us know what you thought below!

Section A
General comments: this was a pretty generous selection of prompts overall; there were some curveballs, even for the first year texts like Island and Measure for Measure, but many of the big texts like All About Eve and especially Medea gave you pretty standard talking points. There were quite a few veeeerrry general 'The text is about ___'-types (which I personally hate and was always bad at :P) and quite a few quote-prompts scattered across the board, so some little challenges here and there, but here's hoping you got lucky!


deejay9

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2016, 02:09:24 pm »
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Did anyone here write on This Boy's Life? I was so happy during reading time because I thought that both prompts were fairly easy and accessible, but now that the exam's over I keep second guessing everything I wrote :-\
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sweetiepi

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2016, 02:18:28 pm »
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Did anybody do any of the I for Isobel prompts? I want to hear some other's thought about it! (I personally thought the second prompt was a tad easy!) ;D
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2016, 02:41:54 pm »
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Did anyone here write on This Boy's Life? I was so happy during reading time because I thought that both prompts were fairly easy and accessible, but now that the exam's over I keep second guessing everything I wrote :-\
That first prompt is clearly designed to throw you off with the word 'pretence,' but it's just basically a way of encouraging you to talk about dreams and Toby's penchant for lies and illusions etc. Once you get to that point, it's a relatively manageable one. The second is probably more straightforward on the surface; 'masculinity' and Toby's growth and understanding are all fairly central concerns. But finding them easy is a really good sign, so don't stress. You'll probably stumble across some evidence a week from now and think 'damn, that would've been great,' but you're not marked on what you don't cover, so don't stress! :)

Did anybody do any of the I for Isobel prompts? I want to hear some other's thought about it! (I personally thought the second prompt was a tad easy!) ;D
I think the first was definitely worth challenging (i.e. perhaps, she attempts to control her life, or, she has control over aspects of her life?) but if you've talked about 'control' at all in previous essays, I imagine this wouldn't be much of a stretch. Plus, the quote gives you a bit of a hint (i.e. she thought she had control over her life... but didn't?)

As for the second one, it can be tough to strike a balance when asked to discuss "the characters," so that might've been a challenge for some, and "emotions" is suuuuper broad... which is either a godsend or a nightmare depending on your strengths :P I'm glad to hear you found it accessible though - hopefully it was easy enough to slot all your quotes/evidence into place :)

michael leahcim

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2016, 02:50:50 pm »
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Thank god John Donne prompt was about love!! It was the only thing I wrote on before my exam~
I'm just hoping my topic sentence didn't misinterpret the prompt, which was: "love in its many forms is explored in Donne's poems' So glad it's over and now...onto lit </3

appleandbee

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2016, 02:52:44 pm »
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The prompts for the texts I'm familiar with were great.

All about Eve was predictable as always (the promrpts are always centred on Eve and Margo as well as the nature of the world of theatre)
Burial Rites-much easier than last year (this year, the prompts really got to the central point of Burial Rites ie. Agnes struggle)
Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein (would have loved to write on the 2nd prompt) were broad, allowing students to delve into the main themes of the text

Personally I loved the thematic nature of the prompts because it allows students to delve into the essence of the text and analyse how various events, characters, structural and stylistic features create meaning.
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NerdyPi

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2016, 03:00:11 pm »
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I felt the Medea prompts were very reasonable, especially the first (basically picked i straight away). :)

Also, I agree Burial Rites were a lot easier than last year, if I wrote on that text I probably would have gone with ii

postera

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2016, 03:06:42 pm »
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I felt the Medea prompts were very reasonable, especially the first (basically picked i straight away). :)


I, too, wrote about the first one and found it pretty straightforward, however lost some direction three-quarters in - which can probably be attributed to a lack of planning.

My thesis was that the audience is compelled to sympathise more with Medea, than Jason. That is, as a result of Jason's betrayal of her (quite superficial, I know) -- we lose sympathy for him and more for Medea, the deus ex machina at the play's end which confirms the act of 'justice', as well as her unjust treatment in the patriarchal and Athenian society. I felt like I went a bit off-topic and it wasn't my best work all year. I did also come up with a quotes index prior, but couldn't recall a good deal of them (only using about six or seven all up, with the majority being short descriptions). Will this quantity suffice or is it too little? (I suppose it depends on their use and relevance, right?).

What do you think? If I may ask, what was your thesis and which points did you use?

Thanks NerdyPi & everyone else
« Last Edit: October 26, 2016, 03:21:33 pm by postera »

zfan52827717

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2016, 03:15:58 pm »
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what did everyone thought of no sugar?

fitz.hickey

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2016, 03:19:39 pm »
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anyone else do Cloudstreet?
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BNard

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2016, 03:27:55 pm »
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Our school did The White Tiger and Maus - 4 great prompts so everyone was pretty happy coming out of the exam.
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deejay9

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2016, 03:33:59 pm »
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That first prompt is clearly designed to throw you off with the word 'pretence,' but it's just basically a way of encouraging you to talk about dreams and Toby's penchant for lies and illusions etc. Once you get to that point, it's a relatively manageable one. The second is probably more straightforward on the surface; 'masculinity' and Toby's growth and understanding are all fairly central concerns. But finding them easy is a really good sign, so don't stress. You'll probably stumble across some evidence a week from now and think 'damn, that would've been great,' but you're not marked on what you don't cover, so don't stress! :)

I hope you're right, that I'm just stressing over nothing! I've done this all year with my SACs actually - I tend to imagine the worst possible outcome until I get my results back and find out that I went better than expected haha. And, like you said, it's probably a good sign that I found them easy. It actually took me a while to decide which prompt to write on, because I had a lot of ideas for both of them. I ended up writing on the second one, discussing how Arthur, Roy, Dwight and Mr Howard all mould Toby's ideas of masculinity and fatherhood in various ways.
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knightrider

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2016, 03:44:09 pm »
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Just one question guys.

on the TR section where you had to tick what text you were doing + whether you chose i or ii)

i did AAEeve and ticked that i was doing that text, but i am kinda getting scared i forgot to tick whether i was doing topic i or ii)

Would the examiners be able to work it out if i forgot

Thanks  :) Hope everyone killed it today !!!!

HarryCondon5

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2016, 04:05:43 pm »
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Bumpstead

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Re: VCE English Exam - Text Response Discussion
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2016, 04:26:10 pm »
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Anyone else do the 1st prompt for Mabo?