English Advanced Question Thread

[jamonwindeyer]

I think I have decided to capitalise it just in case. If I'm wrong at least it will look like I tried hard!

Cool! You definitely won't lose any marks over it

[Lauradf36]

Soz bout my random obsessive editing, haha! Night before an english essay is due I always freak out!

[jamonwindeyer]

Soz bout my random obsessive editing, haha! Night before an english essay is due I always freak out!

You'll be fine! Be sure to get some rest, I bet you'll absolutely smash it (think of the good feels when it is submitted, last assignment ever is it?)

[Lauradf36]

Yep!! Way too weird to comprehend those feels!

[studybuddy7777]

I swear paper 2 is death. Like the people at BOSTES were like "How can we make a test that will make people want to cry and die as soon as they read it" thus PAPER 2 was created

I get that after the first essay you're mentally done and by the second essay your hand has basically lost all feeling, so i think you should always do your least favourite/weakest essay first because:
--> Your mind will be clear, and its most likely that you were studying the hardest for that essay, so the quotes and stuff should be fresh in your mind.
--> Lets be real, you already hate the essay, so why not get it out of the way. You'll naturally be slower at this essay, because youll have to think more about integrating it with the question and you simply dont like it. So if you do it first and go over a little (one or two minutes) it wont affect you as much, because the other essay you like more, so youll be faster at them, and you can make up the minutes.

--> ALSO if you do the ones you like most first, youll be tempted to give them extra time, to "perfect" them. But this is risky and you have to be realistic. If you spend a little extra time in the first two, youll suddenly find yourself with only 30-35 minutes left on the essay you hate. Meaning it was already weak, now its got less time and your hand is probs dead so the mark could be affected.

--> I know its tempting to go over the 40 minutes for your good essays, but if it was say a 19, you can only improve by one mark. Say your weakest essay is a 15, there are a WHOLE 5 marks that you could get in comparisson to one. At the end, i think youll benefit more, from trying to push up your weak essay, thus doing it first and giving it time. If you do it last and run out of time, it could slip even lower... and for what... so you could get one extra mark in one essay but loose 7 in another.
I think its best to do your weakest first because you have TO GIVE IT A FIGHTING CHANCE by doing it when your hand is strong and your mind is fresh.
Thats just my opinion and the advice i have collected. i feel like this post is too long lol.

I love this and it is definitely not too long trust me i have been on my soap box for much longer than that

Indeed my Module A was the last one I did (because im left handed and do everything backwards) and got worst marks for that. Mod B i did first, and funnily enough got the best marks for.

Definitely agree with this though, BOSTES people need to get a taste of their own medicine!!
Would do my favourite/easiest module first though as a confidence booster, THEN your worst one (which unfortunately I didnt do so I was rushed for this one). Your middle one is the last one you do, youll go alright in it and it is better for eg to go
Mod A (weakest) 12/20
Mod B (strongest) 17/20
Mod C (middle) 14/20
Than by leaving the worst one until last such as:
Mod A (weakest) 7/20
Mod B (strongest) 17/20
Mod C (middle) 17/20

Three B's are better than 2 A's and a C I believe.

My 2¢

[Lauradf36]

I love this and it is definitely not too long trust me i have been on my soap box for much longer than that

Indeed my Module A was the last one I did (because im left handed and do everything backwards) and got worst marks for that. Mod B i did first, and funnily enough got the best marks for.

Definitely agree with this though, BOSTES people need to get a taste of their own medicine!!
Would do my favourite/easiest module first though as a confidence booster, THEN your worst one (which unfortunately I didnt do so I was rushed for this one). Your middle one is the last one you do, youll go alright in it and it is better for eg to go
Mod A (weakest) 12/20
Mod B (strongest) 17/20
Mod C (middle) 14/20
Than by leaving the worst one until last such as:
Mod A (weakest) 7/20
Mod B (strongest) 17/20
Mod C (middle) 17/20

Three B's are better than 2 A's and a C I believe.

My 2¢

Good thoughts! I've definitely gotta test this out and see what works best!

[wesadora]

HELLO! So, HSC English is in about a month and my sense of urgency has just about kicked in.
For my English trials, I did okay (81%) so there's definitely a lot of room for improvement (most of my study was memorising essay scaffolds two days before) and now I'm really thinking about writing up GOOD QUALITY essays for AOS/Modules (but particularly for AOS as I did tragically for this in the trials...) to aim to memorise (only partly, giving room for creative license/moulding to the question, of course.

Ok that was useless but pretty much my question is HOW ON EARTH do you make notes/write an exemplar essay for AOS discovery?!?!. Like, for my trials I tried grouping aspects of discovery from the rubric into 2/3 different groups, with each discovery concept being able to link to another in the same 'group' (e.g. discoveries can be provocative and transforming + discoveries can be fresh and intensely meaningful, vs. discoveries can be planned/unplanned + discoveries can involve rediscovery or discovering something for the first time). However, is this too restrictive? Should I write my example essay just including as many broad statements of discovery as i can and not based off a particular question (I saw this was the case for Elyse's discovery essay she posted on the ATARNotes notes resource), and then once I nail that, practice on questions focusing solely on 1-2 aspects of discovery?

V confused and just wanna hear a few options on how to approach this next month and getting me into a good stead for AOS (essay, in particular). Thanks!

[jamonwindeyer]

HELLO! So, HSC English is in about a month and my sense of urgency has just about kicked in.
For my English trials, I did okay (81%) so there's definitely a lot of room for improvement (most of my study was memorising essay scaffolds two days before) and now I'm really thinking about writing up GOOD QUALITY essays for AOS/Modules (but particularly for AOS as I did tragically for this in the trials...) to aim to memorise (only partly, giving room for creative license/moulding to the question, of course.

Ok that was useless but pretty much my question is HOW ON EARTH do you make notes/write an exemplar essay for AOS discovery?!?!. Like, for my trials I tried grouping aspects of discovery from the rubric into 2/3 different groups, with each discovery concept being able to link to another in the same 'group' (e.g. discoveries can be provocative and transforming + discoveries can be fresh and intensely meaningful, vs. discoveries can be planned/unplanned + discoveries can involve rediscovery or discovering something for the first time). However, is this too restrictive? Should I write my example essay just including as many broad statements of discovery as i can and not based off a particular question (I saw this was the case for Elyse's discovery essay she posted on the ATARNotes notes resource), and then once I nail that, practice on questions focusing solely on 1-2 aspects of discovery?

V confused and just wanna hear a few options on how to approach this next month and getting me into a good stead for AOS (essay, in particular). Thanks!

Hey wesadora! Good work in your Trials, those marks sound stellar to me!

I can't comment too much on Discovery as an Area of Study, I got Belonging, which was way easier in my opinion

That said, my opinion on memorising essays is pretty well documented I prepared for my AoS like I prepared for all my essays, with a quote bank! Literally all I prepared was remembered quotes and techniques, and ways in which I could link them. For me, I prepared two streams of "concepts:"

- Belonging to Elements -> Belonging to Places, Belonging to Cultures, Belonging to Families, etc etc.
- Barriers to Belonging -> Cultural differences, individual attitudes, societal castigation, etc etc.

These are pretty simple by themselves, but by blending them I could create pretty complex concepts. For example: Societal castigation acts as a barrier to belonging to places and communities. Or something. My essays were pretty negative looking back

My point being, I would recommend considering simple concepts like these that you could blend together to create more complex stuff. If you consider these, along with which of your quotes would work well for each concept, you essentially end up with a large amount of "paragraph templates" that you can create on the fly, by blending two sets of quotes/concepts together into something more interesting

Of course writing the essay exemplar out of exam conditions is a good first step. After all, you need to know what a 15/15 looks like in your writing style, before you can reproduce it in exam conditions. Be sure to submit a draft to our AoS Marking Thread to get some feedback, and we can help you get your own exemplar written!

Sorry if my advice is a little generic, I can't help much with this AoS, but I'm a big believe that flexible quote banks, rather than more rigid paragraph structures and essay plans, is the best way to prepare for any essay

[studybuddy7777]

HELLO! So, HSC English is in about a month and my sense of urgency has just about kicked in.
For my English trials, I did okay (81%) so there's definitely a lot of room for improvement (most of my study was memorising essay scaffolds two days before) and now I'm really thinking about writing up GOOD QUALITY essays for AOS/Modules (but particularly for AOS as I did tragically for this in the trials...) to aim to memorise (only partly, giving room for creative license/moulding to the question, of course.

Ok that was useless but pretty much my question is HOW ON EARTH do you make notes/write an exemplar essay for AOS discovery?!?!. Like, for my trials I tried grouping aspects of discovery from the rubric into 2/3 different groups, with each discovery concept being able to link to another in the same 'group' (e.g. discoveries can be provocative and transforming + discoveries can be fresh and intensely meaningful, vs. discoveries can be planned/unplanned + discoveries can involve rediscovery or discovering something for the first time). However, is this too restrictive? Should I write my example essay just including as many broad statements of discovery as i can and not based off a particular question (I saw this was the case for Elyse's discovery essay she posted on the ATARNotes notes resource), and then once I nail that, practice on questions focusing solely on 1-2 aspects of discovery?

V confused and just wanna hear a few options on how to approach this next month and getting me into a good stead for AOS (essay, in particular). Thanks!

This may be really weird advice but my advice is to go in there and wing it. Of course you should know your texts and your rubric back to front and front to back (because the markers literally froth everytime they see you mention the rubric )

I got a 13/15 (A) in the essay and creative which to me is a good mark but may not be for you, I do poems for AoS so I just picked TWO ORTS that helped me access the question (although i only used once) and from there its like clockwork.

Thesis/Topic Sentence - rattle off a chunk of the rubric basically and link to q
Quote - Obviously in Quotation marks. Also, underline the text eg Coast Road
Technique - this is the most important (arguably), just explain a technique.
Link back to discovery - another snippet of rubric

Similarly, Related Text..
Thesis/Topic Sentence - rattle off a chunk of the rubric basically and link to q
Quote - Obviously in Quotation marks. Also, underline the text eg Coast Road
Technique - this is the most important (arguably), just explain a technique.
Link back to discovery - another snippet of rubric

Not sure if you wanted a scaffold or if that helps at all but if you just know your texts. (textS) well and also have good rubric knowledge than you should be sweet. Also remember trials are harder than the HSC

Hope I helped

[wesadora]

Spoiler

Hey wesadora! Good work in your Trials, those marks sound stellar to me!

I can't comment too much on Discovery as an Area of Study, I got Belonging, which was way easier in my opinion

That said, my opinion on memorising essays is pretty well documented I prepared for my AoS like I prepared for all my essays, with a quote bank! Literally all I prepared was remembered quotes and techniques, and ways in which I could link them. For me, I prepared two streams of "concepts:"

- Belonging to Elements -> Belonging to Places, Belonging to Cultures, Belonging to Families, etc etc.
- Barriers to Belonging -> Cultural differences, individual attitudes, societal castigation, etc etc.

These are pretty simple by themselves, but by blending them I could create pretty complex concepts. For example: Societal castigation acts as a barrier to belonging to places and communities. Or something. My essays were pretty negative looking back

My point being, I would recommend considering simple concepts like these that you could blend together to create more complex stuff. If you consider these, along with which of your quotes would work well for each concept, you essentially end up with a large amount of "paragraph templates" that you can create on the fly, by blending two sets of quotes/concepts together into something more interesting

Of course writing the essay exemplar out of exam conditions is a good first step. After all, you need to know what a 15/15 looks like in your writing style, before you can reproduce it in exam conditions. Be sure to submit a draft to our AoS Marking Thread to get some feedback, and we can help you get your own exemplar written!

Sorry if my advice is a little generic, I can't help much with this AoS, but I'm a big believe that flexible quote banks, rather than more rigid paragraph structures and essay plans, is the best way to prepare for any essay

Spoiler

This may be really weird advice but my advice is to go in there and wing it. Of course you should know your texts and your rubric back to front and front to back (because the markers literally froth everytime they see you mention the rubric )

I got a 13/15 (A) in the essay and creative which to me is a good mark but may not be for you, I do poems for AoS so I just picked TWO ORTS that helped me access the question (although i only used once) and from there its like clockwork.

Thesis/Topic Sentence - rattle off a chunk of the rubric basically and link to q
Quote - Obviously in Quotation marks. Also, underline the text eg Coast Road
Technique - this is the most important (arguably), just explain a technique.
Link back to discovery - another snippet of rubric

Similarly, Related Text..
Thesis/Topic Sentence - rattle off a chunk of the rubric basically and link to q
Quote - Obviously in Quotation marks. Also, underline the text eg Coast Road
Technique - this is the most important (arguably), just explain a technique.
Link back to discovery - another snippet of rubric

Not sure if you wanted a scaffold or if that helps at all but if you just know your texts. (textS) well and also have good rubric knowledge than you should be sweet. Also remember trials are harder than the HSC

Hope I helped

Thanks guys! Yeah studybuddy (soz idk ur name LOL) I did a film so a bit different, though that scaffold looks like what I was planning on doing
Jamon those 'streams' of concepts were what i was going for with my 'groups' of discovery concepts. Gonna pool together all my info and make super concise notes for concepts now and try that out.

Thanks so much!!

[studybuddy7777]

Thanks guys! Yeah studybuddy (soz idk ur name LOL) I did a film so a bit different, though that scaffold looks like what I was planning on doing
Jamon those 'streams' of concepts were what i was going for with my 'groups' of discovery concepts. Gonna pool together all my info and make super concise notes for concepts now and try that out.

Thanks so much!!

Hahaha no problems at all you got the hard part right and just missed the 7's! (Which tells me you are more of a words person than numbers, which generally means that you are better at english than at maths <- logical reasoning, am i right? )
I will never complain about my Mod A again - King Richard III and Looking For Richard (shakespeare + film) which I thought was hard. Me personally would not be able to do well in an AoS with a film and an ort.

But yeah the scaffold would be generally the same, except the rubric will have to be intrepreted in a visual form.

[humble mango]

Hey all! Prelim undergoer here,this may be a little too late but considering I have only 3 days to study for Paper two, are there any tips on how to pass the exam in terms of time management?? I realised how much I overstimated myself for Paper One, and spent wayy to much time on Section 1 ( probs not getting over 50% for this test lol). Should I just wing it and let 3U maths carry me up??

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey all! Prelim undergoer here,this may be a little too late but considering I have only 3 days to study for Paper two, are there any tips on how to pass the exam in terms of time management?? I only realised how much I overstimated myself for Paper One, and spent wayy to much time on Section 1 ( probs not getting over 50% for this test lol). Should I just wing it and let 3U maths carry me up??

Hey there humble mango (best name ever btw)

With only three days to go, you'll want to focus on learning quotes and giving yourself lots to talk about in those essays. Make yourself up some notes/palm cards today and then use the next couple of days to memorise as much as you can! Reading notes aloud, recording yourself then listening back to yourself, or just writing them out all work well. A bit boring, but the best way to learn on short notice

Use the rest of your time writing as many practice paragraphs/essays as you can! It is super important to get some practice writing before you get into the room (and in the long term, practice will improve your writing speed too)

In terms of time management, Paper 2 is probably the hardest exam you can do. 3 essays in 2 hours is no easy task. The trick is to

a) Keep Writing
b) Keep your Eye on the Clock

The first one is obvious, but the big mistake students make in Paper 2 is spending 50 minutes on two essays, then finding themselves with 20 minutes for their last essay. That is not a situation you want to be in.

As soon as you hit about 35-36 minutes into an essay, you NEED to wrap up your paragraph and conclude. It is vital that you don't get stuck finishing off one essay at the expense of another. It is better to have 3 essays that are shorter, but properly concluded, then half an essay stuck at the end.

Definitely don't just wing it, don't rely on 3U to bring you up (not that Prelim marks matter in the long run anyway) put your best into every exam!

I hope these ideas help you, good luck!

[conic curve]

For my yearly exams, I plan to memorise the body paragraphs and regurgitate it word for word in the yearly exam? Is this a good idea?

Like for essay question 1: I have body paragraphs talking about point X

For essay question 2: I regurgitate those body paragraphs from essay question 1 into essay question 2

[ssarahj]

For my yearly exams, I plan to memorise the body paragraphs and regurgitate it word for word in the yearly exam? Is this a good idea?

Like for essay question 1: I have body paragraphs talking about point X

For essay question 2: I regurgitate those body paragraphs from essay question 1 into essay question 2

Do you mean you have the same body paragraphs for both essays? If yes this could be a risky move but since its Prelims it depends what your school/teachers are looking for.

Memorising is a sound technique HOWEVER be wary of "regurgitating" your essay paragraphs to the point where they don't even answer the question. The question in front of you is the most important thing to be addressing in the exam, so don't be too set in your ways, instead be willing to change words/sentences in order to insightfully answer the question.