How hard is it to get a 50 in Lit?

[jayceevce]

So I was wondering how hard it actually is to get a 50 in lit? I've heard that it is extremely difficult because you basically have to full-mark the exam? Last year my school's cohort performed really well in lit and received very high scores (including a 50) but this year there are new teachers who have never taught lit 3/4 before and I am not happy with the way they are marking the SACs. I received a total of 92/100 for Unit 3 (which I honestly do believe could have been marked better) and was wondering if anyone had any advice to score highly in lit, and how many more points I can afford to drop SAC-wise. Thank you!

[bananabreadbelle]

(And anyone happen to have any 20/20 scoring VCAA Literature passage analyses to share - I heard they're never published on examiners' reports, TOP SECRET STUFF)

[HopefulLawStudent]

(And anyone happen to have any 20/20 scoring VCAA Literature passage analyses to share - I heard they're never published on examiners' reports, TOP SECRET STUFF)

YAS. If anyone has any high-range Literature passage analyses on hand that they're willing to share, you will be recompensed with much gratitude and adoration from us Lit students.

[qazser]

YAS. If anyone has any high-range Literature passage analyses on hand that they're willing to share, you will be recompensed with much gratitude and adoration from us Lit students.

Check Out Ez's essays or Kadinsky's

[literally lauren]

So I was wondering how hard it actually is to get a 50 in lit? I've heard that it is extremely difficult because you basically have to full-mark the exam? Last year my school's cohort performed really well in lit and received very high scores (including a 50) but this year there are new teachers who have never taught lit 3/4 before and I am not happy with the way they are marking the SACs. I received a total of 92/100 for Unit 3 (which I honestly do believe could have been marked better) and was wondering if anyone had any advice to score highly in lit, and how many more points I can afford to drop SAC-wise. Thank you!

BACKSTORY: I got a 46 SS back in 2013 and was actually quite disappointed. I'd put way more effort into Lit than English in Year 12, and I'd been so diligent in fine-tuning my essays & trying to work out what separates the 19s from the 20s (~without much help from my teacher, unfortunately). Post-results I spoke to my Year 12 English teacher who had me for Lit in Year 11, and he flat out said 'at the 45+ level, the quality is basically inseparable; it just comes down to which assessor you get, so you got unlucky, sorry.'

Kind of depressing, but I can totally see his point in hindsight; each assessor focuses on different things when marking essays. I kind of superficially understood that in Year 12, but after I started marking essays more regularly post-high school, I've come to terms with it. I used to get Lit students who'd give me their essays saying 'my teacher said this was a C+' and I'd be like 'they're wrong; this is magniflorious' or 'I got full marks for this, what do you think?' and I'd say 'ummm...needs work...a lot of work...' But that's because where their teacher concentrated on one thing, I concentrated on another. Multiply that by a whole essay's worth of 'things' to concentrate on, and you've got a perfect recipe for a subjective free-for-all.

That's not to say Lit is completely random (a la that theory floating around the Lit boards ages ago about assessors throwing essays down the stairs and giving full marks to whichever one landed nearest to their cat). There are particular things you can do to boost yourself up the ranks and maximise your chances of impressing as many assessors as possible.

So rather than seeing 'getting 50' as your end goal like I did, aim for a 45+ instead. Hitting that bracket is definitely attainable, and it'll hopefully you mean you won't fritter away quite so much time obsessing over minute differences in scores as I did.

(And anyone happen to have any 20/20 scoring VCAA Literature passage analyses to share - I heard they're never published on examiners' reports, TOP SECRET STUFF)

YAS. If anyone has any high-range Literature passage analyses on hand that they're willing to share, you will be recompensed with much gratitude and adoration from us Lit students.

I do have some of mine from Year 12 - these were ones that my teacher gave me 19.5/20 for because she loathed the very fibres of my being, but they might be of some use - I'll try and hunt them down and post them here when I get a chance

[DeezNuts]

I wrote at least one 20/20 or 19/20 piece for my lit end of exam last year, and if I have time I could try to reproduce it from memory.
I also have a few 20/20 essays I wrote last year that my Lit teacher marked for me. But I would need some time to find them - wherever they are now haha.

I agree with Lauren, 45+ is super difficult to get in Lit, Lit assessors are like 10x more picky and than english assessors haha
If you want anecdotal evidence, I had a friend who got like near 50 for english but only got low 40's for Literature.

[bananabreadbelle]

BACKSTORY: I got a 46 SS back in 2013 and was actually quite disappointed. I'd put way more effort into Lit than English in Year 12, and I'd been so diligent in fine-tuning my essays & trying to work out what separates the 19s from the 20s (~without much help from my teacher, unfortunately). Post-results I spoke to my Year 12 English teacher who had me for Lit in Year 11, and he flat out said 'at the 45+ level, the quality is basically inseparable; it just comes down to which assessor you get, so you got unlucky, sorry.'

Kind of depressing, but I can totally see his point in hindsight; each assessor focuses on different things when marking essays. I kind of superficially understood that in Year 12, but after I started marking essays more regularly post-high school, I've come to terms with it. I used to get Lit students who'd give me their essays saying 'my teacher said this was a C+' and I'd be like 'they're wrong; this is magniflorious' or 'I got full marks for this, what do you think?' and I'd say 'ummm...needs work...a lot of work...' But that's because where their teacher concentrated on one thing, I concentrated on another. Multiply that by a whole essay's worth of 'things' to concentrate on, and you've got a perfect recipe for a subjective free-for-all.

That's not to say Lit is completely random (a la that theory floating around the Lit boards ages ago about assessors throwing essays down the stairs and giving full marks to whichever one landed nearest to their cat). There are particular things you can do to boost yourself up the ranks and maximise your chances of impressing as many assessors as possible.

So rather than seeing 'getting 50' as your end goal like I did, aim for a 45+ instead. Hitting that bracket is definitely attainable, and it'll hopefully you mean you won't fritter away quite so much time obsessing over minute differences in scores as I did.
YAS. If anyone has any high-range Literature passage analyses on hand that they're willing to share, you will be recompensed with much gratitude and adoration from us Lit students.


I do have some of mine from Year 12 - these were ones that my teacher gave me 19.5/20 for because she loathed the very fibres of my being, but they might be of some use - I'll try and hunt them down and post them here when I get a chance

I wrote at least one 20/20 or 19/20 piece for my lit end of exam last year, and if I have time I could try to reproduce it from memory.
I also have a few 20/20 essays I wrote last year that my Lit teacher marked for me. But I would need some time to find them - wherever they are now haha.

I agree with Lauren, 45+ is super difficult to get in Lit, Lit assessors are like 10x more picky and than english assessors haha
If you want anecdotal evidence, I had a friend who got like near 50 for english but only got low 40's for Literature.

Yay, YES any 19-20/20 mark passage analyses y'all have to share would be sooo helpful!

And regarding the difficulty of obtaining a 45+ study score for Lit relative to mainstream English, currently doing Lit as my only English... does that mean I've done my ATAR a disservice?

[bananabreadbelle]

There are particular things you can do to boost yourself up the ranks and maximise your chances of impressing as many assessors as possible.

Hehe was there a post/thread/link lurking around that lists these "particular things"? At this point, feeling unfocused in terms of what to include/not include/make sure I have in my passage analyses.

[literally lauren]

Yay, YES any 19-20/20 mark passage analyses y'all have to share would be sooo helpful!

And regarding the difficulty of obtaining a 45+ study score for Lit relative to mainstream English, currently doing Lit as my only English... does that mean I've done my ATAR a disservice?

Not at all. English may have been a relatively easy subject for you since statistically students doing both Eng and Lit will score higher in English. But they are fairly distinct subjects; I know that I personally hated one of the English Area of Studies (and still do) and had I not pushed past the hate, I definitely wouldn't have done well in that subject. The school I was at made English compulsory for Lit students because it boosted the school's average English result, but English does still scale down, so if you're doing another subject that you find enjoyable and are scoring fairly highly in, you're at no disadvantage whatsoever.

You'd only be 'doing your ATAR a disservice' if you wasted time bemoaning the fact that you weren't doing English (which is in almost all ways a worse subject) instead of concentrating on how you could boost your Lit performance

Hehe was there a post/thread/link lurking around that lists these "particular things"? At this point, feeling unfocused in terms of what to include/not include/make sure I have in my passage analyses.

Dw, I will absolutely make one ASAP. I'm going to compile something for the Creative SAC first though, since that's a more immediate concern for most people, but after that point this place'll be all Passage Analysis-centric

[bananabreadbelle]

Just curious, what will the AN Literature Revision Lecture be covering? :-)
Will there be any text-specific advice given on the day?

[literally lauren]

Just curious, what will the AN Literature Revision Lecture be covering? :-)
Will there be any text-specific advice given on the day?

It'll be a Passage Analysis bonanza with a bunch of exam tips - so less 'revision' and more like 'end-of-year-cram-sesh'

I can't make it text specific, unfortunately, since that would mean either spreading the 3x45 minute content blocks over the 30 List B texts, or just focusing on a few and then unfairly disadvantaging those whose texts I don't cover. So it'll be pure raw analysis advice that will hopefully be easily transferred to whatever texts you're doing