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