Nick McIndoe graduated in 2012, and has since completed a degree in Linguistics.
Click here for complete English Language course notes!
Is English Language the hardest VCE subject to study for?
I think it’d have to be up there – I certainly found it difficult.
No need to panic, though – there are still three weeks until the exam. That might not sound like a lot initially, but I promise you, you can make a lot of ground in that time.
How should you use the time?
USE THE WORLD AROUND YOU
English Language is funny. There aren’t that many “proper” resources floating around; yet, it probably has the most resources of any VCE subject.
What I mean by this is that we’re surrounded, every single day, by language.
What is English Language as a subject? Basically, just analysing language – how it’s used, why it’s used, and so on.
So really, you’re absolutely inundated with potential resources every day, but you might not even realise it.
This is definitely a good thing for you, particularly if you make it a good thing for you. You can analyse whatever you like, whenever you like.
If you’re on the train, start thinking about why ads have used certain word classes. If you’re listening to the news, start thinking about why interviewers have used particular linguistic devices. Even in day-to-day conversation, you can start thinking about why your friends use the lingo they do.
And also start thinking about what effect these choices have on the hearers.
Without single down at a desk for a single minute, you’ve been revising for EngLang. It’s a brilliant system, if I do say so myself.
PRACTICE PAPERS
In saying that, nothing really beats the real thing.
When it comes to exam preparation, completing practice papers is, IMO, a pretty good idea.
You don’t have to sit down and finish the whole thing in one sitting, though. Of all my subjects, I struggled most with full exams for EngLang; I think it was the essay that got me (I always did the essay component last, and the analytical commentary first).
Regardless, completing practice papers will give you an idea of how long each section will – or should – take you. It’s all well and good to write a ripper essay, but if it takes you two hours, it’s not going to benefit you much in the actual exam.
VCAA exams are a good place to start. And finish. I’m definitely not opposed to doing the same exams more than once.
This sort of exposure also should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect come 16 November. For example, the essay topics typically fall into one (or more) themes, which you can mostly glean from past VCAA papers.
P.S. Make sure to work with a range of texts: both spoken and written; both one participant and more; both formal and informal.
QUOTES AND LANGUAGE EXAMPLES
Quite a lot of students get to the end of the year and panic, because they don’t have a pool of quotes and language examples to use in the exam.
If you feel those feels, don’t worry. We’ve kept track of language examples during the year – and we’ve even split them by Area of Study! You can find the collection of language examples here.
You might like to have a few of these language examples (and quotes) ready to go. It might even be a good idea to split these thematically. That means that if, for example, you have an essay on taboo and euphemism, you have some go-to examples. And the same for every other topic that might come up.
It’s all in the preparation, really – and that’s what you might like to focus on in the next three weeks!
Good luck for the rest of the year.
