Visual Arts: How To Ace the Exam (GUIDE)

[ninax]

Visual Arts: How To Ace the Exam (GUIDE)
So you're either doing the Visual Arts Exam for HSC, or in the following years? Well you're in the right place.

The weeks may appear difficult the weeks prior to an exam, and may appear daunting particularly in Visual Arts where your strength might be only in your Body Of Work. (Which isn't uncommon.) However, many people fail to do well in both aspects of Visual Arts, so it can scale you extremely well! So let's start from the beginning.What do you need to know?

Section 1. 25 Marks
This consists of 3 smaller marked questions , the first out of 5, the second of 8 and the latter 12 marks. It is essential that you allocate your time wisely; 8, 16, and 21 minutes respectively.

 In order to get the higher marks in the short answers you need to:
- Know your Art Terminology. Yes, this is essential to getting a high mark. Know words such as: appropriation, pastiche etc
- Know what type of work it is. It's a painting, which era? Renaissance? What type? Impressionism? If you can't label what type of artwork style it is, you may lose some important marks.
- Know your key frames. Subjective Frame? Cultural Frame? These frames are essential, so you know where to allocate your terminology and appropriate use of context.
- Refer to the artist with their last name. Yes, some people use their first name. Just don't do it.
- Lastly, use correct grammar and sophisticated language. Whilst this isn't as important, it's important that you articulate your argument well. So it's impressionism, what does it mean? etc
 
Remember, if all else fails you can always conjure random explanations from the air. Just make sure it atleast vaguely connects to the argument you are attempting to portray. For Example, 'The stark blandness of this room represents the clinical nature of the 1800s in North Korea' Often, under the Artwork, the dates and artist are stated. Remember, that tiny details such as time are important when making your evaluation in your short answers.

Section 2. 25 marks.

This perhaps is the only part of the exam that you can actually prepare for. Fortunately, you can remember your pre-prepared essay because there are 8 different questions you can pick from, and most of the time some of them can connect to your essay.

In order to get a band 6 in your essay you should:
-  Use plenty ofVisual Arts Terminology. If you don't have any, search them up.
- Use around 2-3 Artists at 2 artworks each. Write lengthy paragraphs with well-reasoned responses in order to convey your point, thus connecting to the question.
- Always have a powerful introduction.[/b] Your thesis statement will inevitably connect to your essay question, but is it in depth? Make sure that you have a sophisticated thesis statement.
- Don't have the vocab of a 12'vie. As stated previously, this will definetely kill your marks. Read a dictionary, or read some stories or fanfic. That boosted my friend's vocabulary.
- Remember your Topic Sentences, Artwork Name  & Year, Artist Name (And DOB preferably) and Analysis. (This may be the most important.)

Lastly, good luck! The Exam is very short, unlike others so you definitely have time to ace this exam! Make sure to be well rested the night before, and don't revise last minute because the short answer section requires fast-thinking! 

[jamonwindeyer]

Absolutely awesome ninax!! Thanks heaps for such an awesome resource!! I've set this and your other guide to sticky to make sure that people can find them really easily thanks heaps!

[EllieKing]

Thanks! This was very helpful for my exam!

[sina_wildr99]

Thank you so much! Very helpful!!

[camillablome]

Hi,
I was just wondering how many artists you think you should write about in the section II?

[dancing phalanges]

Hi,
I was just wondering how many artists you think you should write about in the section II?

Depends how many artworks you discuss on each artist and how in depth you can go. In my half yearly I received 25/25 and talked about 4 artists and around 4-6 artworks. I would say 4 artworks minimum. So 3-4 artists would do.

[shaniakalan]

Hey, I was wondering how many paragraphs you did on each artist and how you split it up?
Also, how did you connect your artists especially if they are all so different?

-Q

[dancing phalanges]

Hey, I was wondering how many paragraphs you did on each artist and how you split it up?
Also, how did you connect your artists especially if they are all so different?

-Q

Hey I already did my trial last week I wrote about Marcel Duchamp, Ai Weiwei, Gordon Bennett and Damien Hirst. I did 1 artwork and hence 1 paragraph on Duchamp. 2 paragraphs for 2 artworks on Weiwei. 1 paragraph for 1 artwork for Bennett. And 1 paragraph for 1 artwork for Hirst. So 5 paragraphs all up in between my intro and conclusion. Linking them is easy but depends on the question. For example, if the question was how do artists use their artworks to challenge audiences, you link them by saying at the start and throughout each paragraph Weiwei challenges audiences through ________. Similarly, Bennett confronts audiences by _________. But you make the paragraphs still different from each by writing stuff like Weiwei challenges audiences by exposing them to the repressive nature of the Communist Chinese Government. Then if your next para was on Bennett you say - Bennett also confronts audiences in his artworks, yet he does so to raise awareness for the silenced Aboriginal voice. So you connect each artist to the question eg. that they each challenge audiences but differentiate in terms of the different ways they do so.
Hope that helps

[maddiewainwright]

Hey, I was wondering how many paragraphs you did on each artist and how you split it up?
Also, how did you connect your artists especially if they are all so different?

-Q

Hi shaniakalan, I just wanted to add to dancing phalanges great answer, and give a couple of tips on how I organised my art notes for the HSC.
Basically to make it easier to connect different artists together, I would organise them by style, content or time period.
For example, we did a case study on the female figure throughout art history using 3 artists: Botticelli (the Birth of Venus), Manet (Olympia), and Morimura (Portrait (Futago)). This was great because I could talk about either changing styles across time periods, or changing attitudes towards women and gender, or changing techniques to reflect social ideas about art. I liked choosing artworks that were thematically linked, as it made it easier to compare and contrast.
You could also connect different artists from closely related time periods (e.g. impressionists, futurism, and dadaism) to display the quickly shifting social changes at the time and how they are reflected in art.
Or you could choose very different artworks from very different periods, and try to link them by analysing the differences in styles (i.e. classical painting vs. ephemeral art), or differences in themes (reflecting social context).
Essentially I found the best way to approach it was to choose a broad thesis, and have strong analysis of painting as they relate to the artist and their time period. Don't be afraid to talk about how artworks might provide contrasting or refuting ideas, because that is the shifting nature of the art world and art practices.
In terms of structure, as long as you talk about at least 3 artists (6 artworks total maximum), you should be alright, just make sure to add plenty of detail!
Hope this helps

[DalvinT]

What I did was 2 artists and 2 artworks... But each artwork branches off their main idea if that makes sense.

So I did Shirin Neshat and Wenda Gu ... Shirin Neshat explores the Iranian women and their surrounding notions about them. One artwork would explore the oppression of women but the other would look into the resilience of women.
They are both cultural artists as well... And my links were contrasting, one explores cultural world impacting individuals whilst the other examines the changing cultures of the world and its impact (broader spectrum).

AND 2 WEEK MORE WEEKS UNTIL OUR B.O.W ARE DUE OMG! :O Printing next week ..!!! Currently painstakingly trying to fix all these small imperfection ((( literally zoomed in with lots of content aware tool and clone tool hahah

[lsong]

Hi,

I've been doing the same three artists for my past exams (Do Ho Suh, Ai Wei Wei and Doris Salcedo), however, they're all contemporary artists. Just wondering if I should study an artist that is from a different art period, I know one work pretty well by Caravaggio, the Baroque painter. Would it be a disadvantage if I were to just do the artists from same period?

Thank you!

[dancing phalanges]

Hi,

I've been doing the same three artists for my past exams (Do Ho Suh, Ai Wei Wei and Doris Salcedo), however, they're all contemporary artists. Just wondering if I should study an artist that is from a different art period, I know one work pretty well by Caravaggio, the Baroque painter. Would it be a disadvantage if I were to just do the artists from same period?

Thank you!

100% fine! You can still discuss how they use different materials or express different ideas as ways of contrasting them