Literature External Exam

[s110820]

Hey everyone,

The Literature External Exam is fast approaching (only twelve or so days away!). How are you guys feeling about this exam? What text are you studying? Have you enjoyed studying your texts and if so, why? Sorry if it's a lot of questions, I just wanted to start a conversation on this board and hopefully, keep this conversation rolling as the big day draws nearer.

Keep studying and look after yourself,

Darcy Dillon.

P.S. I was also thinking of creating more specific topics on this board such as a topic for each text, study preparation and what we can do to mentally prepare ourselves for the big day. If you guys have any other ideas, feel free to add more topics to this board as I'm sure the entire QCE community would really appreciate it

[piperfred]

Hi Darcy!

I'm feeling better for the external than I was for the mock, which means I've thankfully made some progress since then I'm studying King Lear -- easily the densest and most technical piece we've looked at in Literature, so it's a bit of an extra layer of difficulty on top of the pressure of the exam. However, my marks have been great in Literature all year, so I know that whatever marks I get in this external are just the cherry on top!

How are you feeling? I'd be happy to share some more about how I'm preparing if it would benefit you or others reading this.
Piper

[s110820]

Hi Darcy!

I'm feeling better for the external than I was for the mock, which means I've thankfully made some progress since then I'm studying King Lear -- easily the densest and most technical piece we've looked at in Literature, so it's a bit of an extra layer of difficulty on top of the pressure of the exam. However, my marks have been great in Literature all year, so I know that whatever marks I get in this external are just the cherry on top!

How are you feeling? I'd be happy to share some more about how I'm preparing if it would benefit you or others reading this.
Piper

Hey Piper,

I'm so sorry for the extremely late reply - I haven't been able to be as active on ATAR Notes as I usually do, especially since the rest of my exams are around the corner. But I'm so glad that your studying King Lear too! Everyone else I've talked to is doing Bleak House which is a novel by the infamous Charles Dickens. And I definitely agree with your interpretation of King Lear. In fact, out of A Midsummer's Night Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear, King Lear is probably the most densest and technical piece of Shakespeare's plays that I've studied too!

I've definitely made some progress in Literature too, especially in analytical writing which is my weakness, which I'll definitely have to credit my absolutely amazing Literature teacher for helping me along the way! I'm feeling pretty good about my Literature exam - it's my last exam so I'll have heaps of time to review some quotes, the context and even break down the quotes into manageable chunks of analysis.

And please do feel free to share some more about how you're preparing! I'm sure that other QCE students will find your process helpful as well

Have a great week and kind regards,

Darcy Dillon.

[piperfred]

Oh it's great to hear that you're doing King Lear too! I haven't had a chance to talk to many other schools that offer Literature.

I'm glad you're making progress! For me, something that really helped with King Lear - because there's so much content to analyse in it - was rereading it with an audio book after my mocks, and taking really detailed notes of the plot and ideas of analysis I had while I read it. I discovered some new aesthetic features/stylistic devices doing this, such as the Fool's Prophecy which is really interesting! Now I'm going to work on compiling all of that knowledge application: I've made a table of all the stylistic devices/aesthetic features, and today I might make a quizlet of what happens in each act and scene to help me have a really in depth knowledge of the text.

Something that I'm really struggling with is getting myself to do practice essays, it's so easy to procrastinate and seems like an insurmountable task. How do you tackle this? I have Chemistry and Legal Studies next Tuesday and Wednesday, so I think after that I'm going to sit myself down and just get one done. Do you have any tips?

Hope your exams are going well!

Piper