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March 28, 2024, 09:09:45 pm

Author Topic: Choosing different text in exam  (Read 634 times)  Share 

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TheEagle

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Choosing different text in exam
« on: June 20, 2020, 12:55:29 pm »
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My school has chosen Rear Window for analytical and I have already sat the sac for it etc, but I've heard from multiple sources that since it is Rear Window's final year in the study design and due to it's popularity, there'll be more competition and therefore harder to score high in. I am willing to pick up another text as I have more time on my hands due to completing the courses of my other subjects and am no longer learning content - only doing past year exams. I am looking to pick up an 'easy' text which can allow me to have prepared responses (memorised essays) and preferably have enough resources on it.

darkz

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Re: Choosing different text in exam
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2020, 02:50:31 pm »
+5
My school has chosen Rear Window for analytical and I have already sat the sac for it etc, but I've heard from multiple sources that since it is Rear Window's final year in the study design and due to it's popularity, there'll be more competition and therefore harder to score high in. I am willing to pick up another text as I have more time on my hands due to completing the courses of my other subjects and am no longer learning content - only doing past year exams. I am looking to pick up an 'easy' text which can allow me to have prepared responses (memorised essays) and preferably have enough resources on it.

Well, in the past, I have heard of people choosing different texts from the ones selected by their school for many different reasons - but I don't think that your reason is really valid - to be honest, there is rarely ever a valid reason as then you've just spent a term studying the text for no reason. Just because it's a popular text does not necessarily mean that it is more competitive or harder to score well. At the end of the day, if you're writing at a 9/10 standard, then you're going to get a 9/10. That is, yes, while teachers are influenced by unconscious biases of comparing different essays against each other, as long as you level of writing is in that bracket, that is what you will get - e.g. a 10/10 is the same as a 100/10 and just because an examiner read a 100/10 before your essay, it does not mean that you will get a 5/10 for a 10/10 essay.

In terms of preparing responses, I know that it's against popular opinion, but there's a real skill that you need to develop with prepared responses in regards to adapting your responses on the day and having a sufficient number of paragraphs memorised. Therefore, the text itself doesn't matter, since you'll hopefully be memorising 9/10s or 10/10s. Ultimately, each text has its own nuances that need to be addressed, so there is no real 'easier' text for you to pick.
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eloisegrace

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Re: Choosing different text in exam
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2020, 03:52:38 pm »
+4
Hello TheEagle!

I am only in year 11 but I hope this advice can help you! Firstly, I am not sure where you heard that it is Rear Window's last year in the study design, my school has decided to study it next year for the 2021 English cohort. Also, your English essay is not only marked against people writing on the same text, rather all texts.

In my opinion, I would stick to the text chosen as your teachers and classmates will be very familiar with this text and can help you. If you were willing to put the extra efforts into studying a new text, I would definitely research this text. See what resources there are here on AN or other online resources.
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The Cat In The Hat

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Re: Choosing different text in exam
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2020, 11:13:57 am »
+1
If you were choosing an 'easy' text my class did Skryznecki's poetry and the teacher said it was easy to do that kind of prepare-response stuff (though I hated the stuff and won't do it in an exam; she said there was a certain topic that hadn't been covered ever and she thought she knew what would be on the exam in consequence, as it's Old/New World's last year) however, when I asked the teacher about the question of what to do in the exam if I wanted to do a different text to what we did (though I don't because our other text was Pride and Prejudice :D) she said DON'T do that, the students who do it (at least at my school) regularly did not so well, as even though they might think they'd studied hard for it they didn't have the depth of analysis and so forth because it was not supported by a school. So at least my teacher would advise against it.
As to the marking scheme etc., I have no idea.
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Owlbird83

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Re: Choosing different text in exam
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2020, 05:54:03 pm »
+3
Be careful about doing this and first talk with your English teacher. According to my English teacher the school picks the texts to study under certain criteria such as the type of text, (so since Rear Window is a film, there's a possibility you won't be able to swap it out for a book).

Definitely advise against it like others have said. You might feel the motivation now to do all this extra study yourself now, and if you can sustain it that's great, but personally for me there are times when I would lose motivation, and if you are alone you have nothing to fall back on, and significantly less support and info.
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