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Author Topic: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions  (Read 23223 times)  Share 

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exit

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[D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« on: January 12, 2018, 10:10:35 pm »
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Background: I was initially a poor EngLang student, and never ever got a particular good English grade before that. (i was a year behind in primary school English) In year 11, I averaged D+-C+. In year 12, I started from scratch and went from being one the the worse to being one of the absolute best, finishing with a raw 43 study score (scaled to over 45). In my (hopefully set of 3) guides for this subject, I hope to instill the confidence and ability for students to tackle this elusively difficult subject by providing a perspective from someone who was never great at English but still did well.

Edit: My work was featured 2-3 times (still need to see original exam to confirm one of the answers) in the SA and essay section of the 2017 Examiners report, so I may update this guide to include those featured examples and my thought process behind them.

Introduction: Many people neglect the short answer section of the exam, and understandably so. It is often covered first by teachers, and thus students forget how to do these questions by the end of the year. Many teachers don’t even cover short answers properly, or may have inaccurate views of this section perpetuated by lack of experience. Otherwise, students prioritise the longer (and generally seen as harder) sections of the exam. This is my first guide so sorry if it’s bad.

Do not neglect short answers!

It is far easier to lose marks on this section since each question is marked individually and not as a whole. For example, you can run out of time when running out of time on an Analytical commentary and have it still appear as if it were complete. This is not possible for SAQs.

How do I answer short answer questions then?

You may have heard of the acronym TEEL before. This stands for: Technique, Evidence, Explain, Link (what the Es stand for are truly exchangeable). In essence, answering SAQs follow the same approach. However, perfecting this technique to the EngLang criteria is truly an art. The unfortunate part is that EngLang, like other Englishes, is still truly subjective. As such, you will want to ensure that the assessor has no possible reason to take a mark off you.

Thankfully, the EngLang criteria is simple, providing an easy pathway to the assessor’s mindset!           

             

While I didn’t know about this assessment  criteria (lol), my ideas on approaching SAQs were in-line with this. Here are some tips that will ensure that you maximise your marks for short answer questions on the exam.

1.   Be specific to the text (not generic!)

None of your answers should be able to be applied word-for-word to any other text – it must be unique to the text you’re answering.

Question: Discuss one example of a sentence structure between lines 33 and 42 in relation to the purpose/s of the text
Avoid: A complex sentence is used (38-39) by the writer to provide a reason for his statement.
Full mark response: [A complex sentence] [‘It turns…because..initiative.’ (38-39]) [seeks to elaborate on why I2 does not have time after mentioning it].[From this, the purpose of informing the reader about I2 is fulfilled.]

I have square bracketed each element of TEEL being applied in my answer above. Try understand how each element of TEEL is applied!

As you can see, my answer (with the exception of line numbers which you should NEVER exclude) in ‘Avoid’ can be applied to any text. The ‘full mark response’ provided provides the specific name of the person being referred to as well as provides contextualisation of the ‘textbook explanation’ of the conjunction ‘because’ in that it is used to ‘provide elaboration’. The ‘textbook explanation’ is the only ‘generic’ part of your response as you need to show the assessor that you know what you are talking about. The rest of your answer has to be unique to the text!

Special note: If the question was ‘discuss one example of a sentence structure between lines 33 and 42’, you can very well get away without a ‘L’, making your answer simply follow a TEE structure as there is nothing to link it to!

2.   Answers must include metalanguage.

Nothing needs to be said. Say ‘interrogatives and declaratives’ as opposed to ‘statements and questions’ . The more metalanguage you provide, the better! Therefore, you could try referring to a pronoun as a ‘first person singular pronoun’ as opposed to just as ‘pronoun’. INCLUDE YOUR METALANGUAGE IN EVERY ANSWER! However, do not use metalanguage you do not fully understand.

3.   Use full sentences.

This will naturally help you contextualise your response and show the assessor that you are engaging with the text.
Question: What is the social purpose of this text?
Avoid: ‘to establish expertise’
Full mark ‘the social purpose of this text is for M to establish expertise so that the listeners will trust in his expert opinion regarding technology.’

Which answer shows the assessor that you know what you are talking about?

4.   Remember to include an example and its line reference for every feature you analyse in your answer. No exceptions. Find the best method of doing this.

Sometimes this can be quite hard to do as the example is split over multiple paragraphs. Also you have to make sure that you quote and reference examples efficaciously.

My line references usually look like these:
(69-71)
(32,56,81)
(23-24, 43-44)

Note that there is no set convention on referencing examples. Therefore if you are still including the word ‘line’ when referencing, you might want to consider omitting it  as timing in this subject is quite important.

Ellipsis works quite well.
Avoid quoting your example like this: ‘Parallelism is used in ‘the man saw then he ate then shortly after that he slept’ (line 31-33) to…’
Efficient referencing: ‘Parallelism ‘the man saw…he ate…he slept’ (31-33) is used to…’

Same thing being conveyed, but shorter which saves you writing time! Also decide whether it is appropriate to use active vs passive voice. This can affect the fluency and length of your sentence.

5.   Remember to read and answer the question succinctly – be straight to the point.   


Many students ramble and ramble and ramble. Keep the lines provided for you to answer the question as a guide as to how long your responses should be

How do I practice short answer questions?


For SACs, you really can’t go wrong with the green ‘Kirsten Fox Exam Guide’. Note that the sample responses provided in this book are an indication of what you can talk about but are not written under exam conditions. Also you might consider looking at past exams anywhere from 2004-2011 as they provide plentiful short answer questions although they may contain content that is not on the current design. These papers are also worth doing as you likely won’t be doing them for exam preparation where there is more than enough exam papers.

For the exam, just do exams under timed conditions. If this is not possible, allocate a certain amount of time to each section of the exam then try do them under exam conditions. The timing constraints in English Language are rough but very manageable.

For both exam and SAC practice, hand in your responses for the teacher to mark.
How to approach difficult questions

You have no time to ponder in the English Language exam.  Move on and come back the question when you finish an AC or exam. This question will seep to the back of your mind and you will probably find the question easier to answer the second time around. Also, writing an essay or AC may spark some lightbulbs!

 I feel this guide is comprehensive enough now to be published. I may edit this further in the future. If you have any suggestions to improving this guide, feel free to let me know.There is a good chance I might write future guides on the other sections of the exam if I have enough reason to.

Thanks for reading!

NOTE: On the actual EngLang exam, 20-25 is too much time to finish section A if you practice enough, even for slow writers :)
« Last Edit: February 13, 2019, 12:42:39 pm by Joseph41 »
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VCE English Language: A+ Short Answer Guide[pm for extra guidance!]

cookiedream

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2018, 07:35:24 am »
+11
Thank you so much for writing this guide, exit! Really good advice here, which I am sure will be of great help to current and future Eng Lang students ;D
Will be super awesome if you could write guides to Section B and Section C as well!!
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sarangiya

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2018, 07:59:23 am »
+5
Awesome!! What an inspiration.
Thank you so much
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Joseph41

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2018, 02:31:33 pm »
+3
Great work, exit!

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

exit

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2018, 07:09:44 pm »
+9
Update:  I found out my work was featured 2-3 times (still need to see original exam to confirm one of the answers) in the SA and essay section of the 2017 VCAA Examiners report, so I may update this guide to include those featured examples and my thought process behind them.  Stay tuned for that!

Edit: So if anyone has a copy of the vcaa exam (section A particularly), please show me it provided there are no copyright issues!

Edit: I'm also triggered since the chief assessor changed or didn't copy my essay properly and changed a couple words so that the sentence doesn't make sense.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2018, 11:58:59 am by exit »
VCE [ATAR: 99.25]: Physics 1/2, English 1/2, EngLang,Methods, Spesh, Accounting, Chem, German

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VCE English Language: A+ Short Answer Guide[pm for extra guidance!]

trashedjade

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2018, 10:19:29 am »
+1

Thank you so much for this post!Just wondering what is the recommended time allocation for each section of the Englang exam that you recommend?

exit

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2018, 02:12:09 am »
+3
Thank you so much for this post!Just wondering what is the recommended time allocation for each section of the Englang exam that you recommend?

It really depends on what you feel comfortable with but 20 mins is a good amount of time to aim for. It will give you 50 minutes to do the AC and essay which is nice. However, taking longer than 20 minutes is fine as long as you have a clear idea of how long you will take to write your AC/essay
VCE [ATAR: 99.25]: Physics 1/2, English 1/2, EngLang,Methods, Spesh, Accounting, Chem, German

2018-2021: Bachelor Of Commerce @ University of Melbourne
VCE English Language: A+ Short Answer Guide[pm for extra guidance!]

sandra.k

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2018, 01:13:45 pm »
+1
How come we're not allowed to state line numbers in short answer questions? Pretty sure i've been told to do this in class  :-\

Pupper

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Re: [D+ to A+] - A guide to Short Answer Questions
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2018, 04:00:12 pm »
+3
How come we're not allowed to state line numbers in short answer questions? Pretty sure i've been told to do this in class  :-\
The guide says that you're supposed to quote line numbers