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Author Topic: English Advice for year 12? 35+  (Read 1090 times)  Share 

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HUMPHC02

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English Advice for year 12? 35+
« on: December 12, 2019, 07:46:22 pm »
+3
I had a bad teacher this year and my grades went down from As to Cs Bs and a D+ (partly my fault coz i didnt try hard due to disliking the teacher) what tips would you guys suggest to get 35+ study score.
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yourfriendlyneighbourhoodghost

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Re: English Advice for year 12? 35+
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2019, 12:44:42 pm »
+6
Hi,

You need to really know your texts in depth so come exam time, if you are faced with any prompt you can respond to it well with your knowledge. To improve this, just read the texts (I like to read it about three times, one for lesuire, one to take light notes, one to really examine scences)

There is no real easy way around it, but you need to write as much practice essays or/and paragraphs as possible on all different themes and prompts, trial and error with your ideas now so in the exam, you are confident with the ideas you want to put forward.

Also, build your own interpretation of the texts. The assessors want to see your interpretation and remember nothing is incorrect, as long as you back it up with evidence and it relates to the prompt then all is well.

I hope that makes sense. (: good luck
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lleeea

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Re: English Advice for year 12? 35+
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2019, 07:08:11 pm »
+5
I graduated this year with a study score of 36 and I feel quite weird giving advice since i SERIOUSLY HATED ENGLISH WITH A PASSION and i was honestly only expecting a 25-30 for English so i was like legit mindblown by a 36. I did pretty mediocre on the sacs but i did really well on the exam somehow (got an A which is really good based on my own standards), which put up my score

Here are some of my tips for a 35+ or just above, especially for those who hate english and cant be stuffed but still on how to do very well or reasonably well
a) Read all your books during holidays once,  dont bother reading all of your books again before sacs and stuff, coz ur honestly just waiting your times and you should only re-read or go to parts of books that you are unfamiliar with yet/or need refreshing on.
b) Write sample body paragraphs throughout week in class/home-i was lazy af for englsh and i wasnt ambitious and hardworking like a 40/50 like student who would write an essay every day or week, so i just wrote small body paragraphs here and there as a way to study for english. i honestly didnt know how to study for english like a 40/50 student but i just did these little things like writing 1 or 2 body paragraphs once a week or something and getting them checked by my tutor for feedback, as a way to revise. U DONT HAVE TO BURN YOURSELF OUT FOR ENGLISH by writing gazilion essays every day lol
c) Make quote/vocabulary sheets-I always made quote sheets and like memorised them throughout the week so before SACS i had already had them in the back of my head
d)think in an analytical way when reading/annotating-i would say even if u dont write essays, an effective way to study for english is to write analytical sentences for a quote and trying to find out the meaning/significance/ theme it is
and i would suggest doing this for every important quote/scene u find and then just kinda memorise these analytical sstatements and use them in your essays
e) use english study guides online-sometimes when i couldn't'be bothered analysing or just felt dumb af (which i was for english) i just looked at study guides and copied and pasted some of their fancy/sophisticated analyses into a word document and just looked over them every day. i then ofc used them in my own essays by twitching/wording it on my own but the teacher would never know it was someone else's ideas if you put it in your own words and phrase it in a unique way
d) Be consistent, read your books, look for new vocab, watch videos (i.e. i watched lisa study guides coz she was so good aat clarifiying confusing concepts) and be smart with what you do-dont just write essays on themes your good at, do it also on topics/books your weak at
e) Watch the movie (if your studying one) a trillion times and take notes of everything, i mean EVERTHING (i.e. lighting, cinematography, historical/social context)
d) Make AS MANY PLANS AS POSSIBLE- i was a lazy ass and most of the time i procrastinated and didnt even bother writing essays for english (coz i was dumb af and second of all i ffin hated english and had no motivation), instead sometimes the only thing/or the most of my english study this year involved just writing plans on themes/topics (via internet, study guides, teacher resources), this decreases your risk of just going blank on sacs/exams and at least u can think of something to write down on the paper as you have covered/thought about a broad range of topics.

Ironiic

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Re: English Advice for year 12? 35+
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2019, 10:17:16 pm »
+5
I know it may seem tedious, but really know your texts inside out! It's important to not only reread your texts but to analyse different themes and perspectives when rereading. By that, I mean being able to know your text, its context, characters and underlying messages well enough to be able to apply these to different prompts you might encounter. Don't be afraid to annotate, highlight, tear your book inside out (a bit of an exaggeration, but I had to actually do that for one of my texts so I could annotate it easier) in order to fully explore and understand all the complexities and details of your text!

For SACs, I really recommend brainstorming potential prompts that are really different from one another, so once you either plan or write essays for them, you at least have a foundation of ideas you can explore if you were to encounter a similar prompt in the SAC. I personally also advise against memorising, just because it can make your essay really restrictive and you are very likely to not explore all the different perspectives of the given prompt! Some quote and sentence memorisation is fine, although I believe the best thing (for me personally) is to plan ideas that are applicable to numerous prompts.

I also cannot stress enough how important timed essays are!! This by far was my biggest challenge, and I made the mistake of not handwriting or timing my essays whenever I did essay practice for my SACs. So by the time the English exam came around, it was the most emotionally taxing and stressful experience during my time in VCE, since I was terrified of all my work for English going down the drain because I was so overwhelmed by the exam's time restrictions. For a 35+ (and above also), it's not necessary to write an essay every single week, but make sure to get consistent practice by writing essays or at least planning for certain prompts on a routinely basis. This is one of the best ways to refine and improve your writing, in my opinion!

Most of all, don't be afraid to interpret your texts in your own way, as long as you provide evidence to back it up. If you're able to have unique ideas or perspectives of the text that can be proven or backed up from evidence in the text, this will really set you apart from other students and put you in the upper range of English students.

Feel free to shoot any questions and apologies if this was wordy! Hopefully this helped :)
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HUMPHC02

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Re: English Advice for year 12? 35+
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2019, 12:02:33 pm »
+1
Thanks for all the replys. each of you have different strategies and ill take each into account and formulate my own way of going about this. thank you again for taking the time to reply it was much needed
2019 Software Development: 43

2020 Bio, System Engineering, English, Methods, PE