I cant answer questions and I feel like it will cost me my ATAR, help

[heckeroni]

Hello y'all
So I have a recurring problem with essay writing, but its impacted all my other grades tremendously.
I kept on getting feedback essentially saying I did not answer the question, even though I thought I did. I know that my problem is that I keep on rambling on and on, or I go off track, and you have no idea how frustrating it is - it feels like trying to eat soup with a fork because thats the only utensil you learnt how to use.

For example (this is an example from my Visual Arts trial exam), I got some feedback saying that I knew the artists and time periods very well, but I did not answer the question I chose, even though I thought my response was put together and concise. For my Multimedia exam, I have lost 22% on my extended response, bumping down a 91% exam to a 69% (lol) so I KNOW its not a problem with my actual knowledge on the content, but rather my incompetence (its even more frustrating when its not even the fact that I am a non native speaker - they put me into advanced after I requested standard, so I think I did something right at one point)

As for English, I have the same problem; I know the content, I know the quotes, I know my themes, etc. but i just... block down I guess? It is so frustrating because I feel so ready before the exam, and then in the hall my brain just freezes up and I just put some word vomit on the page that is incoherent. My average marks for my trial was 61% for crying out loud.

So yeah, has anyone had a similar issue? Its honestly so disheartening because I really need a good ATAR and I am so passionate about what I wanna do at uni. And I know, there are alternatives to getting into the choice of my course, but I want to make things easier for future me.

[dani01]

Hello y'all
So I have a recurring problem with essay writing, but its impacted all my other grades tremendously.
I kept on getting feedback essentially saying I did not answer the question, even though I thought I did. I know that my problem is that I keep on rambling on and on, or I go off track, and you have no idea how frustrating it is - it feels like trying to eat soup with a fork because thats the only utensil you learnt how to use.

For example (this is an example from my Visual Arts trial exam), I got some feedback saying that I knew the artists and time periods very well, but I did not answer the question I chose, even though I thought my response was put together and concise. For my Multimedia exam, I have lost 22% on my extended response, bumping down a 91% exam to a 69% (lol) so I KNOW its not a problem with my actual knowledge on the content, but rather my incompetence (its even more frustrating when its not even the fact that I am a non native speaker - they put me into advanced after I requested standard, so I think I did something right at one point)

As for English, I have the same problem; I know the content, I know the quotes, I know my themes, etc. but i just... block down I guess? It is so frustrating because I feel so ready before the exam, and then in the hall my brain just freezes up and I just put some word vomit on the page that is incoherent. My average marks for my trial was 61% for crying out loud.

So yeah, has anyone had a similar issue? Its honestly so disheartening because I really need a good ATAR and I am so passionate about what I wanna do at uni. And I know, there are alternatives to getting into the choice of my course, but I want to make things easier for future me.

Hey that really sucks to hear because I was in the same boat last year for prelims! My advice is use 2 minutes for planning. I never used to do this, because I always had the ahhh ive got to get everything down asap mentality. The 2 minutes for planning has really helped. I underline each word and under each thing I write some dot points that will enable me to answer that. What you can also do is for each topic sentence answer the question directly, rewrite it if you get really stressed and can't think of anything. In  that way the markers can see explicitly you have answered the question. But you can just plonk it. One you use it as a topic you have to build, which I believe you can do  fine since you say you know your content.

Hope this helps, you! You still have time. Good luck and make sure to send response to your teacher