Hello ciaoimangel!
How are you doing?
I have suffered similar feelings to you when I put so much effort that I will definitely get a 100 but I never ever never ever do. It's so frustrating and makes me want to bash my head against the wall or my table.
But don't worry, if you can put a lot of effort in, then I know you have the strength to keep pushing through and getting there in the end. Stay strong!
By the way, what english are you doing?
Tips:
- You can write essays a couple of weeks before your sac and then have your teacher mark it. They can give very valuable feedback and they are the ones that are going to be marking your sac so you know exactly what to put into your essay to make it amazing.
- Practice. Practice. Practice. I can't stress this enough. If you keep practising writing essays, structuring your sentences, organising your ideas and formulating your ideas, then you WILL get better! Progress might be slow in the beginning but as you keep practising, you will get to your goal and be writing the best essays!
- Read the 'good' essays from the examiner's reports and read the examiner's reports from the VCAA website. They will usually have a lot of good tips on what you should include in your essay. Read the 'good' essays and analyse why they are good. How are they different to your and what can you do to improve?
- Read lots. Read different texts and see how they use language. How do they use language to convey what they want? How do they express effectively and concisely?
Tips for vocabulary:
- Personally when I was in upper primary and high school, I used to have this book where I collated words and wrote the definition and a sentence. These words can be from anywhere, a random word on an ad, the book you are reading, the newspaper! You can even search it u on the phone if you are travelling. Or when you hear a word you've never heard of, ask them!
- Read the newspaper. Particularly editorials, opinion articles, feature articles etc. You are going to find a lot of words that you can use in your own essay, especially the argumentative essays you will need to write, assuming you are doing mainstream english.
I hope this helped!