ATAR Notes: Forum

HSC Stuff => HSC English Stuff => HSC Subjects + Help => HSC English Advanced => Topic started by: BakerDad12 on November 03, 2019, 11:40:28 am

Title: Memorising responses for the new syllabus?
Post by: BakerDad12 on November 03, 2019, 11:40:28 am
Hey guys, my teacher told me that memorising essays and creatives for the new syllabus is going to be difficult and unnecessary as these new exams will have very specific questions that may completely destroy the preparation a memorised response gives. Is this true?
Title: Re: Memorising responses for the new syllabus?
Post by: angewina_naguen on November 04, 2019, 11:32:58 am
Hey guys, my teacher told me that memorising essays and creatives for the new syllabus is going to be difficult and unnecessary as these new exams will have very specific questions that may completely destroy the preparation a memorised response gives. Is this true?

Hey, BakerDad12!

The new syllabus has been designed purposefully to shift away from memorisation and rote learning approaches in English. The likelihood of you getting a specific question is quite high and was particularly proved with the English exams for this year's HSC. While you might have a brilliantly polished essay, if it doesn't answer the question or relate to it, you won't be able to perform as well as writing an essay spontaneously that is geared towards it.

It is much more effective to grasp the rubric holistically and address all the potential areas you might get asked as you study the texts. What you would then do is write practice responses with different questions so you can exercise your thinking on the spot and learn to adapt your understanding and knowledge to the questions. You can read more about why essay memorisation is a bit of a no no in this article here! This was written for the old syllabus in discouragement for essay memorisation, and it applies even more so now with the current one. Hope this helps!

Angelina  ;D