Olivia is a current Year 12 student studying HSC Advanced English.
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A lot of students aren’t a huge fan of HSC Advanced English, or just English in general, considering how subjective the marking can be. Not only do you have to satisfy the marker’s personal preferences, but also know four texts really well and write essays about them, as well as your related text. And of course, creative writing: every student’s nightmare. Whether you’re a Year 10 student and you want to know what English Advanced entails or if you’re in Year 12 and you need some advice, here are a few ways to survive English Advanced. Remember, these are based on personal experiences and observations throughout Year 11, so keep in mind this isn’t a definitive guide in succeeding in Advanced English.
Understanding the Text
The biggest difference between Advanced English and Standard English is the type of prescribed texts. The texts in Standard English are comprised of prose fiction, plays, poetry and nonfiction/film/media/multimedia – essentially, four different texts that have to fall under these categories. However, Advanced English requires you to study a Shakespearean drama, prose fiction, a play or film, poetry and nonfiction/media/multimedia.
Considering how Shakespearean drama is the main difference between the two courses, many students tend to find difficulties in understanding Shakespeare, albeit ‘The Tempest’ can be studied as a drama text in Standard English. My main tip in understanding Shakespearean text is to use a translation of the text. This may sound dumb, but it really helps you understand what the characters are saying.
Another thing you should consider to help enhance your understanding of the text is to research the context of the composer. This allows you to understand the ideologies during that time period and how that impacts the composer and the way they address this idea. For example, in ‘The Tempest,’ Shakespeare challenges ethnocentric ideas towards non-European people through the way he portrays Caliban. You can intertwine the context in the analysis to show your understanding of the text and the composer, especially how the Area of Study module is all about the various aspects of discovery and its relationships with the audience, text and the composer. Plus, you’re covering the other rubric point on how various historical, personal and social context and values can show the various processes of discovery.
When analysing the various forms of these texts, you need to take note of the medium the composer has decided to express themselves. This impacts the techniques you use, especially when studying a film or a play. Even though literary techniques can be used as evidence in all forms of texts (except for paintings), using film techniques when studying films or using stage directions when studying plays allows you to show a diverse range of techniques that you can analyse.
Of course, my final tip in understanding texts is to read the text. This sounds like the most obvious thing but there are so many people who don’t read the text and just wing it. Sure, you can have a go at following that route but if you keep using the same quotes from the beginning of the text or around the same place in the text, your markers will think you don’t have a holistic understanding of the text.
Understanding the Syllabus to their Corresponding Modules
The great thing about NESA is that they literally give you what they’re expecting. The difficult part is combining aspects of the syllabus with your thesis and analysis. Each module has a slightly different purpose, which is why understanding the syllabus is extremely important.
Area of Study:
The Area of Study rubric essentially tells you the different aspects of discovery you will be studying. Your job is to be able to combine these ideas and apply them into everyday situations – in this case, texts. The rubric points are pretty much self-explanatory. The difficult part is applying them. When reading through a text, think about three aspects of the process: the catalyst for discovery, the process of discovery and the ramifications of discovery. Being able to identify these stages in texts is really helpful when constructing a creative piece. Think of it this way: your Area of Study essay requires you to deconstruct a text in relation to discovery. Your creative piece requires you to construct a text in relation to discovery. The best way to prepare for Area of Study is to always relate a rubric dot point to your analysis to make it easier when constructing arguments. Once you get used to this, it makes things easier when writing short answer responses in Paper 1, as well as giving you inspiration for your creative piece.
Module A:
Comparison is the emphasis of Module A. Sure, your Area of Study essay will require you to do a comparison, but the whole point of Module A is to show that you have done your research by comparing the context and how this has impacted the different forms of medium. Apart from context, perspective and audience is another aspect of the syllabus that slightly differs from other modules. Again, analysing texts in other modules may require you to do this, but Module A has the biggest emphasis on this. I mentioned previously that researching the context is important in all texts, but context is paramount in this module, considering how it’s called ‘intertextual connections/perspectives.’ That being said, don’t fall into the trap of recounting context and using inaccurate contextual terms.
Module B:
This is where your evaluation and judgement of your texts are included, although sometimes it’s your view being skewed so the markers will agree with your interpretation. It really depends on how open your teacher is to new interpretations. I would suggest discussing with your teacher, kind of like ‘pitching an idea’, to see what they think on your new perspective on these texts. Some teachers may be more biased than others, even though the question asks for ‘your interpretation.’ A lot of people also get confused on whether critics and quotes should be included in Module B. I have heard that quotes aren’t compulsory. Personally, I would include a quote as a way to support your analysis. Another point I would like to raise is using first person in Module B essays. Most of us have been taught to never use first person in essays. However, considering how the question asks for your perspective, I would include first person in my essay, albeit it sounds a bit awkward at times. Again, it depends on your teacher’s preference.
Module C:
This module is more like the ‘forgotten’ module because it’s usually the last module you go through and by that point, you’re already exhausted. The main emphasis on Module C is exploring relationships between representation and meaning – hence, the reason there are two electives: people and landscape, people and politics. Although I haven’t done Module C yet, based on my notes from the HSC lectures and from previous HSC graduates, you should be analysing the representations of people’s experiences with landscapes or politics and its significance. One thing to keep in mind of is to be wary of is going off on a tangent and talk about landscapes or political theories. Your analysis should be based more on the relationship between the text form and the language choices to show how these elements influence the meaning the composer is trying to convey.
To Regurgitate or Not to Regurgitate
A lot of people tend to ask whether they should prepare a generic essay and memorize that. Personally, I would not recommend this. Not only is it awkward to write an essay without a thesis, your essay may unintentionally answer a different question, thus not answering the question they want you to answer. On top of that, the quotes used in your generic essay may not even suit the question. The whole point of the HSC is to make you think, which is why NESA heavily discourages memorised essays.
Instead, essay plans are the way to go. When coming up with an essay plan, prepare a malleable thesis in advance so you can suit it to the question. Select quotes that are applicable to your thesis. That being said, memorise quotes that capture the key themes of your texts – the more memorable ones just in case you forget a quote during an exam. For example, my go-to quote in my Area of Study essays are ‘Mine would sir, were I human’ from ‘The Tempest’ since it’s short, memorable and holds meaning to it. Make sure that you can skew the analysis to suit the question.
Creative writing, on the other hand, is different. I would not recommend winging a creative. Prepare a creative in advance because part of the process of preparing a creative piece is to go through the refining process. That being said, HSC markers aren’t expecting you to write a best-selling novel. Get your creative to be marked by various teachers so you can memorise your best version of the creative.
Study Notes?
As usual, study notes are great to keep all my ideas concise. I always go for the table in my study notes because it makes things easier for me to read my analysis. I usually have three columns with the titles: technique, quote, analysis. I’ve used it for all text types and it works well. Films are a bit difficult because there are so many things going on in one scene and your ‘quote’ sometimes isn’t a quote. However, I would have a quote but in my technique column, I would name the technique for the quote and other film techniques such as music or costuming. Then in the analysis section, I would describe the film technique and then analyse it. Here is an example of a table cell for my ‘Metropolis’ notes.
Notice how my analysis column (third column) takes up the most amount of space. Adding a description of the scene helps you understand what’s happening at that moment, just in case you can’t access the film. Even if you can access the film, it’s best to include a description so it makes sense when you’re doing last minute cramming with your notes.
Here are some ways to survive HSC Advanced English. These ideas may not work for everyone – they are based on my personal experiences with the subject. If I had to emphasise on the most important things in HSC Advanced English, it would be thesis and the syllabus – trust me, the syllabus tells you everything.
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