Paper 1- dodgy as usual. (Warning: I'm ranting).
Who in the world decided to include 2 nonfiction texts?? There was an interview and an actual nonfiction extract so how in the world am I supposed to a) show a person's discovery and b) find actual techniques. I wanted to analyse a character's process, not some photographer talking about being curious. I found myself being like "the photographer preserves new worlds in photographs" or something like that. I also didn't understand the poem. No clue what they're "discovering." I said something along the lines of discovering new landscapes.
Secondly, mark distribution. The mark distribution was so weird. Who decided it was a good idea to do 3, 3, 4, 5?? Not only that, we couldn't choose what texts to pick. They're like 'Nope. Gotta do Texts 1 and 2.' So I bs-ed something on discoveries leading to various emotional responses and how these varying responses reflect the complexity of discovery. I don't know, I was on the verge of breaking down in the exam.
Also, the creative question was strange. A creative on two perspectives on discovery?? I'm hoping the markers are being a bit interpretive because I thought two characters needed to discover something. Since my creative changes perspective, I'm hoping that they recognise that as 'perspectives on discovery.' The quote though, was very awkward. It felt so out of place in my creative, considering the quote came from a text where the author was rambling on different perspectives.
Finally, essay question: I'm hoping I'm allowed to partially agree with the question because the question was really weird. "Discovery isn't always something new, nor is it a joy"?? This kinda goes against my usual "Miranda's newfound discovery of ____" so I had to be all like "Prospero's rediscovery of forgiveness and despair over rejecting his magic" or something. Again, felt like I rambled.
Also, this was just something at my school (not sure if other schools had this), but our supervisor stopped us 1 minute early. Doesn't sound like a lot but my friend could've finished her conclusion, it interrupted my train of thought- it surprised everyone. And when the supervisor told us to keep writing, she said that in a very soft voice so I couldn't hear her since I was sitting all the way at the back.
So yeah, Paper 1 was very depressing ;-;
I mean, I'm hoping the markers to be a bit more interpretative. I was talking to a few teachers after the exam and they said it could be one character changing their perspective.
My teacher said since it's a 'to what extent' question, you have room to agree with some and disagree with others. I did that throughout my essay and compared/contrasted different character discoveries so hopefully the markers agree with us.
My experience was essentially the same as Olivia's. I thought I was the only one really screwed up for that exam but a lot of my friends thought the same about the paper too
I didn't mind the website interview because I was praying for a visual in the exam. I much prefer finding visual techniques than reading chunks of writing so that was slightly in my favour. I do art as well so it wasn't hard to identify techniques. That being said, the interview went over two pages (was probably only a page long if you take out the images) so that was really annoying to read. All the texts felt really long to read actually
HOWEVER, Text 3 wins the worst AOS text I have ever encountered
I thought my Trials nonfiction text was ridiculous but this one made Bruce Springsteen's memoir comprehensive. The more I read it, and I read it quite a view times in the reading time because a skim was not enough to decipher whatever it was about, the less I understood what was going on. Maybe it was the pressure environment but it was just a bad choice for a 5 marker. Which brings me to the mark distribution point.
If they had switched the questions for the 4 and 5 marker around, things would have been fine. Didn't matter to me that I had to use the poem and the photography texts because they were significantly easier than Text 3. I also wrote a mini essay for that with breeze which ended up being my downfall as I did not have enough time for the 5 marker. I still responded to it with some length but definitely not enough to score a full 5. It would've made more sense to have the comparison question for the 5 and keep the 4 to one text. It threw me off time management wise.
I also did the same thing as Olivia in that my "different perspective" was a flashback from my character where she was disappointed with the discovery and then brought it back to present day with her finding something amazing about it. The stimulus was not the best but it was the least stressful part of the paper for me. I found it really unfair though because they didn't provide any options. They could've taken quotes from the other two texts to just give choices for the students. It was very Extension 1 English what they did just limiting it to one option for the module. I hope what I did counts and that it was obvious enough.
And the essay was disappointing for me too. Didn't finish my conclusion which I am really unhappy about. I didn't even finish the sentence I was writing and that was just embarrassing. I had to agree with one half of it and disagree with the other so that was not a fun time at all. I hope they are lenient in the marking because they did make the exam really difficult
That's my little vomit on Paper 1. My hand is super numb and I can't wait to sit Paper 2 and Music tomorrow as well. Least that means three exams will be out of the way. That will be all from me. Interested to see what everyone else has to say
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Topic: English (Paper 1): Discussion, Questions & Potential Solutions (Read 11910 times)