Hi,
With the t&t exam looming around the corner I was wondering what is the most efficient way of studying? There are really no prac exams for this subject and all I've been doing is memorising as much quotes as I can, going over my exegesis notes for the passage of special study and memorising literary terms etc; (I've really went OCD on trying to memorise content for ALL my set texts , ) should I go all out on practice exegesis'/ essays or just go over the notes till exam time? Also I'm currently Rank 1 with 95% sac averages and was wondering what study score I'm looking at if I were to do fairly well on the exam?
Try past VCAA exams! There's heaps of past questions there - in fact I've attached them for all four sections. (EDIT: Site too busy, so another day I'll attach.)
I studied mainly through planning extended responses, essays and exegeses, and studying my notes through these. I also definitely did some timed responses because I found timing the hardest thing to master in T&T (as I always had waayyyyy too much to say).
So, planning and related study was my hugest thing. Going through those questions attached, I would brainstorm ideas for each question and plan a skeleton of an answer; if I found I didn't know enough on the topic, then I'd research and study that general area more, and then write some concise study notes on the topic. Same with exegesis - I'd grab a passage and dot-point out the sorts of things I'd probably talk about - if I was shaky, I'd revise there. Then, after doing that, I'd also write my own essay questions/extended responses on all themes and major pieces of historical background or literary techniques, and brainstorm for them.
Basically, I constantly tested all the areas I could think of that I'd be tested on, practised formulating answers using my knowledge, and then brushed up and revised the areas this showed I didn't know. (This would be stuff like memorising nice phrases to use for each theme, learning historical facts, learning the most relevant quotes for each topic, etc.)
By actually applying your knowledge, you get heaps further than just memorising it, I found.
Note: I don't believe you have to be prepared for exegesis for all passages; since they give you one at the start, middle and end of the book, you can probably pick 1-2 chapters you don't like as much and give them only very shallow preparation, because chances are if they get picked you'll still have 1-2 other options. This means you can do more memorising in detail of the passages you DO want to do, so it's more efficient.
You have potential of basically anywhere in the 40s range, depending on your exam performance. Don't rely on your SAC marks as some schools make them far easier than the exam, but then again, you definitely have promise of something awesome if you work all out at it!