So what should we do after reading our study guides? I also agree that ideas from study guides won't get us as much marks, as 65-70% of students would probably read them. And it would get boring for the assessors if they have to read the same idea over and over again!
So how did you come up with ideas in your text response that distinguished your essay from students who have just been referring to study guides?
Assuming you've read the text once or twice (depending on length/ difficulty, novels are easy enough but Shakespeare or Dickens might require a refresher) try to push yourself further with your reading. Academic journals are always good, and there might even be some professionally written articles if you can find them. In terms of developing your own responses, keep asking questions until your brain hurts. Take a prompt like: '
'Cosi' contends that some things are more important than politics.'
- what is more important?
- does that make politics unimportant
- is this the case for everyone?
- how do we know this?
- is there anything in the text that partially/completely refutes this?
- who are these 'things' important to?
- was there once a time when politics was more important?
- if so^ why did things change?
etc etc.
Basically the who-what-when-where-how-why days of primary school come back to haunt you. For a prompt like this, the bulk of students will answer the question 'what
is more important than politics?' and all 3/4 paragraphs will just be expounding upon this. What impresses assessors is when you approach the prompt from an angle (or angles, if you're feeling ambitious) they haven't seen a hundred times before, eg. 'Intimacy and closeness can be seen to take priority over bureaucracy and governance, but this was not always the case...' I haven't studied
Cosi so I'm improvising here..
You don't have to answer all of these questions, and don't forget you still have to deal with the core of the prompt, but this is a surefire way to distinguish your writing; choosing something interesting to write about.
In all honesty, to stand out from students relying solely on what they've read before isn't exactly difficult. If you're in the mid to upper band of english marks you might find the general set of Sparknotes or other guides are so basic, you've essentially covered them just by thinking about the text or writing a couple of practice essays. Some notes are better than others, the Insight text guides are usually pretty good, but they are still have a relatively limited scope of ideas.
Apart from that, the quality of your ideas is closely linked with how well you can structure your response. For some students this means spending 10 minutes of writing time formulating a solid plan, whereas others will have two or three structures they are so familiar with, they can apply them to any type of prompt. Personally, I'd never spend longer than a minute planning, because I found I was uncovering new ideas as I was writing; I'd get to the 2nd paragraph and stumble upon a completely new idea that trumped whatever I was going to write next, and I'd shift my essay in that direction. That's why my intros were often quite noncommittal, because I never knew where I was going to end up. But I can understand the need for a 'safety net', in fact I'd still keep some structural guidelines up my sleeve in case I ever got in trouble (#henryIVprompt2013)
Ideas are the major deciding factor in your grade; writerly talent and impressive vocabulary might sway your score by one or two marks, but an essay with clever, original ideas and mediocre expression will trump a well-written piece of regurgitated irrelevant drivel any day of the week.
For now, I'd be focusing on knowing the content backwards. Start acquainting yourself with the most important quotes or scenes, and pin some up around the house. These's heaps of time for fine-tuning ideas throughout the year, it's not unusual for students to jump two or three grade points during swot-vac alone.