ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Languages Other Than English (LOTE) => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Chinese SL & SLA => Topic started by: Bazinga! on November 11, 2013, 02:56:41 pm
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Heyyyy guys, considering the CSL & CSLA exams are in a little more than a weeks' time, I thought I'd answer some of your questions in case you guys had some :)
I got a raw score of 50 in CSL in 2012 and received the Premier's award in 2012
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Hey Cindy,
Congratulations on your 50! I am not doing CSL this year so you can take your time to answer this question:
Can you bring two dictionaries of different brands into the written exam? e.g a small dictionary to look up how to write characters you forgot and a large one for idioms etc.
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hey bazingaa!
how do you minimise mistakes in reading and responding section ? I always lose marks for saying the wrong thing or not writing in enough detail eg. translation.
thanks
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Hey Cindy,
Congratulations on your 50! I am not doing CSL this year so you can take your time to answer this question:
Hey, thanks!! It came as a massive surprise, albeit a really great one :)
Can you bring two dictionaries of different brands into the written exam? e.g a small dictionary to look up how to write characters you forgot and a large one for idioms etc.
I'm not too sure, but after checking the exam specifications (http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/chinese2nd/2008chinsl-sample.pdf) it says you can bring in 2 seperate volumes. I might add in though, in the actual exam, you barely have time to look up a lot of things, so try not to rely on the dictionary too much when you do it yeah? I remember I memorised a load of idioms beforehand and I think that really helped me bump up my essay mark
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how do you minimise mistakes in reading and responding section ? I always lose marks for saying the wrong thing or not writing in enough detail eg. translation.
thanks
Hey! I remember making those mistakes when I was doing my practice exams too. I actually realise (not sure if you're the same or not) that I basically lose careless marks and that I just needed to check over my work more often. With the Chinese exam (and with any exam really) I think that it is sooo important to aim to give yourself 10 minutes just to check over your work, making little changes can actually raise your marks and really refine your answers
Other than that I think it might come down to practice, really getting the hang of picking up little subtle translation points - you know like those one or two phrases are easily dismissable, but need to be translated otherwise you'd lose a mark? Picking up those tricky points really depends on how much practice you've done imo :)
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Hi cindy!
do you have any tips on writing essays? or how you put your ideas into a paragraph? i feel like when im writing its all over the place!
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Hi cindy!
do you have any tips on writing essays? or how you put your ideas into a paragraph? i feel like when im writing its all over the place!
Hi! From what I remember, my Chinese school teacher in year 11 (if you or anyone go to Balwyn, not sure if she's still there but 付老师？) told me, when brainstorming ideas for your essays, think of 3 KEY aspects you're going to talk about, maybe write it down somewhere. Give these aspects a topic sentence, and then build on your topic sentences with 2 or 3 more ideas.
The key part to making your essay really beast is to add in idioms, but add then in subtly and not abruptly, that /really/ scores you the highest marks, and is the hardest part imo too!
I tried to write an example for you but I can't think of a really good one from the top of my head :S Maybe give me a message sometime and I'll try to think up a good one in the mean time?
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Can you bring two dictionaries of different brands into the written exam? e.g a small dictionary to look up how to write characters you forgot and a large one for idioms etc.
Not sure if the rules has changed since 2008, but yes I brought in two dictionaries, one for words, other for idioms. You won't have time to rely on them heavily though.
do you have any tips on writing essays?
Memorising chengyu and using them strategically is a must if you want to score high.
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hey cindy! Would you be able to give us some of the idioms you remembered? or if you had a word document? I feel like theres so many its hard to exactly refine them to a limited amount that would be useful in our essay writing! Congrats on your 50
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Hi Cindy, congratulations on your 50!
Just wondering, in regards to evaluative type essays, for the two negative aspects, would you recommend putting them in two separate paragraphs, or one combined paragraph?
Thanks!
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Hi Cindy, congratulations on your 50!
Just wondering, in regards to evaluative type essays, for the two negative aspects, would you recommend putting them in two separate paragraphs, or one combined paragraph?
Thanks!
I had 2 positives and 2 negatives, each on a different paragraph. So 4 paragraphs in total (excluding intro + conclusion)
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Hi Cindy, congratulations on your 50!
Just wondering, in regards to evaluative type essays, for the two negative aspects, would you recommend putting them in two separate paragraphs, or one combined paragraph?
Thanks!
If you have two negative aspects, make them into 2 paragraphs. You should never put two ideas (or more) in one single paragraph. The best essay structure is to have a topic sentence for each paragraph, covering one topic/idea (so anyone can read the topic sentence and know what to expect in that particular paragraph).
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Not sure if the rules has changed since 2008, but yes I brought in two dictionaries, one for words, other for idioms. You won't have time to rely on them heavily though.
Hey, thanks!! It came as a massive surprise, albeit a really great one :)
I'm not too sure, but after checking the exam specifications (http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/chinese2nd/2008chinsl-sample.pdf) it says you can bring in 2 seperate volumes. I might add in though, in the actual exam, you barely have time to look up a lot of things, so try not to rely on the dictionary too much when you do it yeah? I remember I memorised a load of idioms beforehand and I think that really helped me bump up my essay mark
Thanks both of you for answering my question :) :) I was busy with exams and haven't had a chance to reply until now.
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Hi Cindy, congratulations on your 50!
Just wondering, in regards to evaluative type essays, for the two negative aspects, would you recommend putting them in two separate paragraphs, or one combined paragraph?
Thanks!
Thank you! Regarding your question it's exact what TrueTears and William Jones say, pretty much one idea per paragraph, and 4 paragaphs in total including 2 positives and 2 negatives. To be honest I wouldn't really encourage people choosing this type because you need to fit /all/ that in within 250 or 300 words. However obviously if you get to the exam and the evaluative question is perfecctt for you, go for it! :)
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Hi Cindy!
The exams tomorrow and i'm starting to feel really nervous. I was wondering if you could give us some last minute tips :)
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Hi Cindy!
Are you going to get 50 in German too?
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Hi Cindy!
Do you think it's a good idea to do CSL in Year 11? I'm thinking of skipping Year 10 next year, but my teacher says that I wouldn't be old enough to do well.
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Hi Cindy!
The exams tomorrow and i'm starting to feel really nervous. I was wondering if you could give us some last minute tips :)
Hey! Hey don't get too nervous, right now at this point say just sit back and chill, there's no point in trying to cram practice exams in your time or whatnot and get yourself really really worked up because stress can take a massive toll on your exam performance. If you really want to maybe just solidate your knowledge, make sure you've memorised all the 文体 and 格式 (don't know how to say them in English...one's text types? Haha) and maybe try to remember a couple of nice idioms that might be handy on the exam?
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Hi Cindy!
Do you think it's a good idea to do CSL in Year 11? I'm thinking of skipping Year 10 next year, but my teacher says that I wouldn't be old enough to do well.
Hey! Hmmm, it's up to you, basically take into consideration the other subjects that you're going to do next year and how you're going to balance them. If you honestly think you'll be able to handle it (after research of course) then I would definitely say go for it
Also with your teacher's comment about your age...I'm 16 this year hahaha
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hi cindy, im doing SLA and i normally lose mark in the translation part when there is a rly weird sentence or idioms, what can i do about it?
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hi cindy, im doing SLA and i normally lose mark in the translation part when there is a rly weird sentence or idioms, what can i do about it?
Hi! I'm not sure if you've tried this yet but it's really good to just break each sentence up into parts. So separate the different phrases and try to work out the best translation for each individual part, separate the idioms and work out what they mean, keeping in mind that your whole translated sentence has to be coherent, if that makes sense?
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Hi, do you have an idea what mark we need to achieve in tomorrows exam to get around 34-35?
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Hi, do you have an idea what mark we need to achieve in tomorrows exam to get around 34-35?
If you are still on these forums could you please answer this question?
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If you are still on these forums could you please answer this question?
InNeedForHelp, it seems that the OP hasn't been active for quite a while (since 13 January 2014) however a more recent thread made by drake may provide you with an answer :)
50 in CSL - feel free to ask questions
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Hi Cindy,
Would you mind to share your Chinese idioms?
Thanks!
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Hi, this is really minor but
- can you write with grey lead on the exam, or does it have to be blue/black pen?
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Hello~
Congrats on your 50 score!
I'm not sure if you still know this post right now, but I kinda need a bit help.
I will be going into SLA next year and I need some advise on how to prepare for the oral. I have a basic idea of what I want to do for the detailed study, but I have no idea of how to prepare for oral. My Chinese school teacher literally gave us 65 questions ( exactly ) to answer in 150 character paragraphs, in which I did, but is there any advise on how to memorise all of them to prepare for next year? if possible, can you please give some advise on how you prepared for your oral?
Thanks.
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Hey there! May i know what topic did you do for your detail study? and how did you make it more interesting to the examiners (not like just reporting out informations?) ? Thanks!
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Ummm. Considering that the OP of this thread was last active 27 January 2015, 14:23:45, the answer may be a while in coming. :(
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Hey there! May i know what topic did you do for your detail study? and how did you make it more interesting to the examiners (not like just reporting out informations?) ? Thanks!
Hey there c: I did CFL but I presentation skills are the same, so for CFL we had to pick a topic and read three relevant books/ watch movies/ research for poems and what I think my topic was about loss!
Looking through other posts I reckon y'all needed to pick a topic relevant to Chinese History, if you don't know what you want to do, I would suggest 戰國時代 because it's a really fun period to study about :)
Presentation wise, you'll need to ENJOY your topic- pick out poems that are written during the period - and understand the meaning behind them (they love poems, esp when no one really mentions poems and chinese poems are beautiful) , also try to include folklores, even just a brief mention!! The Zhan guo period has tons of stories like zhu ge liang, and it should be fairly easy to talk about! As you study this period on your own, I reckon you'd start to gain interest and you'd enjoy this period of time :)
I'm not sure if they'd ask you questions but question wise, keep in mind they can ask you anything about the dynasty to the backgrounds/ details of the characters you mentioned, but if you have poems, they would most likely ask you about the meaning of the poem, so remember to understand your topic and do some research :)
Good luck ^^