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Author Topic: Doing well In Literature?  (Read 7073 times)  Share 

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iamdan08

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Doing well In Literature?
« on: February 17, 2008, 03:47:50 pm »
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Hey guys,

I really want to do well in lit this year, but i'm not sure what kind of things i should be doing throughout the year in order to ensure my best possible results. It's a harder subject to study for (unlike sciences) and any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks  :)
2007-08 VCE - Accounting, Texts & Traditions, Methods, Chem, Physics, Lit
         
2011 Bachelor of Biomedicine (Completed) @ The University of Melbourne
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Eriny

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2008, 04:02:38 pm »
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You should be very familiar with your texts, firstly. I also think that it's very important that you develop your own interpretation of each of your texts. This can be difficult, depending on your texts. For example, sometimes it can feel as though there isn't anything new to say about Shakespeare. Anyway, the point is that the interpretation is yours and it's one you've developed throughout the whole year. Things like reading critical analyses and writing practise responses should help you do this.

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2008, 04:27:53 pm »
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I echo what Eriny said. I managed to get 48 and I think I can mainly attribute this to avoiding the expected response and providing something new. This can only really come from writing a lot of essays and thinking about your texts extensively. Reading 20/20 essays (excerpts of these can be found on the VCAA website, or you can ask your teacher as I'm sure they're given example essays) can also help to develop a more elegant style of writing and provide you with a benchmark against which you can assess your own work.

iamdan08

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2008, 05:22:03 pm »
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Thanks guys....really good advice!
2007-08 VCE - Accounting, Texts & Traditions, Methods, Chem, Physics, Lit
         
2011 Bachelor of Biomedicine (Completed) @ The University of Melbourne
2012 Doctor of Medicine (Second Year) @ The University of Melbourne

Rietie

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2008, 09:07:51 pm »
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I'm doing Lit this year. As mentioned by everyone else, know your texts, even those passages you don't think the examiners will put on the exam. Practice writing context questions on different passages under timed conditions. Choose ahead what you're two texts are going to be for the exam - no point in studying for all of them; chose the texts that best suit your writing style and that you think you are good at writing on (make sure your teacher agrees). And in the exam, try to analyse the passage not from the main point of view - try to find aspects of the passage that you can find something individual to write about.

That's all I can think about. Just put lots of work into Lit, especially if you're also doing English, coz then you can do better in Lit than English, and then it can count in your top 4! Yay! (I think I might plan to do that)
2007 - History Revolutions (35)
2008 - English (40), Literature (37), National Politics (37), Maths Methods (32), History Renaissance (39)
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Chihiro

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2008, 08:03:12 pm »
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Hey all, Instead of making a new thread, I decided I may as well put my question here.

Well, the business end of the year is fast approaching and as could be expected I guess, my teacher asked us to do a practice response from the 2007 VCAA Literature Exam. Now while I always knew the format of this exams, I've found them difficult. Like with a question or a statement meant for a discussion, I can handle it fine as I follow pretty much the same structure as in English, but with Lit I'm struggling to develop a basic game plan on how to structure my text responses to the passages.

If any students, past or present, are willing to share any tips on structure (especially the introduction) that would be swelllll.

Thankss
« Last Edit: August 21, 2008, 08:14:01 pm by Chihiro »

Rietie

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2008, 08:11:57 pm »
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Haven't you been doing context responses throughout year 11 an 12 in lit?
2007 - History Revolutions (35)
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ENTER: 93.20

2009 - Bachelor of Arts (ANU)
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Chihiro

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2008, 08:15:06 pm »
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If by context responses you mean the same time of responses that you do for the end of year exam, then no.

Rietie

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2008, 08:20:40 pm »
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Well, shit.

That's....bad....

You can either look at the passages by idea/concern or do them passage by passage.

You come up with a main comment or idea (regardless of which way you do the context), then you analyze phrases or words of the context. I dunno really how to explain. It took me a while to figure out how to do it - it's basically exploring a phrase and what it means, and, god, I don't know.
2007 - History Revolutions (35)
2008 - English (40), Literature (37), National Politics (37), Maths Methods (32), History Renaissance (39)
ENTER: 93.20

2009 - Bachelor of Arts (ANU)
2010 - Bachelor of Classical Studies (ANU)
Majors: Ancient Greek, Ancient History, Archaeology

Eriny

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2008, 11:40:45 am »
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It's not too bad. My first close reading wasn't done until term 3 and I did okay. You will probably need to practice a bit though. These exercises are good because you don't have to write to a question, you're free to pick out the parts of the passages that interest you the most and analyse them. This can equally be very daunting.

Importantly, have you developed your own interpretation on the text? If so, just write about that and use the passages as evidence to support your interpretation.

On the notes part of the site I've posted a sample essay. You probably aren't doing the text that I did so hopefully it'll make enough sense for you to get the gist of structure. Unlike English, there isn't a huge emphasis on structure in Literature though, it's much more weighted towards content. Of course, the assessor won't really understand your content if the structure is terrible.

Also, many people write literature responses without an intro. I personally could never do this but you can experiment with it, see what works for you. You technically don't need an intro, but I see it as the easiest way to make my contention clear and to have some organisation.

rh

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2008, 04:25:28 pm »
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i'm having a bit of trouble with passage analysis essays as well. eriny your example essay is helping a lot, thanks for uploading! generally, do they have around that length (it's approx 1,000 words) or is yours a little longer than usual?

Eriny

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2008, 08:03:42 pm »
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I think it's a little longer than usual, but generally I think higher scoring responses tend to be around the 1000 word mark (some even get above that!). If you write something brilliant that's about 600-700 words long, you can still potentially get a 50 though. As long as you explore the passages well and provide a comprehensive interpretation it doesn't matter how much you write.

bridgethuss

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2008, 05:06:35 pm »
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im starting to really dread this lit exam. my sac average throughout the year is 94%, but i am so not prepared for the exam, we havent done any work that is like what we have to do in terms of the whole passage analysis task...i dont even think my class knows what exactly we have to do for the exam...
2007 -
health and human development (33)

2008 -
literature (34..still confused by that)
english (37)
psychology (35)
biology (28...lolllll)
physical education (31...this was a good surprise!)

aiming for 83+
ENTER - 77.65
have been offered first pref. :)

2009 - year off

2010 - health sciences at deakin (waurn ponds)
:)

amyminchin

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2008, 05:57:25 pm »
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oh my gosh, that's terrible!! Your teaching should be preparing you much better. I've been doing close analysis since term one, year 11. Just have a look through the past exams and get a feel of what it's going to look like, do loads of timed essays (one hour for each is generally the way to go) and read the chapters on close analysis  in your text book :)
What text are you doing other than Kinsella?
2008
english.further.psych.lit.media
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bridgethuss

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Re: Doing well In Literature?
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2008, 06:22:19 pm »
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yeah its really really bad, but my sister and i are going to the VATE revision day, hopefully that helps. we are also doing bleak house and sense and sensibility. i think ill be ok in terms of knowledge of the text and themes etc, but we really havent done much preparation at all. we are still working on our final sac really, we have to keep doing kinsella analysis ( even though no one gets it) and i got an a for the first one, the highest mark was 34/40 in my class, which isnt very great for a top mark.. but our best mark will be picked and used for the sac score. i think where we went wrong was for that sac marked out of 20, considering alternative viewpoints i think it was? anyway, we looked at minority report, where we really should have done kinsella, i just dont understand why we even had minority report when its not on the exam? confusing.
but yeah, kinsella, bleak house and s&s!
2007 -
health and human development (33)

2008 -
literature (34..still confused by that)
english (37)
psychology (35)
biology (28...lolllll)
physical education (31...this was a good surprise!)

aiming for 83+
ENTER - 77.65
have been offered first pref. :)

2009 - year off

2010 - health sciences at deakin (waurn ponds)
:)