ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: Surgeon on January 28, 2012, 09:10:01 pm
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Hey guys :)
I was just after some advice as to how I can maximize my study score in English in order to achieve the highest ATAR possible.
I'm currently a relatively strong English student and I'm already getting ~48/60 for practice end of year English exams.
My question is how should I go about trying to get 60/60.
Thanks :)
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Practise those essays. Make sure you have an exam method - such as reading and doing your Language Analysis first. Pick your strongest text to do in the exam and make sure you know it inside and out; if you have a passion for it, let it flow into your creative piece. Be open to new interpretations and show that you understand the delicate nature of interpretation by suggesting dualities and allusions. Know the background of your author so that you can glean subtle nuances and possibly contextualize things better.
Most of all, keep writing those essays building up to writing each section of the exam in 45-55 mins, depending if it is your strong section or not. Work to make all your best.
(I did not study throughout the year and crammed essays in at the end; my teacher said I would not get a 45. I got a 46. ;) )
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Hey! To clarify a few things:
- Don't be misled by the practice exams you've been doing so far - unless you've studied EVERY text on your year 12 text list this year, this won't really count... Your focus for now should be on really understanding your texts and context properly, knowing how to write really sophisticated essays and then doing loads of practice exams and essays. Without doing proper work prior, your essays will be limited in depth.
- Attaining a score of 60/60 on the exam will be very, VERY difficult, but I know you're keen so definitely go for it. If I remember correctly, hardly anyone (or no one) in the state gets full marks on the English exam because it's just so subjective and it's hard to give out 10/10 scores. In saying this though, you don't have to get full marks on the exam to get a 50, I'm pretty sure you can get a 50 with maybe 57 or 58+ out of 60 (if you have strong SACs and a good ranking). At the 40+ level, generally speaking 1 mark lost on the exam would equate to roughly 1 study score point lost. So during the year, your goal should be to minimise the amount of marks lost and focus on the small, minor things once you have the big things like structure, ideas etc down pat.
Some tips I pulled from one of my old posts:
1. Do a sufficient amount of essays progressively throughout the year and get them marked.
English is a language and so you've got to put all your learnt material into action - in the form of a piece of prose. Essay writing not only draws together the grammar, linguistics, punctuation and spelling you've come to learn over the years; it also gathers together your ideas and views on specific novels/films in a literary sense. An essay puts all of this into action - and it's therefore critical that you practice, practice, practice! Keep writing essays progressively until you reach a point of satisfaction. But also make sure you proofread these essays straight after writing, or even better, one or two days later. Get your teacher/tutor to mark it as well.
2. Get into the habit of reading the newspaper frequently.
If you're not confident reading The Age, at least have a crack at the Herald Sun on a frequent basis. There are some parts of the daily newspapers that can really boost your understanding of current events on a national and international scale. This could be of good use come oral presentation time - or even better, for a more definitive grasp on your context study. Also have a read of the opinion pieces and editorials every now and again - have a look at how writers use 'persuasive techniques' and how you yourself are impacted by what they write and what you read. Reading newspapers can really benefit you in all 3 aspects of the English course.
3. Annotate your book... don't be Asian and worry about the book's sales prospects.
Highlight every single piece of information and dialogue that you think might have some deeper meaning behind it.. after a few minutes you'll notice something about that line and this is something abstract that you'll be able to include in essays. No one else will have these pieces of evidence, as you interpreted it all yourself, and that's one of the key criteria in text response - creating your own sophisticated perceptions and interpretations of the text. Annotating things like thematic ideas, character development, symbols, motifs, linguistic/filmic features, structure, narrative voice etc will allow you to really explore the text and how the author/director creates meaning. Include these types of evidence in your text responses! By annotating your book, you'll have a really good resource that is far, far better than any commercial study guide!
4. Question absolutely everything in VCE English - ask 'why?' at all times!
Why did the writer use the derogatory terms 'idiotic' and 'ineffectual' in his opinion piece? Why did Susie act the way she did in front of Anna? Why does our identity change in a different setting? Why is the reader positioned to feel receptive towards the editor's stance? Why did the film director use photomontages and vignettes in their film, and in what way were the characters therefore perceived? Asking 'why' is really important because in so many ways, VCE English is the art of bullshitting... keep questioning things and in 2 minutes you'll have a sophisticated line of interpretation and analysis. When you're having trouble, stop for just a moment and ask 'why' things are the way they are in that editorial, in that film scene, in that sentence, and so on. By asking 'why', you will inadvertently develop your own perceptive view of everything you study!
5. The last one - learn to manage your time!
I learnt this the hard way - you really have to learn to manage your time in both SACs and the final exam. Do practice exams in conditions that resemble examination conditions as closely as possible. When writing practice pieces, do them under time constraints. You have to be able to write effective, detailed, complex pieces of writing in a very limited amount of time. In time though, you'll get used to it and writing these essays will become second nature to you. Also, another really important thing is that you expose yourself to a variety of resources for every section of the course - being on this site is a good starting point!
And one more thing, feel free to post up any of your essays on the forum whenever you need help, you will gain a lot from the critique etc. Hope this helps!
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Werdna has to just show me up. :P I kid, you are great, mate. 8)
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Hey! To clarify a few things:
- Don't be misled by the practice exams you've been doing so far - unless you've studied EVERY text on your year 12 text list this year, this won't really count... Your focus for now should be on really understanding your texts and context properly, knowing how to write really sophisticated essays and then doing loads of practice exams and essays. Without doing proper work prior, your essays will be limited in depth.
- Attaining a score of 60/60 on the exam will be very, VERY difficult, but I know you're keen so definitely go for it. If I remember correctly, hardly anyone (or no one) in the state gets full marks on the English exam because it's just so subjective and it's hard to give out 10/10 scores. In saying this though, you don't have to get full marks on the exam to get a 50, I'm pretty sure you can get a 50 with maybe 57 or 58+ out of 60 (if you have strong SACs and a good ranking). At the 40+ level, generally speaking 1 mark lost on the exam would equate to roughly 1 study score point lost. So during the year, your goal should be to minimise the amount of marks lost and focus on the small, minor things once you have the big things like structure, ideas etc down pat.
Some tips I pulled from one of my old posts:
1. Do a sufficient amount of essays progressively throughout the year and get them marked.
English is a language and so you've got to put all your learnt material into action - in the form of a piece of prose. Essay writing not only draws together the grammar, linguistics, punctuation and spelling you've come to learn over the years; it also gathers together your ideas and views on specific novels/films in a literary sense. An essay puts all of this into action - and it's therefore critical that you practice, practice, practice! Keep writing essays progressively until you reach a point of satisfaction. But also make sure you proofread these essays straight after writing, or even better, one or two days later. Get your teacher/tutor to mark it as well.
2. Get into the habit of reading the newspaper frequently.
If you're not confident reading The Age, at least have a crack at the Herald Sun on a frequent basis. There are some parts of the daily newspapers that can really boost your understanding of current events on a national and international scale. This could be of good use come oral presentation time - or even better, for a more definitive grasp on your context study. Also have a read of the opinion pieces and editorials every now and again - have a look at how writers use 'persuasive techniques' and how you yourself are impacted by what they write and what you read. Reading newspapers can really benefit you in all 3 aspects of the English course.
3. Annotate your book... don't be Asian and worry about the book's sales prospects.
Highlight every single piece of information and dialogue that you think might have some deeper meaning behind it.. after a few minutes you'll notice something about that line and this is something abstract that you'll be able to include in essays. No one else will have these pieces of evidence, as you interpreted it all yourself, and that's one of the key criteria in text response - creating your own sophisticated perceptions and interpretations of the text. Annotating things like thematic ideas, character development, symbols, motifs, linguistic/filmic features, structure, narrative voice etc will allow you to really explore the text and how the author/director creates meaning. Include these types of evidence in your text responses! By annotating your book, you'll have a really good resource that is far, far better than any commercial study guide!
4. Question absolutely everything in VCE English - ask 'why?' at all times!
Why did the writer use the derogatory terms 'idiotic' and 'ineffectual' in his opinion piece? Why did Susie act the way she did in front of Anna? Why does our identity change in a different setting? Why is the reader positioned to feel receptive towards the editor's stance? Why did the film director use photomontages and vignettes in their film, and in what way were the characters therefore perceived? Asking 'why' is really important because in so many ways, VCE English is the art of bullshitting... keep questioning things and in 2 minutes you'll have a sophisticated line of interpretation and analysis. When you're having trouble, stop for just a moment and ask 'why' things are the way they are in that editorial, in that film scene, in that sentence, and so on. By asking 'why', you will inadvertently develop your own perceptive view of everything you study!
5. The last one - learn to manage your time!
I learnt this the hard way - you really have to learn to manage your time in both SACs and the final exam. Do practice exams in conditions that resemble examination conditions as closely as possible. When writing practice pieces, do them under time constraints. You have to be able to write effective, detailed, complex pieces of writing in a very limited amount of time. In time though, you'll get used to it and writing these essays will become second nature to you. Also, another really important thing is that you expose yourself to a variety of resources for every section of the course - being on this site is a good starting point!
And one more thing, feel free to post up any of your essays on the forum whenever you need help, you will gain a lot from the critique etc. Hope this helps!
That's some good stuff right there, thank you sharing your awesome tips with us. +1
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I don't know how you are doing proper practice exams right now...
but yeah werdna has said it all.
to put in perspective what scores you will need.
I got 56/60 and got 49. 57 is a 50.
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^Not necessarily true. I got 56/60 and ended up with a 46. A friend of mine also got 56/60 and ended up with a 42.
Unless you go to a good school, it is almost guaranteed that your SACs in English will fuck you over.
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^Not necessarily true. I got 56/60 and ended up with a 46. A friend of mine also got 56/60 and ended up with a 42.
Unless you go to a good school, it is almost guaranteed that your SACs in English will fuck you over.
They should get rid of SACs for that very reason.
@OP, regarding Text Response, the following are extracts from the past 3 Assessors Reports :
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2010: The highest mean score for Section A was achieved by students who wrote on Hard Times, Richard III, A Human Pattern, Selected Poems (Slessor) and A Farewell to Arms
2009: The highest mean scores for Section A were achieved by students who wrote on Hard Times, Richard III, Selected Poems (Slessor) and Collected Stories (Farmer)
2008: The highest mean scores were achieved by students who wrote on Hard Times, King Richard III, Selected Poems (Slessor) and Collected Stories (Farmer)
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There is an obvious pattern there, right ?
My tip: if you have a choice of texts, pick the 'Classic'. There is stronger and more scholarly material out there to pick your ideas from.
For less classic books you end up using inferior material from Study Guides etc
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3. Annotate your book... don't be Asian and worry about the book's sales prospects.
LOL or be curry and use pencil in hopes of being able to erase the annotations, because it really doesnt matter.
Why did Susie act the way she did in front of Anna?
LOL Just coz you changed the z in Suzie to an s doesnt mean SPDHD and I wouldnt recognise it
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What I said before about:
VCE English is the art of bullshitting...
Is actually quite true, to an extent. Obviously you'll have to get used to writing and thinking really analytically, but a lot of the things you come up with are things that would get you a 9/10 or 10/10 essay, but they're also things you would never say in real life. :) But like I said, if you're able to spin stuff around particularly for text response and word it nicely, you'll be fine.
(http://miningourpsyche.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/thecurtainswerefuckingblueabetterqualityonethan_2de74d_2130342.jpg)
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Thanks very much for the in-depth responses, everyone.
I'll be sure to take all of your suggestions into consideration.
For those who are wondering how and why I am already doing end of year practice exams, I started studying my texts and film in detail as soon as the holidays began abd have a pretty solid understanding of them at all, at the moment. I figured it would be beneficial for me to begin writing essays as soon as possible. :)
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Thanks very much for the in-depth responses, everyone.
I'll be sure to take all of your suggestions into consideration.
For those who are wondering how and why I am already doing end of year practice exams, I started studying my texts and film in detail as soon as the holidays began abd have a pretty solid understanding of them at all, at the moment. I figured it would be beneficial for me to begin writing essays as soon as possible. :)
I actually think you should spend more time analysing the novels and texts rather than having a go at essays straight away. WRiting essays is good when it comes closer to assesment, but really have a sound undesrtanding of the major themes etc, before you jump straight in. I think you might be getting a bit too enthusiastic.
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^Not necessarily true. I got 56/60 and ended up with a 46. A friend of mine also got 56/60 and ended up with a 42.
Unless you go to a good school, it is almost guaranteed that your SACs in English will fuck you over.
They should get rid of SACs for that very reason.
@OP, regarding Text Response, the following are extracts from the past 3 Assessors Reports :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010: The highest mean score for Section A was achieved by students who wrote on Hard Times, Richard III, A Human Pattern, Selected Poems (Slessor) and A Farewell to Arms
2009: The highest mean scores for Section A were achieved by students who wrote on Hard Times, Richard III, Selected Poems (Slessor) and Collected Stories (Farmer)
2008: The highest mean scores were achieved by students who wrote on Hard Times, King Richard III, Selected Poems (Slessor) and Collected Stories (Farmer)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is an obvious pattern there, right ?
My tip: if you have a choice of texts, pick the 'Classic'. There is stronger and more scholarly material out there to pick your ideas from.
For less classic books you end up using inferior material from Study Guides etc
A lot of those books are the ones selective schools do, which probably has something to do with the consistently high scores. I agree though.
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^Not necessarily true. I got 56/60 and ended up with a 46. A friend of mine also got 56/60 and ended up with a 42.
Unless you go to a good school, it is almost guaranteed that your SACs in English will fuck you over.
CAE didn't have a strong cohort ?
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^Not necessarily true. I got 56/60 and ended up with a 46. A friend of mine also got 56/60 and ended up with a 42.
Unless you go to a good school, it is almost guaranteed that your SACs in English will fuck you over.
CAE didn't have a strong cohort ?
No. The cohort there is very weak. I wouldn't say it is any different to your average school though.
The problem with English at CAE is that every class studies different texts/topics. So whilst it is not that hard to get to the top of your own English class, there are about 8 other classes and how they integrate your marks with other peoples makes getting the top rank nigh impossible. Not to mention there is no cross marking which means you will get even more screwed if your teacher is tight or hates you.
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^Not necessarily true. I got 56/60 and ended up with a 46. A friend of mine also got 56/60 and ended up with a 42.
Unless you go to a good school, it is almost guaranteed that your SACs in English will fuck you over.
This is definitely true - SACs really do matter, particularly in English. I got a 46 but had a much lower exam score than you (52/60) but I was rank 1 with SACs in a weak cohort so strangely these SAC scores were moderated up. Moral of the story OP - smash your SACs, maintain a high rank, and smash the exam. Easier said than done though.. ;)
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You inspire me to do this:)
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Obtaining 10/10 on a piece is proving much more difficult than I initially thought it would be.. I have a teacher at my school mark my essays (she has been assessor for English for many years) which are done under exam conditions and I've found that the difference between a 9 and 10 is monumental. Also, very subjective. I'm getting 9s on almost every essay, with the occasional 8 or 10.
She commends my arguments and approaches to the pieces and likes the fact that I don't use the same ideas and arguments as everyone else. The one problem is that I'm not clear/concise enough in some areas and waffle a little too much with "fluffer" words to "show off my vocavulary". Haha.
Things are going okay for this point in the year though, I guess. I'm still equally ranked 1st in the cohort for SACs at this point and that's always a good thing. :)
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On another note, what mark would someone generally need on the exam to get a Premiers' award for English? 59/60+?
How many people get the Premiers' award for English and how many people usually get a 50 in the subject?
Thanks guys :D
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100 50's and 20 Premier's Awards. And you'd probably need 60 with 100% SACs.
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100 50's and 20 Premier's Awards. And you'd probably need 60 with 100% SACs.
Oh wow... Would that many people in the state get a perfect score on the exam...?
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Probably not. The range of 50's would be something like 57/60 - 60/60 with around 100% SACs. Remember, there are about 40,000 students who sit the English exam, which means only 1 in 400 scores 57, 58, 59 or 60 on the exam, or indeed manages a raw 50.
But I'm sure there are at least 20 people (1 in 2000) who manage 60/60 :p
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Probably not. The range of 50's would be something like 57/60 - 60/60 with around 100% SACs. Remember, there are about 40,000 students who sit the English exam, which means only 1 in 400 scores 57, 58, 59 or 60 on the exam, or indeed manages a raw 50.
But I'm sure there are at least 20 people (1 in 2000) who manage 60/60 :p
Well, my dreams of getting a Premiers' for English are down the drain lol
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don't worry man. You may not win the nobel prize in Eng, but I'm sure you'll reach that goal of becoming a doctor. Keep it up bro.
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don't worry man. You may not win the nobel prize in Eng, but I'm sure you'll reach that goal of becoming a doctor. Keep it up bro.
Thanks mate, it really means a lot! :) I wish you the best of luck in your studies and hope you get to where you want to be.
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Yeah, 59/60 will not get you a Premiers in English, even with full mark SACs.
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There are two elements to a good VCE English essay - the two B's:
1. Big Words
2. Bullshit
nah...i meant
1. Excessive lexical density
2. Sentences with lexically dense clauses subordinately related
3. Extensive use of jargon and doublespeak
With those, you can bullshit any examiner into giving you a 10.
JKS :P
Nah, I wouldn't know, but I could imagine that you just need to hunt through your book and look for the most obscure yet sophisticated analysis of the book and own it as your silver bullet. In other words, make up stuff. :P
Oh and btw - Premier's in English (100% SACs and 60/60) would be pretty effing impressive. Hats off to ppl who get Premiers' in English...
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http://www.bigwords.com/bigwords/ for those who wanna learn big words and stuff
But in all seriousness, does anyone know of a decent dictionary to use for English? Preferably one that doesn't give you crap like, oscitancy: of or pertaining to oscitance
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Super helpful post there thushan. Go back to the english lang board :P
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LOL it was meant to be tongue in cheek :P
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I know thushan's post was tongue-in-cheek, but the 'English is all about the bullshitting' line comes up often enough in armchair expert circles that I feel inclined to point out that although it is theoretically possible to get away with bullshit, you still have to be able to substantiate your bullshit, that is, if your teacher has any wits about them, then you'd better have evidence to back up your bullshit, in which case that kind of defeats the purpose of bullshitting.
Now, as for making up stuff, if you want to make up stuff, study Literature, not English, and I mean that in absolutely the best way possible.*
* That was not sarcasm.**
** No, like it actually was not sarcasm.***
*** No, that was not sarcasm either.****
**** Ok let me be clear about this, none of these statements are sarcasm, and neither will be any subsequent to this one.*****
***** This statement isn't sarcastic either, and neither was that clause, or the one subsequent to it, or the one subsequent to that. This post is not sarcastic, period.******
******* And that statement was not sarcastic.********
******** I am glad we've cleared up any ambiguities which might have arisen from the possibility that my statement might have been sarcastic.*********
********* And to be clear, that last statement was sarcastic.
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I know thushan's post was tongue-in-cheek, but the 'English is all about the bullshitting' line comes up often enough in armchair expert circles that I feel inclined to point out that although it is theoretically possible to get away with bullshit, you still have to be able to substantiate your bullshit, that is, if your teacher has any wits about them, then you'd better have evidence to back up your bullshit, in which case that kind of defeats the purpose of bullshitting.
dilks, did you just BS your way through that post? :P
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Yeah, but that post wouldn't have got a 10 as I forgot to substantiate my bullshit with evidence :P. Meta-commentary eat your heart out.
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That was cheeky.
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Second everything here #bsrules
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When will it be my turn for a SS of 50?
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When will it be my turn for a SS of 50?
When you earn it :)
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When will it be my turn for a SS of 50?
When you earn it :)
Couldn't have said it better myself.
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Goodluck on your 50 man. You seem like a very hardworking and smart guy. Plus the fact that you are already owning practice papers means you have a really high chance.
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Goodluck on your 50 man. You seem like a very hardworking and smart guy. Plus the fact that you are already owning practice papers means you have a really high chance.
Thanks mate :) I'm really not that good, though. There are so many people that write much more eloquently than myself and in a much more sophisticated manner. All I can do is keep trying and hoping for the best I guess. Best of luck to you in your studies.
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Your writing is eloquent and sophisticated enough to score 10/10, going off the sample essays thread, and it'll keep improving through to the year's end.
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Thanks so much for all the tips, help and motivation, guys and girls!
Still rank 1 in a very strong cohort going into Unit 4. Getting closer and closer to sitting the exam and hopefully scoring 60/60!
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I don't know why the fuck all you guys are complaining about cohorts.
I'm from a remote town, a disadvantaged school and yet I'm putting in the hard yards to achieve a 50 SS.
My SAC scores are near perfect, and I am rank number 1.
So, all I say is screw cohorts and all that political bullshit, put you heads down and push for the best you can achieve.
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Don't drop marks on the exam, that's pretty much what it comes down to. You can get a 90% overall for your sacs and full marks on the exam (approximately how I went) and get a 48, or you can get 100% in SACs and get 90% on the exam and get like a 45/46.
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I'm actually quite upset because I got 99/100 for Unit 3. I dropped 1 mark on my final Language Analysis SAC for handwriting. It's bull crap but anyway.
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As shinny said, I don't think there's any point in worrying/posting about unit 3 results now :)
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I'm actually quite upset because I got 99/100 for Unit 3. I dropped 1 mark on my final Language Analysis SAC for handwriting. It's bull crap but anyway.
I hope you manage to overcome this devastating setback in Unit Four...
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I'm actually quite upset because I got 99/100 for Unit 3. I dropped 1 mark on my final Language Analysis SAC for handwriting. It's bull crap but anyway.
I hope you manage to overcome this devastating setback in Unit Four...
All chances of a 50 are gone now, one would think.
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I'm actually quite upset because I got 99/100 for Unit 3. I dropped 1 mark on my final Language Analysis SAC for handwriting. It's bull crap but anyway.
It is actually the end of the world.
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2012 has begun.. brace yourselves
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I'm actually quite upset because I got 99/100 for Unit 3. I dropped 1 mark on my final Language Analysis SAC for handwriting. It's bull crap but anyway.
Oh poor you! I hope you are okay man, if you need anyone to talk to about this great tragedy feel free to PM me. :(
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If I remember correctly, hardly anyone (or no one) in the state gets full marks on the English exam because it's just so subjective and it's hard to give out 10/10 scores.
*grins*