Analysing unseen texts

[Thebarman]

Hey guys,

We've been given our 4 unseen texts in preparation of our half yearly exams. Does anyone have any tips on how to analyse these texts, and how to do this in the eventual HSC? What can I do to prepare for the unseen text questions?
Thanks a bunch

(Also, I'm sorry if my question is in the wrong area or if there's a designated thread for these type of questions.)

[elysepopplewell]

Hey guys,

We've been given our 4 unseen texts in preparation of our half yearly exams. Does anyone have any tips on how to analyse these texts, and how to do this in the eventual HSC? What can I do to prepare for the unseen text questions?
Thanks a bunch

(Also, I'm sorry if my question is in the wrong area or if there's a designated thread for these type of questions.)

Hey thebarman Your question is in the right place!

So, have you been given images? songs? poems?
I always find poems the most difficult, because at the best of times they take me at least two readings to work out what's going on! Although 2016 was the year they shook everyone by not putting in a visual unseen text, I always prepared my visual techniques before an exam because none of my prescribed or related texts were visual-stills, so I needed to brush up on them.

Otherwise, I always went in for the obvious things in written texts. Rhyme? High modality? Low modality? First person narration? Imagery? They are obvious techniques a lot of the time, but always very intentional on behalf of the author. So it's so much about what you do with it... I'm sure some people advise mapping out your techniques and going from there, but I would literally just grab a technique and run with it. I always read the questions before looking at the text so I knew what I was looking for - and then you become acutely aware of what you need in order to answer the question successfully!

Hopefully this gives you a bit of a hand. At the end of the day, it's a mad scramble to get the unseen texts done to a reasonable standard. You've got to find what works for you!

[Thebarman]

Hey Elyse,

We've been given an image (It's really more of a motivational quote), an opinion text, a news report about a type of fish that walks on walls, and a prose fiction.

How would I go about analysing a news report? Apart from some occasional high modality, there aren't many techniques in the piece.

Brushing up on visual techniques and reading the questions before the unseen texts are fantastic ideas! I'll make sure to do that in future exams
Thanks for the helpful tips!