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Author Topic: ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!  (Read 2557 times)

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3.14159265359

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ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« on: May 03, 2018, 10:11:32 pm »
0
Hey Everyone

I just need to go on a little rant here about the wonderful subject nesa made compulsory for us.

Basically, I got my marks today for my second assessment task for hsc (it was a multimodal presentation for modA) and I did really bad in it. I put so much effort in it and I did absolute crap. To be fair I had people outside school mark it and they said it was great and gave me a really good mark for it but in my opinion, my teachers were so harsh in marking. It was worth 15%. And I get my half yearly marks tomorrow and I know I already did crap for that too without seeing the marks. First assessment was 25% for a listening task and I didn’t do too bad neither did too good (9/15). I got ranked 20/50 for that. And I’m pretty sure I’m going to be ranked in the bottom now from the last 2 assessments.

My problem is, I really do not enjoy the subject. I just honestly don’t. And I’m not good at it either. I’m More of the maths person. And my teachers are horrible. They can’t teach of their lives depended on it. We hand in stuff to get marked and we never see them again. It is really horrible.

 I know it’s too late now to do anything, but I really do want to improve my marks. I do want to do really well in the subject. I, as all other students, want to get a band 6, but I know I’m not capable. I have a more chance of getting to the moon than I do to get a band 6 in English. And I have accepted that. I do want to do well, but at the same time I don’t know how. And I’ve lost all motivation to even try anymore in English. Like I just don’t care anymore. I got my mark and I haven’t done any work after that period because im not in the right mindset.

I am obviously upset, but I just don’t know where to go. I can’t even get a proper thesis right. Nor can I write a proper essay. Like in my opinion my fundamentals are bad. We’re always asked to write an essay; thesis—> introduction—> 3/4 body paragraphs with 3/4eg for each —> conclusion. WHAT EVEN IS THIS!! WE ARE ALWAYS TOLD TO DO THIS BUT WHATS THE POINT. TO PROVE AN ARGUMENT AND THE QUESTION, YES, BUT HOW DO YOU DO THAT??!!!!

Any tips/advice would really help. Thank you
« Last Edit: May 03, 2018, 10:19:30 pm by 3.14159265359 »

Lumenoria

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ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2018, 12:00:08 am »
+5
Hey there!!

First off, I feel you. In English Advanced for prelim, I felt as though I put in way more effort into the subject than my friends and STILL was ranking exponentially below them. What was more even more embarrassing, was that while they were hating on how horrendous the subject was, I actually liked it. Yet, I managed to JUST make the cutoff for Advanced in year 12 - our school forces the bottom half of the prelim cohort into Standard. It seriously sucks expending so much effort into something and your results not be reflective of it, I get it.

The important thing though, is to focus on your weaknesses. For me, exam technique is always what compromises my marks (specifically time management in exam conditions) - but for you, it might be formulating a cohesive and sophisticated argument itself. I worked my ass off in year 11 despite my shortcomings, and now, I'm ranked 2nd out of 40 students for Advanced with consistent marks of 90 in all assessments thus far. I cannot stress to you enough how important it is to hand in drafts BEFORE the assessment date. I'm quite fortunate in this regard as my school's English faculty is blessed with extremely competent teachers and my one happens to be the head and the best, but even if this is not the case for you, their feedback is absolutely invaluable!! There is no way I would've even imagined achieving marks this high back in year 11 - when I thought it was a lost cause - were it not for the support, expertise and mentorship of my English teacher. It is all literally hard work, and insurmountable levels of drafts, emails, questions etc. I got 60% for creative writing - my absolute weakness - in prelim, but I attained a mark of 93% in my AOS creative for discovery in year 12. That was, after a debilitating back and forth drafting process with my teacher, which involved probably 5-8 emails hahaha. I don't even exactly remember, but it was definitely a LOT more than usual.

As for forming solid arguments, I prepared for Mod A (my half yearly) by not just writing one essay and constantly refining that throughout the term like my peers did, but writing LOTS in the 2 weeks before the exam. At this time, generally I am not really studying - all I'm doing is refining my exam technique. After studying the weeks before this point though, I usually know my texts so well that I'm able to quote from any part of the text as required, with a bank of ideas/themes that I would oscillate between depending on their pertinence to the question at hand. In my study, it is always absolutely imperative for me to immerse myself in the contextual influences of the text. Not just the general, obvious links that are established in class, but more parochial ones that may help you come up with a unique argument. So essentially, it is crucial to have a comprehensive personal understanding of the texts beyond your teacher's interpretation, I suppose is what I'm getting at.

Generally, I never write the same exact essay each time when I'm practising because each question requires differing levels of nuance and I always want to ensure I give the marker the impression that I wrote a well articulated essay that nailed the question, not just one I'd regurgitated onto paper. Particularly for this module (and all of the ones in paper 2 really), I'd advise against responses memorised verbatim because the questions tend to be quite specific. However, if this works for you, then so be it! I just personally think it's risky to commit that much to a generic response because it may subconsciously incline you to prioritise using it in the exam over actually tackling the question you're given, if that makes sense.

I hope this helps you, even if it's a little bit!! I think for me it's much easier because I'm one of the rare people that actually enjoy English (absolutely hate maths though HAHA), but if you even have a glimmer of passion of subject - pursue it! It will motivate you to actually work hard on it. Seek out your errors and work on them, it pays off.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2018, 12:21:17 am by Lumenoria »
HSC 2018 (ATAR 96.35) - English Advanced (96) | Mathematics General (87) | Legal Studies (94) | Economics (89) | Industrial Technology (94)

Mada438

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Re: ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2018, 03:10:35 pm »
+2
Hey!
LUmenoria is pretty much on the ball here!
All of her advice is more or less what i would say too.
But there are two extra things I'd like to add:
Firstly, this guide which should help you with finding motivation as someone who's more maths inclined and doesn't enjoy English.
And secondly, you mention you have trouble with structure. A good structure that our class uses is CLACEL
CLACEL is a structure for body paragraphs and breaks each one down into little bits which can be checklisted. It goes as follows:

I find this is a really good way to break down a large paragraph into smaller manageable parts!
Hope this helps!
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JTrudeau

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Re: ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2018, 04:51:42 pm »
+1
Hey there! Adding to the great resources and tips here, I also wrote an article on getting better at essay writing here
Totally understand how you feel — but between now and the HSC is the best time to improve, so you can’t lose hope now! We’re all rooting for you!! x
Data Science, Finance || University of Sydney
== First in State for Software Design and Development 2017 ==
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3.14159265359

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Re: ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2018, 12:19:13 pm »
0
Hey there!!

First off, I feel you. In English Advanced for prelim, I felt as though I put in way more effort into the subject than my friends and STILL was ranking exponentially below them. What was more even more embarrassing, was that while they were hating on how horrendous the subject was, I actually liked it. Yet, I managed to JUST make the cutoff for Advanced in year 12 - our school forces the bottom half of the prelim cohort into Standard. It seriously sucks expending so much effort into something and your results not be reflective of it, I get it.

The important thing though, is to focus on your weaknesses. For me, exam technique is always what compromises my marks (specifically time management in exam conditions) - but for you, it might be formulating a cohesive and sophisticated argument itself. I worked my ass off in year 11 despite my shortcomings, and now, I'm ranked 2nd out of 40 students for Advanced with consistent marks of 90 in all assessments thus far. I cannot stress to you enough how important it is to hand in drafts BEFORE the assessment date. I'm quite fortunate in this regard as my school's English faculty is blessed with extremely competent teachers and my one happens to be the head and the best, but even if this is not the case for you, their feedback is absolutely invaluable!! There is no way I would've even imagined achieving marks this high back in year 11 - when I thought it was a lost cause - were it not for the support, expertise and mentorship of my English teacher. It is all literally hard work, and insurmountable levels of drafts, emails, questions etc. I got 60% for creative writing - my absolute weakness - in prelim, but I attained a mark of 93% in my AOS creative for discovery in year 12. That was, after a debilitating back and forth drafting process with my teacher, which involved probably 5-8 emails hahaha. I don't even exactly remember, but it was definitely a LOT more than usual.

As for forming solid arguments, I prepared for Mod A (my half yearly) by not just writing one essay and constantly refining that throughout the term like my peers did, but writing LOTS in the 2 weeks before the exam. At this time, generally I am not really studying - all I'm doing is refining my exam technique. After studying the weeks before this point though, I usually know my texts so well that I'm able to quote from any part of the text as required, with a bank of ideas/themes that I would oscillate between depending on their pertinence to the question at hand. In my study, it is always absolutely imperative for me to immerse myself in the contextual influences of the text. Not just the general, obvious links that are established in class, but more parochial ones that may help you come up with a unique argument. So essentially, it is crucial to have a comprehensive personal understanding of the texts beyond your teacher's interpretation, I suppose is what I'm getting at.

Generally, I never write the same exact essay each time when I'm practising because each question requires differing levels of nuance and I always want to ensure I give the marker the impression that I wrote a well articulated essay that nailed the question, not just one I'd regurgitated onto paper. Particularly for this module (and all of the ones in paper 2 really), I'd advise against responses memorised verbatim because the questions tend to be quite specific. However, if this works for you, then so be it! I just personally think it's risky to commit that much to a generic response because it may subconsciously incline you to prioritise using it in the exam over actually tackling the question you're given, if that makes sense.

I hope this helps you, even if it's a little bit!! I think for me it's much easier because I'm one of the rare people that actually enjoy English (absolutely hate maths though HAHA), but if you even have a glimmer of passion of subject - pursue it! It will motivate you to actually work hard on it. Seek out your errors and work on them, it pays off.


Wow! Thats amazing, coming from the bottom to 2nd. That is incredible. Good on you!! Extremely proud!! Thank you for all the advice! I unfortunately, do not have the luxury of great teachers like you, so it'll be hard handing stuff in and getting them back. You pointed out not to memorise essays and regurgitate it on the paper. But if you don't have a essay prepared what would you even write in the exam?? Every essay question is different and there are 10000 quotes you could use, so how do you prepare quotes that'll suit the exam question without knowing what the question is? Do you understand what I'm getting at?

3.14159265359

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Re: ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2018, 12:27:21 pm »
0
Hey!
LUmenoria is pretty much on the ball here!
All of her advice is more or less what i would say too.
But there are two extra things I'd like to add:
Firstly, this guide which should help you with finding motivation as someone who's more maths inclined and doesn't enjoy English.
And secondly, you mention you have trouble with structure. A good structure that our class uses is CLACEL
CLACEL is a structure for body paragraphs and breaks each one down into little bits which can be checklisted. It goes as follows:
(Image removed from quote.)
I find this is a really good way to break down a large paragraph into smaller manageable parts!
Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for this! Yes Jakes guide is A M A Z I N G! But I was wondering if you had a sample paragraph that I could read to know how to apply CLACEL? I think I just need to read a sample so I can understand where to go from here. I would really appreciate it.

Hey there! Adding to the great resources and tips here, I also wrote an article on getting better at essay writing here
Totally understand how you feel — but between now and the HSC is the best time to improve, so you can’t lose hope now! We’re all rooting for you!! x

Wow! What an amazing article!! Thank you so much for that!! xx

Mod Edit: Post merge, you can insert multiple quotes by hitting Quote on the first post, then in the message window, scroll down to earlier replies and click 'Insert Quote' :)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2018, 12:40:26 pm by jamonwindeyer »

Lumenoria

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ADVICE NEEDED ON HOW TO DO WELL!!
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2018, 12:58:39 pm »
+4

Wow! Thats amazing, coming from the bottom to 2nd. That is incredible. Good on you!! Extremely proud!! Thank you for all the advice! I unfortunately, do not have the luxury of great teachers like you, so it'll be hard handing stuff in and getting them back. You pointed out not to memorise essays and regurgitate it on the paper. But if you don't have a essay prepared what would you even write in the exam?? Every essay question is different and there are 10000 quotes you could use, so how do you prepare quotes that'll suit the exam question without knowing what the question is? Do you understand what I'm getting at?

Hey, thankyou so much haha!! That sucks, but I've had quite good experiences with the markers on ATARnotes when I posted on here - so definitely maximise your use of the service if you need to! As for your other concern, generally you should never really be writing anything for the first time ever on the date of the exam. Obviously, the essays themselves will be different everytime you practise as differing questions require differing levels of nuance, but what I mean, is that the ideas and arguments can be recycled. I also ensure I know the text so well that I can basically quote from any part of the text if worst comes to worst.

What I do, is commit myself to doing mountains of practice essays that come exam day, I will have already done that question or one similar to it. There is obviously no 100% guarantee that any one of your practice essays will reflective on the actual question at hand on the exam day, but the most you can do to increase your chances is to KEEP WRITING. If the question is completely diametrically opposed to your preconceived notions, you just have to work with what you've got. However, by then, you should have done so much preparation that you don't even need to try to memorise, because your ideas will come to you naturally from the extent of studying done. At least this is what I do. Even if the question isn't exact, the ideas I use are generally broad enough that I'll able to swing my evidence in another light to prove my point, if that makes sense. You can even assess the quote meticulously during your study periods to see the varying avenues of arguments that can be drawn from it, to improve your confidence if need be.

I know, it definitely sounds risky if this hasn't always been your study approach for English, but each time you do a practice essay, you're bettering your ability to tackle unfamiliar questions without even knowing it!! It sounds tedious, but I think it's a much better approach than regurgitating a pre-prepared response because I personally think that is MUCH riskier. You're basically risking everything you've got, in the hopes that the question will be similar to it. If this is your way of feeling safe, then so be it, but you still need to do practise essays using that generic response to train yourself to smash potential curveballs on the exam day. It gets easier once you ease into this process, trust me. This way, any weaknesses can be addressed during this time, rather than having to endure a confronting discovery on the exam day.

Hope this helps you!! :)
« Last Edit: May 12, 2018, 01:04:45 pm by Lumenoria »
HSC 2018 (ATAR 96.35) - English Advanced (96) | Mathematics General (87) | Legal Studies (94) | Economics (89) | Industrial Technology (94)