VCE English Question Thread

[Joseph41]

CONGRATULATIONS FOR FINISHING!

For all post-exam discussion and questions, please head to this thread here. Can't wait to hear how you all went!

[superficious]

So I walked in my exam, sat down and waited patiently for the reading time to begin. When I opened my paper I literally started laughing, every single theme I’ve studied and focused on was there;
Forgiveness/Revenge for the Comparison
Nature for the text response

I honestly spaced out an hour for each essay and with 55 mins to go, I started the language analysis. I blanked out and ended up writing 2 pages of bullshii, way to go am I right?

[Mariamnourine]

I felt exactly the same way. I panicked when I entered the exam room because I was expecting something bizarre and outta this world, Then when I looked at the prompts I wished I never stressed about English. The prompts for comparative and Text response were soooooooo easy. And can we talk about that section C article? way tooo easy, it was short and bursting with techniques. I guess I should stop overreacting about exams. All in all, happy that I am satisfied with my performance AND ecstatic that I will NEVER have t sit a 3 hour English exam in my life! [Btw did any one else finish like 15 minutes early, because I was freaked out that I wouldn't finish on time, then I was shocked when I realized that there was plenty of time remaining to proof read my essays}

[c_niloo]

Hi big question here, (year 10 student)
In school we've been doing text response essays all year as well as recently starting comparitive but I can't for some reason improve in creating more ideas or analysis in my explanation. I have a braindead teacher and I've searched and tried all the tips on this forum I can't get that writing mentality so I've decided to ask the question myself. Specifically, I find my self just reiterating the same point throughout my body paragraphs or sounding unneccesarily verbose. For example in a normal tr essay for Macbeth with a prompt asking to discuss ambition all I find myself doing is just saying- ambition is a dangerous quality capable of wracking a persons mind if not tamed>>>shakespeare exemplifies through Macbeth the unsuspecting nature of unbridled ambition, highlighting a heavy lust for power and murderous tendency as symptomatic of its atrocious ability.  See how they both kinda make the same point, thats what the majority of my paragraphs end up repeating for any prompt. I want to go further than just saying ambition is dangerous and makes someone wreck havoc.  Thanks and appreciate any answers to help me

[Willba99]

Hi big question here, (year 10 student)
In school we've been doing text response essays all year as well as recently starting comparitive but I can't for some reason improve in creating more ideas or analysis in my explanation. I have a braindead teacher and I've searched and tried all the tips on this forum I can't get that writing mentality so I've decided to ask the question myself. Specifically, I find my self just reiterating the same point throughout my body paragraphs or sounding unneccesarily verbose. For example in a normal tr essay for Macbeth with a prompt asking to discuss ambition all I find myself doing is just saying- ambition is a dangerous quality capable of wracking a persons mind if not tamed>>>shakespeare exemplifies through Macbeth the unsuspecting nature of unbridled ambition, highlighting a heavy lust for power and murderous tendency as symptomatic of its atrocious ability.  See how they both kinda make the same point, thats what the majority of my paragraphs end up repeating for any prompt. I want to go further than just saying ambition is dangerous and makes someone wreck havoc.  Thanks and appreciate any answers to help me

I struggled with the same issue all year so, even though I wouldn't consider myself a gun at English, I'll tell you how I dealt with it.

I found that the best way to deal with these sort of problems was to have a really diverse knowledge of the text. That means, yeah still talk about the big flagship themes and characters, but don't be afraid to dedicate a paragraph to a lesser character or idea. I think that, especially in Year 12 exams, having an exam thats a bit different to the tens of thousands of others can only be a bonus that will work in your favour. To try and accomplish this, my advice would be to a) read as many high-level responses from different schools/sources as possible, so you get ideas from multiple sources, not just the ones readily available at your school, and b) try and be a bit adventurous in your ideas.

You mentioned that you sometimes have problems due to being too "verbose". I think that a really good way to deal with this is to look back at an essay after you've read it and try to cut down as many words as possible. Try and turn a 1200 word response into a 600 word one by cutting out unnecessary fluff and replacing it with concise verbs and adjectives. In this way, you can show off your vocabulary but still be direct, but you will also discover if you have enough concepts for an entire essay. Heids wrote the best AN article ever on this topic (https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=162777.0) and it included a link to a really interesting essay by George Orwell (https://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/Politics_and_the_English_Language-1.pdf) on the same topic. They're both definitely worth a read.

Good luck with VCE!

[Sigma]

Exam topic for practice English exam. Compare the impact of surveillance on the lives of citizens in both Nineteen Eighty-Four
and Stasiland.

Could someone please give me three themes and example for each. Thanks.

[zhen]

Exam topic for practice English exam. Compare the impact of surveillance on the lives of citizens in both Nineteen Eighty-Four
and Stasiland.

Could someone please give me three themes and example for each. Thanks.

I’m procrastinating right now, so I might as well help you out. My body paragraphs for this were 1) Physical and psychological ramifications of surveillance. I discussed Julia and Winston and how surveillance influenced their mind and spirit. 2) Surveillance and the effect upon relationships. I discussed how surveillance destroyed trust between people and discussed internal emigration in Stasiland and the how informers, which is a method of surveillance destroys trust. Also, here would be a great place to discuss Mrs Parsons and her children. 3) The nature of surveillance to restrict individual freedom.

[Sigma]

Thanks for your response. Zhen.

[snowisawesome]

What sac marks and exam marks do you need to get to get a 30 raw in English?
Thanks
Is memorising essays a good idea to get a 30 study score raw in english?

[snowisawesome]

Is there a way to understand the English texts you're reading? I've just finished the first 2 chapters of stasiland and I'm struggling to remember what has happened so far (first 2 chapters) and ended up having to use study guides for chapter summaries

[clarke54321]

Is there a way to understand the English texts you're reading? I've just finished the first 2 chapters of stasiland and I'm struggling to remember what has happened so far (first 2 chapters) and ended up having to use study guides for chapter summaries

Hello!

That can be quite a common problem when studying more difficult texts. I'd suggest that you try and annotate the text as you are reading it. That is, take notes beside certain phrases or words. This ensures that you are fully engaging with all the information on the page- not just skimming it through without thought. You may also choose to write your own little summary after each chapter. However, what you're doing at the moment (reading study guide chapter summaries) is by no means a bad thing! I often did this for both English and Literature. It meant that I could join latent dots and continue reading the text with certainty.

I've personally never studied Stasiland, only read it. Much of the text is reliant on contextual knowledge. So you may find that doing some research on Germany during the relevant time period may help you out.

All the best 

[abbeyrose]

Is memorising essays a good idea to get a 30 study score raw in english?

Unless you mean for a sac where you've been given the prompts beforehand (which in that case then sure, go ahead), frankly I don't think memorising essays is ever a good idea. The examiners can tell when someone has memorised an essay and they express their disapproval of the practice quite frequently in the examination reports. Examiners look to reward people who offer insightful interpretations and engage with the prompt. Through rewriting an essay that you've previously written, even if the prompts are similar in the themes or characters they discuss, you run at high risk of not engaging with the prompt and offering an insightful analysis. I think it would be easier to study to understand the texts and develop a repertoire of your own interpretations that you can use and adapt to a prompt, than studying to try and memorise 800 or so words (if psych taught me anything it's that elaborative rehearsal > maintenance rehearsal ). Sure, maybe memorise the way you discuss some themes or narrative conventions and use it if it relates to your contention and deepens your analysis, but definitely don't look at a prompt and think "yeah, I wrote an essay about this theme/prompt type before" and then rewrite that essay. You have more chance of getting a good score if the examiner can see that you've thought about and engaged with the prompt, rather than memorising an essay

[snowisawesome]

How many words should we write for english sacs in year 12 (comparitive essays, language analysis, short stories, etc)?

[LifeisaConstantStruggle]

How many words should we write for english sacs in year 12 (comparitive essays, language analysis, short stories, etc)?

It really depends on your ability to convey yourself and the task you are given. Normally in my school we are instructed to write 800-1000 words regardless of the SAC we do, but high scoring students normally write 1000-1200 words so that's usually where they target. Then again some people might need more words to say what they are trying to say so this is a really inaccurate scale to measure quality.

[snowisawesome]

It really depends on your ability to convey yourself and the task you are given. Normally in my school we are instructed to write 800-1000 words regardless of the SAC we do, but high scoring students normally write 1000-1200 words so that's usually where they target. Then again some people might need more words to say what they are trying to say so this is a really inaccurate scale to measure quality.

Thank you