ATAR Notes: Forum
Archived Discussion => English Studies => 2014 => Exam Discussion => Victoria => English & EAL => Topic started by: brenden on October 29, 2014, 12:06:48 pm
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How'd you go?! Section B discussion here :)
The prompts:
Imaginative landscape: Imagination shapes our response to the landscape.
Whose reality?: Misrepresenting reality can have serious consequences.
Encountering conflict: Conflict causes harm to both the powerful and the powerless.
Exploring issues of identity and belonging: Discovering who we are and where we belong can be challenging.
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How'd you go?! Section B discussion here :)
I got to write about mirages, so i am happy :)
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I thought all four prompts were really accessible this year. (probably felt bad for everyone 'cause of Section C lol)
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I thought all four prompts were really accessible this year. (probably felt bad for everyone 'cause of Section C lol)
I have seen better prompts, but it still wasn't bad, Section C i looked at, sighed, and just went for it ahaha
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guys, look at the imaginative landscape prompt.
This is a step away from just flat out saying 'Imaginative Landscape. Discuss.'
I thought all four prompts were really accessible this year. (probably felt bad for everyone 'cause of Section C lol)
Yeah I agree, they probably went easy in this section to even it out :/
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I don't really know if I did well or not with whose reality prompt because I legit suck at whose reality.
One paragraph I spoke about memory misrepresenting our reality as they are just impressions of our reality blinded by things like beliefs and imagination. then i rambled on about key witness testimonial (forgot the name of it when writing it, i originally wrote memory testimonial) and how fluid memory is, allowing us to relive subjective realities. then i spoke about serial position effect. then linked it to willy loman and his repression of memory of biff walking in on him having an affair and wondering why they weren't good pals, and as such his unstable memory led him to have a misrepresented reality. i wrote it better in exam, thats just a sum up.
first paragraph i spoke about putting up a facade, a representation of what you want to be rather than what you are. this leads to self-deception and can ultimately have consequences like death. linked it to willy thinking he was some king when everyone knew he wasn't. linked it to maerican beauty as Lester stopped misrepresenting his reality, his new perspective enables him to judge his wife who misrepresented her reality living a life of sadness. ergo, i made it seem like due to all his lies and deceit he was shot in the head.
lastly i wrote about positive illusions, self-enhancing your image. i spoke about a gambler chasing the win, when the odds are against them which they'd deny. I spoke about willy ( i can't remember the link, was probably shit). so yeh
I think I did better than I was expecting.
P.S. I liked section C!! Space is like my favourite thing! Just the second visual gave me the creeps.
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I think I did really well on the encountering conflict one, I mostly drew on Paradise Road and did 3 short stories.
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I did averagely on this section even though I'd prepared my thoughts for a conflict prompt on power with The Quiet American. Sigh. Quite annoying too as it's usually my best section :'(
I left it until last so I was tired and didn't take enough time to order my thoughts ooops. Hopefully it's not utterly terrible.
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I almost read the whose reality prompt as 'misinterpreting' thank god I recognised.
but, guys NO MORE ENGLISH forEVER!!!
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The encountering conflict prompt was good <3
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I don't recall my Whose Reality? prompt from last year word-for-word but they chose an incredibly similar one this year. :S
EDIT: Just dug out my English exam (eurrghrghgh) and it was "Losing touch with reality is often dangerous." I guess the language choice has its connotations but they really didn't sway too far this year.
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I don't recall my Whose Reality? prompt from last year word-for-word but they chose an incredibly similar one this year. :S
EDIT: Just dug out my English exam (eurrghrghgh) and it was "Losing touch with reality is often dangerous." I guess the language choice has its connotations but they really didn't sway too far this year.
that is exactly what i was thinking when i was doing it. it was so similar.
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I don't recall my Whose Reality? prompt from last year word-for-word but they chose an incredibly similar one this year. :S
EDIT: Just dug out my English exam (eurrghrghgh) and it was "Losing touch with reality is often dangerous." I guess the language choice has its connotations but they really didn't sway too far this year.
Exactly what I thought!!!
I basically rewrote my context piece I did as practice in the piece.
I guess it's because there is a rotation of new texts this year so they didn't want to choose difficult prompts to screw people around. But let's face it, that was rather disappointing prompt choice for Whose Reality... (I mean where's the multiple realities/influences on reality stuff that would easily discriminate the rest of the state)...
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This prompt would have linked quite well with The Lot: In Words by Michael Leunig, which is what I referred to last year.
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It was pretty shit with Death of a Salesman I think. There wasn't really anything complex I could think of other than stating the obvious.
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The encountering conflict prompt was a godsend, but I only had about 40 minutes so idk if the examiners will be able to read the last half of it lol
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I didn't finish my piece, I only had a conclusion to go. It would have only been 2-3 sentences. How much will my score go down? Other than that the piece was alright.
Glad it's over
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The encountering conflict prompt was a godsend, but I only had about 40 minutes so idk if the examiners will be able to read the last half of it lol
Ah, this happened to me as well.
Last half is illegible. At the start of the exam I had ~ 13 words per line, in the last 15 minutes I probably had 2 words per line :P
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I didn't finish my piece, I only had a conclusion to go. It would have only been 2-3 sentences. How much will my score go down? Other than that the piece was alright.
Glad it's over
if you wrote well then it won't do anything detrimental.
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How much will my score go down? Other than that the piece was alright.
Your score shouldn't go down :) Examiners give you marks for what you have done, so if the rest of your essay was reasonable you should be alright
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Your score shouldn't go down :) Examiners give you marks for what you have done, so if the rest of your essay was reasonable you should be alright
if you wrote well then it won't do anything detrimental.
Good, I was a bit delayed due to section C and it sounds like I wasn't the only one
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The encountering conflict prompt was a godsend, but I only had about 40 minutes so idk if the examiners will be able to read the last half of it lol
Man, are you kidding? That shit slayed me.
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I read the Whose Reality prompt as 'misinterpreting' instead of 'misrepresenting' (how ironic). How badly would this impact on my score? Would I still be able to get a 35? I just cannot believe I made such a colossal mistake :'(
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I read the Whose Reality prompt as 'misinterpreting' instead of 'misrepresenting' (how ironic). How badly would this impact on my score? Would I still be able to get a 35? I just cannot believe I made such a colossal mistake :'(
You can definitely still get a 35 :). You might not even get wrecked that badly - it might just be that the examiners still perceive a lot of your piece as being relevant to the prompt! (And the prompts in Context aren't intended ot be 'stuck to' as much as Text response... if you still discuss relevant ideas of Whose reality you should be okay :) (definitely not ideal though obvs - not saying it's all sunshine, but you shouldn't get demolished horrendously)
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Encountering conflict was alright, it relates to The Quiet American well... hopefully I did ok. Wooo it's over! ;D
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You can definitely still get a 35 :). You might not even get wrecked that badly - it might just be that the examiners still perceive a lot of your piece as being relevant to the prompt! (And the prompts in Context aren't intended ot be 'stuck to' as much as Text response... if you still discuss relevant ideas of Whose reality you should be okay :) (definitely not ideal though obvs - not saying it's all sunshine, but you shouldn't get demolished horrendously)
Ahh thank you, this makes me feel a lot better! And I hope you're right!
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Hey guys,
Well because of Section C ( :-\ )... I had a really limited time frame for this, maximum of about 25 minutes.. I only got down two pages of a creative piece about encountering conflict and paradise road, its just Susan's thoughts as she is being tortured. Well anyway, having got the basic structure down, I still think it was an effective piece... would i be penalised much due to the short length though?
Cheers!! And thanks for the awesome thread ;D
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Did anybody here do Imaginative Landscape? Alot of people at my school struggled with the prompt as it was so vague, but I found it really easy to work with. What did everyone think of the prompt? :)
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It was pretty shit with Death of a Salesman I think. There wasn't really anything complex I could think of other than stating the obvious.
I would have to disagree! Using Death Of A Salesman, I spoke about how Miller analyses the inheritance of flawed, misrepresentative legacies of realities. Willy believes exclusively that "there is nothing better than being loved" and intentionally ignores the truth, labelling his sons "a pair of Adonises" because of his fear of failure.
The realisation about the transience of such a narrow paradigm of existence - i.e. "phoney" - symbolises the extent to which we are autonomous about shifting the inherent ignorance of an assumed lens of reality etc......
But you're right, stating the obvious 8) 8) Sure we all went fine~!
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Do you guys think I screwed up for context (CONFLICT)? I winged it with 30 minutes to spare:
I wrote about how the 'powerful' are more vulnerable to intra personal conflict as they have more flexibility in their choices . I discussed how the mere action of making a decision alone can cause intra personal conflict as our intellectual side clashes with our instinctive and intuitive side. I tried to relate this to Paradise Road by talking about how the women (less powerful) 'challenge' the translator (a powerful character) to do something against the rules, stating that his desire to live up to his values clashes with his intuitive and instinctive \ desire to remain safe, and not disobey the rules of the camp.
I then crapped on for another paragraph about how the powerless are limited to their options and therefore adapt to the conflict easier. Thus, as they have less choices, they are forced to stick with one. The women resolve their inner conflict quickly by developing a women's choir.
You get the point. Crap.
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Do you guys think I screwed up for context (CONFLICT)? I winged it with 30 minutes to spare:
I wrote about how the 'powerful' are more vulnerable to intra personal conflict as they have more flexibility in their choices . I discussed how the mere action of making a decision alone can cause intra personal conflict as our intellectual side clashes with our instinctive and intuitive side. I tried to relate this to Paradise Road by talking about how the women (less powerful) 'challenge' the translator (a powerful character) to do something against the rules, stating that his desire to live up to his values clashes with his intuitive and instinctive \ desire to remain safe, and not disobey the rules of the camp.
I then crapped on for another paragraph about how the powerless are limited to their options and therefore adapt to the conflict easier. Thus, as they have less choices, they are forced to stick with one. The women resolve their inner conflict quickly by developing a women's choir.
You get the point. Crap.
I did somewhat on the same general lines but in a different way. In saying that the powerful and powerless are both harmed, using Paradise Road, Life of Galileo and a current war, i kind of analysed the obvious that the disempowered/powerless (i.e imprisoned women) are harmed through the beatings, torture etc. With the empowered is a bit trickier so kind of like how you said i analysed how it's more of a conscious thing, but they are harmed due to losing morality and being faced with the weight of their actions, rather than the physical punishment of the ladies.
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for encountering conflict, is it bad that i didn't use any examples to support my argument outside Paradise Road ?
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for encountering conflict, is it bad that i didn't use any examples to support my argument outside Paradise Road ?
Well, it's not great - the key principle behind section B is to identify relevant elements from your text(s), and then draw connections with other sources (external literature, art, real-world scenarios etc.)
Otherwise you are in danger of constructing what is essentially a very specific text response.
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I actually quite liked the prompt for Whose Reality?
I wrote as Leunig, and discussed topics like war, the media and parents, and how basically, all of these factors are misrepresented for us, and once we are exposed to the actual realities, we face the consequences.
Initially I was stumped by the prompt, but once I got into the motions of it, I really quite enjoyed writing it (weirdly). :P
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Really confident about everything except section B ....
I basically ran out of time and did two huge paragraphs split between Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in both and then As You Like It and Catcher in the Rye. Do you think it will matter that I only did two paragraphs seeing as it was still fairly detailed/long and the paragraphs were somewhat covering similar/contrasting ideas?
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Really confident about everything except section B ....
I basically ran out of time and did two huge paragraphs split between Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in both and then As You Like It and Catcher in the Rye. Do you think it will matter that I only did two paragraphs seeing as it was still fairly detailed/long and the paragraphs were somewhat covering similar/contrasting ideas?
You can do section B however you like, so it shouldn't have any effect upon your mark so long as the piece wasn't deficient in any other aspects because of your stylistic decision.
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This prompt would have linked quite well with The Lot: In Words by Michael Leunig, which is what I referred to last year.
So similar. VCAA is running out of ideas lol. Either that or they're saving the best till the last exam of the current study design (next year). I drew on ideas about war, the media & how our parents basically concoct this version that the world is a good place and before me know it, bam - the 'shower of shit' as Leunig says! It was basically an inference to illusions.
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Hahahah the ID&B prompt. Could literally talk about ANYTHING related to the context.
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So similar. VCAA is running out of ideas lol. Either that or they're saving the best till the last exam of the current study design (next year). I drew on ideas about war, the media & how our parents basically concoct this version that the world is a good place and before me know it, bam - the 'shower of shit' as Leunig says! It was basically an inference to illusions.
Did you use the word misrepresented? I pretty much had all your ideas, and I paraphrased and used 'distorted' instead. Not sure if that'll cost me
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Did you use the word misrepresented? I pretty much had all your ideas, and I paraphrased and used 'distorted' instead. Not sure if that'll cost me
I didn't say misrepresented because I wanted to preserve the subtly of my piece. However, I definitely made vivid references to it :)
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I didn't say misrepresented because I wanted to preserve the subtly of my piece. However, I definitely made vivid references to it :)
Ah ok, what were the consequences in your piece?
I don't think I answered the prompt enough about the consequences part.
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Ah ok, what were the consequences in your piece?
I don't think I answered the prompt enough about the consequences part.
For parents' upbringing, it was children becoming hurt when they venture into the big bad world.
For war, misrepresenting its reality makes death seem all the more imminent & how it is psychologically scarring, death, etc.
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I don't really know how I'll go ...
First paragraph I spoke about misrepresenting reality in terms of Willy Loman and Lester Burnham ... ultimately leading to their demise. Lester I spoke about coming out of his misrepresentation and seeing others who misrepresent their reality, but due to living that way for such a long time he was killed.
Second paragraph I spoke about memory and cognitive dissonance I think. I spoke about the fluidity of memory changing. Spoke about key witness testimonial (i know its eye i wrote it wrong in exam) and how memory is an impression of our own thoughts, imagination, time etc. I linked this to Wily loman in saying that 'Linda, chevrolette is the best car ever built' then to say that 'they outta prohibit the manufacturer of that car,' and with his son biff who caught him having an affair, Willy repressed this memory and didn't understand why his son hated him, once again leading to him killing himself and damaged relationships.
Third paragraph I spoke about positive illusions misrepresenting your reality. I have zero clue what I spoke about here.
Can ppl please tell me if I went on another tangent or if it was all relative :D I really would like an 8.
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I don't really know how I'll go ...
First paragraph I spoke about misrepresenting reality in terms of Willy Loman and Lester Burnham ... ultimately leading to their demise. Lester I spoke about coming out of his misrepresentation and seeing others who misrepresent their reality, but due to living that way for such a long time he was killed.
Second paragraph I spoke about memory and cognitive dissonance I think. I spoke about the fluidity of memory changing. Spoke about key witness testimonial (i know its eye i wrote it wrong in exam) and how memory is an impression of our own thoughts, imagination, time etc. I linked this to Wily loman in saying that 'Linda, chevrolette is the best car ever built' then to say that 'they outta prohibit the manufacturer of that car,' and with his son biff who caught him having an affair, Willy repressed this memory and didn't understand why his son hated him, once again leading to him killing himself and damaged relationships.
Third paragraph I spoke about positive illusions misrepresenting your reality. I have zero clue what I spoke about here.
Can ppl please tell me if I went on another tangent or if it was all relative :D I really would like an 8.
I don't really know what you expect to gain from us - without reading your actual piece it is impossible to give you an accurate indication of how you performed.
Ideas sound fine though, they certainly won't prevent you from getting an 8. Above that however, it depends on the quality of your writing and whether your assessors favour explicit responses or subtle ones.
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I don't really know what you expect to gain from us - without reading your actual piece it is impossible to give you an accurate indication of how you performed.
Ideas sound fine though, they certainly won't prevent you from getting an 8. Above that however, it depends on the quality of your writing and whether your assessors favour explicit responses or subtle ones.
Just what I received is what I want :D I was asking whether or not I went on another tangent. Ideas in my mind that are relative to the question are usually not what my teachers have wanted, and I think I did well in the exam.
Thanks.
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Section B for conflict was just alright - powerless vs powerful is a dichotomy which I don’t like as it felt a bit too simplistic - I ended up agreeing but complicating it in my 3rd paragraph - overall was okay I think. :)