ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: tarek on December 19, 2010, 05:48:56 pm
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Just asking for advice from people who have done year 12 english, questions like how many times do i need to read/watch the text? Should I study on the Holidays? And to set yourself apart from the other 50,000 students do I need to use 'hard' words?
Thanks in advance :)
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Luck would play a part in the exam!! And i would say have a high ranking in the cohort.
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You definitely don't need to use 'hard' words.
Read a lot of good essays, write a lot of good essays, develop your own unique style of writing, know your texts inside out, follow the assessment criteria and so on.
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Three things:
1. Practice
2. Knowing the writing forms inside and out
3. Luck
Obviously, you need to know your stuff to get anything 45+. However, the difference between a 50 and a 45 is literally just an on-the-day marking thing. I know people who have gotten 44 who are CLEARLY better than others I know who get 50.
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stop it! you are giving me epic lulz!!
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Use appropriate words to convey ideas and vary the words that you use. Study enough so you are able to handle various topics/prompts/pieces. Read/watch the text so you are able to engage with its themes thoroughly in Reading and Responding (so perhaps 3-5 times). For Creating and Presenting, read/watch enough for you to understand the main themes generally, although you may want to look at some specifics (1-3 times perhaps). Study on the holidays if you need to.
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1. Writing a very good paper on the day is seriously the key to getting a 50.
I was not ranked no.1 for sacs - yet got 50 - in fact I'd say I was probably ranked somewhere in the top 10, certainly not the top few. But as my English teacher said - my SAC marks were solid - so A+s of various levels.
2. Absolutely know your texts intricately - forget the bull that you don't need to study for english. I'd seriously recommend reading them 5-10 times. The first read for 'pleasure'. The next few to kind of get your baring in the book - start thinking about what's important, main issues/character development. I would also then sit over about a week reading it with a computer and noting anything - quotes/phrases etc that I thought might be useful such as 'everything turned into mist' or something from 1984 that I remember still now. This approach means you don't actually have to memorise quotes, as they will literally just come to you.
3. Work on basic essay things - know how a good lang analysis works for you; a good context piece and a good text response. My lang analysis tasks contained lot's of sentences/corresponding sentences that consider what the author does "by doing x', the effect of that and then how it would impact the reader.. (yeah hard to elucidate in the abstract).There was a really useful document on here written by someone who had put a page of words useful in certain circumstances - for example connoting/elucidating/evokes/ by juxtaposing etc - that I found useful as a guide when writing to think of how to attack an piece. There were words on it that I would never use in my own writing, hence wished not to use willy-nilly in my pieces, but I am a firm believer that lang analysis is a test of both your ability to analysis the text and use language fluently and effectively yourself to describe something somewhat mundane usually. My context pieces I only nailed an approach literally a week before the exam - it had been absolutely irritating me prior to that point -was so unsure (plus I did it in the first year of the study design) - generally I would have Bruce Dawe/old man essentially reflecting on his life as an old man which meant that you could throw in lot's of things about I&B and overtly be referring to the poems without making it too text-reponse like. As for text responses - need to know how you conclude/introduce your essay (obvious I know) - but I emphasis you need a model that works for you and makes your entire essay persuasive.
4. Don't become stale by doing too many practices. Yes - I am advocating not writing 30 essays prior to your english exam. I am advocating at most 3-4 from the term 3 holidays for each area. This will probably be a contentious issue but what I found infinitely more beneficial was actually doing plans. I did around 30 detailed text response plans on a wide range of essay topics - I found this really useful as it would mean that an area you hadn't considered would be explored - most of these plans were about a page in word. It was good because you could literally work out the subtle differences between arguably identical topics. I did this also with prompts for context - trying to work out what you vaguely would discuss and found about 5-6 general areas that were recurrent and knew what sort of approach and which poems would be useful in such an essay. As for language - I literally would get a sentence from something and analysis it to the extreme by considering all the words.
Hopefully there is something useful in there - but do work consistently. Read well, read widely and build an interpretation of the text for text response.
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^ lishan515 that was really good advice! Thanks. ;)
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1) Don't use insane words every sentence, but a few non basic words per paragraph defs makes you work "sparkle" as my English teach would say. (i for one did not use OVERLY complicated vocab at all)
2) Read each text at least three times, but more idealy. First to get the gist and main idea (over the summer holidays) then another time when your class reads it, try to pick up on the more subtle points and third over the therm three holidays to refresh you mind. The more times you read the text the better as each time you will come across better quotes and it will sparks different ideas.
oh and yes, luck is a big part of it, i for one do not profess to be the most fluid of writers or posess anywhere near the English skill of EZ, yet must have caught a lucky break
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Are three 10/10 essays on the exam required for a 50? I got my statement of marks today and got 9,10,10 on the exam for a 46. I did average B in SACs during the year though, bloody teacher.
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Are three 10/10 essays on the exam required for a 50? I got my statement of marks today and got 9,10,10 on the exam for a 46. I did average B in SACs during the year though, bloody teacher.
You probably needed higher SAC scores too... but I'm guessing yes, you would've needed a 10 for the first essay too.
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Nope, I've heard of a 50 with 10, 9.5, 9. He did have top ranking (100/100) at St Kevins though. But no, you don't need straight 10s for 50. I think you would have gotten 50 streaker, if you were ranked first.
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Nope, I've heard of a 50 with 10, 9.5, 9. He did have top ranking (100/100) at St Kevins though. But no, you don't need straight 10s for 50. I think you would have gotten 50 streaker, if you were ranked first.
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I found having some million-dollar phrases/sentences/words that could be slipped into every essay really helped. Just have some things you know are absolutely impeccable at the ready and use them where possible. This way you save yourself thinking of new things (that you may be unsure of) and as a result, you prevent yourself from risking perfect marks.
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Are three 10/10 essays on the exam required for a 50? I got my statement of marks today and got 9,10,10 on the exam for a 46. I did average B in SACs during the year though, bloody teacher.
What were your GA1/2s?
I'm half interested to see what I received on the exam now...
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Are three 10/10 essays on the exam required for a 50? I got my statement of marks today and got 9,10,10 on the exam for a 46. I did average B in SACs during the year though, bloody teacher.
What were your GA1/2s?
I'm half interested to see what I received on the exam now...
At my school we don't receive our actual marks, just grades. I did, however, apply for my statement of study score last night so I'll let you know what I got for SACs.
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I mean what grade did VCAA give you?
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I mean what grade did VCAA give you?
A+ for all GA's. I don't think it's possible to receive 46 with anything less than an A+ in one of your GA's?
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Yeah true. It would've definitely been your SACs that brought you down.
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Does anyone agree that luck plays a huge role, maybe more than 50% in an English exam if you've prepared enough to know important quotes and understand the text? For me, sometimes I can rock up to an exam and freeze up upon looking at the essay topics and other times, I can rock up and not stop writing, cause i'm either in the zone or I just know the topic and what to write. :D, maybe that's just me
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Are three 10/10 essays on the exam required for a 50? I got my statement of marks today and got 9,10,10 on the exam for a 46. I did average B in SACs during the year though, bloody teacher.
9/10/10 is usually enough to get a 50 if your SACs are near perfect, so in this case your SAC ranking probably did drag you down quite a bit.
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Are three 10/10 essays on the exam required for a 50? I got my statement of marks today and got 9,10,10 on the exam for a 46. I did average B in SACs during the year though, bloody teacher.
9/10/10 is usually enough to get a 50 if your SACs are near perfect, so in this case your SAC ranking probably did drag you down quite a bit.
a friend of mine got 19/19/19 (he got his statement of marks) and still got a 50, granted that he has sac marks that would've scaled to full tho
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Yeah, you'd need at least two 20s out of three for a 50. I got 18/20 for all three essays and got a 44. Although I was maybe 7th or 8th in SAC ranking at my school.
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Yeh - SAC markings have huge impact...you can have an all right exam but still do exceptionally well if your SAC marks are really good
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And the other way around.
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Yeah :) It is 50%/50% so you're rewarded for quality.
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Its all luck man... well like EZ said, 45-50 depends on the examiner you get, how good your day is and so on... Also depends on ranking, so hope none of you guys get ultra-biased English co-ordinators or teachers. I do ESL, and I got A+ A A+... 47...FML...
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Wow A+ A A+ yielded a 47?? Must have been very high A+s and high A.
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Well, I think I sodomized the exam :). Since I am holidaying overseas, I cannot get my statement of results just yet... But yeah, our co-ordinator is incredibly biased... Seriously... Don't get me going on her... And for GA2(unit 4), I am sure she gave me a B+ but the final grade was moderated into an A by VCAA because of my final exam. Well in our school, the rank 1 (from her class..duh), A+ A+ A+, got a 43... so yeah, I feel cheated. :)
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Damn. A slightly higher ranking/SAC mark may have gotten you a 50.
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HaHa, o wells, its over now. Can't change the study score, I am just happy that this is the first year since 4-5 years, that the top mark didn't come from her class. No matter how low she can stoop, her class still got...wait for it... DENIED! Hah. That is all.
Oh and good luck Swarley, hope you ass-kick VCE English :).
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hahah ;D
Thanks, i hope i can kick VCE English's ass :P