ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: supermanflyaway on October 21, 2012, 07:03:42 pm

Title: How to revise
Post by: supermanflyaway on October 21, 2012, 07:03:42 pm
With the exam in less than two weeks, how should we be studying?
Should we be writing an essay every one or two days, or is it wiser to spend time planning only for a range of prompts?

Also, do past students suggest memorising essays/paragraphs word-for-word?
Title: Re: How to revise
Post by: nisha on October 21, 2012, 07:06:30 pm
Don't memorise an essay verbatim. Ever.
Title: Re: How to revise
Post by: Shenz0r on October 21, 2012, 07:10:27 pm
I'd say write at least one essay everyday. You won't need to write much. I'd say, write 4 timed LAs, write 3 timed contexts, and 3 timed text responses. That should be enough. The rest of the time can be devoted to perfecting your essays after your teacher critiques them and compiling notes on themed paragraphs (IMPORTANT FOR TEXT RESPONSE).

For text response in particular, make you're you've written several untimed essays which cover a BROAD range of topics. Make the paragraphs as perfect as possible...and then you will see that several points can link in with other prompts. That's why themed paragraphs are important, you can tweak them into your essay.

Memorising essays will help you write quicker as you won't have to worry about expression, but there's a big risk because you may not necessarily link in with the prompt enough. So be very mindful of that. Memorising ideas and main points for each "themed" paragraph will be a better way to go about writing things, it'll give you much more flexibility in adapting points to a new topic.
Title: Re: How to revise
Post by: pi on October 21, 2012, 07:16:22 pm
Also, do past students suggest memorising essays/paragraphs word-for-word?

I did for my context pieces (4 in total), but they were each quite adaptable for a wide range of prompts, each tackling a different theme of the context. I wouldn't recommend memorizing if your pieces aren't very adaptable or for the other sections of the exam.
Title: Re: How to revise
Post by: Ndb on October 21, 2012, 09:18:22 pm
Also, do past students suggest memorising essays/paragraphs word-for-word?

I did for my context pieces (4 in total), but they were each quite adaptable for a wide range of prompts, each tackling a different theme of the context. I wouldn't recommend memorizing if your pieces aren't very adaptable or for the other sections of the exam.

What context did you do? Whose reality? Because I was thinking of doing exactly that as whose reality is broken up into 4 sections: Illusion, memory, conflict and subjectivity
Title: Re: How to revise
Post by: pi on October 21, 2012, 09:23:41 pm
Also, do past students suggest memorising essays/paragraphs word-for-word?

I did for my context pieces (4 in total), but they were each quite adaptable for a wide range of prompts, each tackling a different theme of the context. I wouldn't recommend memorizing if your pieces aren't very adaptable or for the other sections of the exam.

What context did you do? Whose reality? Because I was thinking of doing exactly that as whose reality is broken up into 4 sections: Illusion, memory, conflict and subjectivity

Yeah, WR

Here are mine: (ignore the douche who rated them 0/5 -> trolls haha) http://www.atarnotes.com/?p=notes&a=feedback&id=748
Title: Re: How to revise
Post by: rebeccab26 on October 21, 2012, 09:38:14 pm
With the exam in less than two weeks, how should we be studying?
Should we be writing an essay every one or two days, or is it wiser to spend time planning only for a range of prompts?

Also, do past students suggest memorising essays/paragraphs word-for-word?

do NOT memorise paragraphs or essays EVER. that is a recipe for disaster. when you have preprepared paragraphs in your head you tend to misinterpret questions/prompts and write on what you want to rather than what is actually there which will end up getting you a lower mark than you would have gotten if you decided to wing it.
plan a wide range of prompts because this will ensure you know how to answer anything they throw at you
practice writing a variety of essays but seriously prompts are more important. the essay writing practices is more for timing and to ensure you can structure an essay/write properly
good luck!