ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: vce01 on October 02, 2008, 07:53:05 pm
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am i the only one who's planning on simply using my study guides for the exam?
ive always wondered why people are against doing that, but its got all you could need doesn't it? important quotes, major themes, detailed explanations on pretty much every character in the text.
ive read my texts once, but i cannot be bothered going through them again. i reckon the study guide probably does a much better job of analysing it than i ever would anyway. in previous yrs i never even read my texts once but sparknotes/wiki (not using them this yr) were good enough to get me a B+ or higher. with far more prep this yr, i reckon i should be able to do alright (doing esl helps)
but anyway, i wanted opinions, on why people are so against using study guides?
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bcos examiners are quite familiar with study guides so when u use ideas from them, it doesnt surprise the examiners and hence wont do as well compared to those who generate their own ideas.
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there are only so many ideas you can come up with by yourself that wouldn't already be explained by a study guide..
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well to score really high u would need to stand out and impress the examiners (9-10 range mark is quite competitive) and so u would need to go beyond than just study guides.
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Study guides are very generic. Even the 5-6 out of 10 range would use study guides to memorise introductions and conclusions, and then simply adhere these to their own personal topic. This is dishonest, and almost a slight form of plagiarism in which many students become less reliant on themselves, and more reliant on mass-produced goods which are not of 9-10 quality anyway.
The best way to structure essays is to read and get advice from others, etc friends and teachers. This is a far more beneficial form of learning, and furthermore, the idea would coerce itself in your head, rather than simple rote repetition (which is good I guess for short-term things, but no way essays).
That's my point of view on study guides. :)
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so you're saying that you can/have done a better job of analysing your texts than any study guide has? im not saying you can't/wouldn't have, but these guides are done by experts so you would have to assume they've done it pretty well.
as for getting advice from others, isn't that pretty much the same thing as using a study guide? you're using information obtained from other people.
and as for being dishonest, eh, all's fair, it doesn't bother me as long as i can get a good mark.
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so you're saying that you can/have done a better job of analysing your texts than any study guide has? im not saying you can't/wouldn't have, but these guides are done by experts so you would have to assume they've done it pretty well.
as for getting advice from others, isn't that pretty much the same thing as using a study guide? you're using information obtained from other people.
and as for being dishonest, eh, all's fair, it doesn't bother me as long as i can get a good mark.
Study guides don't go into nearly as much depth as you ought to - they bring up the main points that you should be covering in class in the first few weeks of studying a text. It's certainly possible to analyse texts to a further extent than that done in study guides, and I highly recommend you do so. The level of analysis covered in study guides is good, but not good enough to get you probably more than 8/10. Even the supposedly "A+" essays that some study guides have at the back would often only get 8-9/10.
If you need help analysing texts, talk to teachers, friends, post on here. Most of all, for god's sake, read the book again! I think by the time of the exam I'd read each of the texts I wrote on at least 5-6 times. The more you read it, the better you'll understand it.