First Eng Lang SAC

[Momboom]

I got my first Englang sac results back yesterday expecting a decent mark, however to my utmost disappointment, my score was terrible (a B which places me near the bottom 35-30% of the cohort). This SAC was worth a whopping 12.5% and only one Unit 3 SAC remains! - our school does 2 unit 3 and 2 unit 4 each worth 12.5% SACs.

Start of the year, I really wanted to get that 45+ for this subject. But looking at my ranking on the cohort after this initial SAC, is it REALLY (please honest answers as hurtful truth is better than false ray of hope) still possible to achieve my goal. As a side note, I do believe my cohort is quite strong as I attend one of the select entry schools.

I know I have to put in a LOT more effort from here on, but my concern is that even if hypothetically I do really well on my other Unit 3 SAC, as they are weighted evenly, the extremely low rank from this SAC will bring my overall Rank down for unit 3, preventing me from getting a good study score.

I am asking this question to not only receive some consolation/motivation, but also to ensure I don't place my future efforts in hopes of a 45+ into a subject where that's already impossible, therefore I'd really appreciate some brutally honest answers if thats relevant, not just your typical optimistic ones 

[DBA-144]

I got my first Englang sac results back yesterday expecting a decent mark, however to my utmost disappointment, my score was terrible (a B which places me near the bottom 35-30% of the cohort). This SAC was worth a whopping 12.5% and only one Unit 3 SAC remains! - our school does 2 unit 3 and 2 unit 4 each worth 12.5% SACs.

Start of the year, I really wanted to get that 45+ for this subject. But looking at my ranking on the cohort after this initial SAC, is it REALLY (please honest answers as hurtful truth is better than false ray of hope) still possible to achieve my goal. As a side note, I do believe my cohort is quite strong as I attend one of the select entry schools.

I know I have to put in a LOT more effort from here on, but my concern is that even if hypothetically I do really well on my other Unit 3 SAC, as they are weighted evenly, the extremely low rank from this SAC will bring my overall Rank down for unit 3, preventing me from getting a good study score.

I am asking this question to not only receive some consolation/motivation, but also to ensure I don't place my future efforts in hopes of a 45+ into a subject where that's already impossible, therefore I'd really appreciate some brutally honest answers if thats relevant, not just your typical optimistic ones 

Well, this is your English subject, so unless you do another English, I would recommend that you absolutely try your best. This is NOT a subject that you can place into your bottom 2 and put little effort for the rest of the year.

It seems that you do have the ability to do well. So, you should absolutely try as hard as you can for the next SAC. Remember that there is also Unit 4, and so you should be able to get a higher rank in that. Additionally, I would urge you to remember that giving up now will not be beneficial in any regard whatsoever. Furthermore, it is quite likely that your B can get scaled into an A at least!

Don't give up now! You still have a long way to go until your exams (which matter the most)! reflect and see what you can do better! However, it is going to be really hard to get above 45- you need to do really well on your unit 3 sac as well as the unit 4 sacs and exam to ensure that you don't let this sac bring you down too much. Hopefully this helps.

[Momboom]

Well, this is your English subject, so unless you do another English, I would recommend that you absolutely try your best. This is NOT a subject that you can place into your bottom 2 and put little effort for the rest of the year.

It seems that you do have the ability to do well. So, you should absolutely try as hard as you can for the next SAC. Remember that there is also Unit 4, and so you should be able to get a higher rank in that. Additionally, I would urge you to remember that giving up now will not be beneficial in any regard whatsoever. Furthermore, it is quite likely that your B can get scaled into an A at least!

Don't give up now! You still have a long way to go until your exams (which matter the most)! reflect and see what you can do better! However, it is going to be really hard to get above 45- you need to do really well on your unit 3 sac as well as the unit 4 sacs and exam to ensure that you don't let this sac bring you down too much. Hopefully this helps.

Thanks for the somewhat motivating post! Yea, it's going to be a tough and long journey recovering from this failure. I really do hope my strong cohort lessens the impact of this blow to a significant extent.

[mtDNA]

I got my first Englang sac results back yesterday expecting a decent mark, however to my utmost disappointment, my score was terrible (a B which places me near the bottom 35-30% of the cohort). This SAC was worth a whopping 12.5% and only one Unit 3 SAC remains! - our school does 2 unit 3 and 2 unit 4 each worth 12.5% SACs.

Start of the year, I really wanted to get that 45+ for this subject. But looking at my ranking on the cohort after this initial SAC, is it REALLY (please honest answers as hurtful truth is better than false ray of hope) still possible to achieve my goal. As a side note, I do believe my cohort is quite strong as I attend one of the select entry schools.

I know I have to put in a LOT more effort from here on, but my concern is that even if hypothetically I do really well on my other Unit 3 SAC, as they are weighted evenly, the extremely low rank from this SAC will bring my overall Rank down for unit 3, preventing me from getting a good study score.

I am asking this question to not only receive some consolation/motivation, but also to ensure I don't place my future efforts in hopes of a 45+ into a subject where that's already impossible, therefore I'd really appreciate some brutally honest answers if thats relevant, not just your typical optimistic ones 

Imo, you shouldn’t concern yourself about ranking too much. Sure, being a high rank is important, but it certainly isn’t the make or break for your study score. Instead, critically think about WHY you didn’t achieve the result you were wanting - if you just dwell on your mistakes on a negative light, then you’ll just repeat that same failure again and again. Assuming it was a short answer, consider why certain marks - was it because you had inaccuracies in your metalanguage? Is it because you didn’t explain the purpose behind the metalanguage? This also applies to the AC too. In this case, if you lost marks for a lack of metalanguage in your responses or inaccuracies with your metalanguage, then you need to go over and refresh your knowledge of metalanguage to ensure these mistakes don’t happen again. If it’s about understanding and explaining the purpose behind language choices, then the best way to improve would be to do more practice questions, and more importantly, critically review high scoring responses from examiner’s reports to see how a high achieving student answers questions.

In short - you can definitely still get 45+, though it’s unlikely to happen if you keep on working about ranking. Focus on your mistakes and how you can improve, because that’s how you can bounce back to wow your teacher for your remaining SACs and examiners for the end of year exam. Hopefully this helps!

[Bri MT]

Possible: yes
Likely: no

Aiming for a specific number is always a hard thing & at the end of the day only VCAA will know your study scores until they're announced. 
If you have enough potential to seriously contemplate 45+ don't throw away your efforts just because of 1 SAC. Whether you get 45+ or not, learning from your mistakes and achieving what you can is rewarding in its own right.