English Help!

[Edward Elric]

Hey everyone so I haven't done much for English during the summer holidays besides reading my first english novel for text response and writing an essay on it. What else should I do, should I start preparing my oral presentation? And should I read all my other texts or focus on my immediate text and  learn it in detail? Any help would be much appreciated

[literally lauren]

Hey everyone so I haven't done much for English during the summer holidays besides reading my first english novel for text response and writing an essay on it. What else should I do, should I start preparing my oral presentation? And should I read all my other texts or focus on my immediate text and  learn it in detail? Any help would be much appreciated

You should definitely read all your texts if you have time, or at least some spark notes so you get the gist of things.
Give some thought to your oral, if you've been given a topic or told to choose one, do that as soon as possible. Depending on how soon it is, some basic preparation (eg. finding some articles about the issue and familiarising yourself with the general stances) is recommended. From my experience, schools are pretty accomplished in setting aside adequate time for each section of the course. Don't stress too much about what's first; likewise don't put off reading a text just because it's the last one. In my exam, I wrote on a text we'd only just finished studying, but that's because I'd already read and begun to consider themes and stuff in semester 1.
If you're struggling to find some way to study (not just now but throughout the year, I know practice essays can get a little tedious) there's always something to read for English. Your own essays, work from past students, VCAA samples, internet articles, even academic papers on your texts can give you an advantage.
By the time exams roll around, most good students will have read the text they're studying anywhere from 3 to 8 times depending on length. What matters, though, is retention, and how well you can demonstrate what you've learned.
Hope this helps Best of luck

[Yacoubb]

Hey everyone so I haven't done much for English during the summer holidays besides reading my first english novel for text response and writing an essay on it. What else should I do, should I start preparing my oral presentation? And should I read all my other texts or focus on my immediate text and  learn it in detail? Any help would be much appreciated

It depends really upon what you're doing first. If you're doing text response first (i.e. before your oral presentation), then I recommend you focus upon your first text. This is because you don't have time to really read your other texts. I suggest reading your text one more time for English, and perhaps going over summaries of the plot, important quotes, themes, conventions used by the author, etc. This'll provide you with a sufficient basis which you can expand upon once you return to school.

If your oral presentation is first, then get to work on that.

Best of luck.

[EspoirTron]

As the posters before me have mentioned, I would suggest prioritising your tasks. So if you have your oral first, I suggest that you tackle that first. Now, when you read a text for the first time, you don't have to have a deep understanding immediately. The way I saw it was:
First reading - Getting an idea of characters and the general plot
Second reading- Understanding core themes, views, values and ideas
Third reading - Identifying embedded techniques within the text, as well as identifying the specific plot type and the analysis you will take on the text.

Obviously, you wouldn't expect to go into such detail with your Context texts, however that is just the way in which I tackle text response. I think after that writing notes from readings is important. Afterwards you can begin with some plans for particular prompts. At least in this way you can build much more confidence in your writing before getting into actual essays. Also, if you're stuck for ideas, read past exam papers and ask your teacher for some student essays.

One thing I can't stress enough - don't just do 'easy' prompts in year 12, well, the ones you find to be straight forward. Do the prompts you find really difficult, because at least now you can ponder about it with all the time in the world. Don't just think 'Oh this won't be on the exam', just do every single prompt you can get your hands on. Not only will this increase your confidence, but it will allow you to write fluent and detailed essays for anything that is thrown at you. I was one of two students in my 120 student cohort to write on 'Will you please be quiet, please?'. The other students in my cohort wrote about 'War Poems', and unfortunately had the experience of receiving two, very difficult, prompts. One of which I think was based on a poem that nobody studied, and the other containing a quote that no one knew of.

I am not trying to scare you here, just work hard and the marks shall prevail themselves!