How to study for English? Is English based purely on talent?

[xXNovaxX]

My English teacher last year wrote for the article analysis SAC "An excellent first attempt but there are a few mistakes" and there was nothing written in the whole SAC. Such a helpful teacher she was

I love that smiley at the end, ur still such an optimist haha

[Ilovemathsmeth]

*shudders at memories of English class*

Gah that subject stressed me out more than all my subjects put together. I hate writing essays lol, my hand hurts and so does my brain

[kyzoo]

You don't really write essays in English classes though =/ What exactly about your English classes made you shudder?

[Ilovemathsmeth]

LOL well I really didn't like the subject. Talking about themes, characters etc in class wasn't my idea of fun. I thought it was all very stressful because although I understood the themes and characters of the novels, I found it difficult to put this knowledge together into an essay. So I dreaded English class.

[NE2000]

Just thought something I posted elsewhere may fit in here:

In most subjects pure hard work seems to do the trick, but in English it is more often knowing what to do and then putting in the hard work. You need to have a teacher or tutor or somebody who will tell you exactly what to do in a language analysis, how you have to break the article down, make links between parts etc. etc. and then you have to work on it. For context and text response you similarly need effective instruction early on.

For language analysis it helps if you enjoy picking out how the author is trying to position you (giving you a sense of superiority  ). For context and text response it helps if you enjoy the text, it helps if you actually appreciate what the author is doing. Charles Dickens and Shakespeare were geniuses! You are reading their work, so take some joy out of seeing how they are manipulating every sentence and line. At some points text response was a bit like language analysis only with a whole book. In context you can exercise your imagination a bit. It's a bit idealistic to say English is all fun. It gets boring, it gets tedious and you have to put in a lot of hours. But if you take a little bit of joy in it you can go a long way.

Other things: be brave enough to try out fresh spur-of-the-moment ideas in the exam as these make you stand out, get yourself into a good mindset for concise yet meaningful writing and keep on practicing, plan thoroughly and...yeah can't think of anything else right now.

And of course it helps if you enjoyed writing prior to year 12.

Just my opinion ilovemathsmeth but because you said it was "stressful" maybe you were thinking too much about marks? I find that just trying to enjoy your writing and analysing your text to find something new can provide a good foundation and then after that you just refine your writing style and structure to achieve higher. English class was pretty relaxed lol so I didn't mind it despite being a non-humanities person.