Maximise your chance of success in the holiday period

[Nick]

Hi guys.

Below is a summary of what I believe would be the most valuable study regime for English over the summer holiday break. This is a fairly time consuming study regime and I realise that you have other subjects to contend with in addition to English. Many of the tips are related to organisational measures, which are often equally as important as the study you complete.

The following thread is a run down on the steps that I took to prepare for English in 2007.  Even if you did half of what I suggest, you will be at a huge advantage to many of your peers around the state. Place particular emphasis on English, as English is obviously a compulsory element of your primary four. Despite this, try and give equal weighting to each of your subjects over the holiday break.
 
1. Read each of your prescribed texts.
•   I recommend reading them slowly and thoroughly. Don’t skim read- you’ll retain a great deal less if you attempt to study the novel in this fashion.  Ensure that you absorb all the information possible in the first reading. Re-read important passages. This guarantees that you’re fully aware of the implications of the most important sections of the novel.
•   Highlight all key passages. Scribble analytical statements along the side of the passages-most of the novels have space along the side for this.
•   Highlight key quotations- don’t just highlight the really obvious ones. Everyone in the state will use the stand out quotes. Be creative and look for original quotes. Be ruthless. Don’t hesitate to make your book look like it’s been mauled because you’ve highlighted and scribbled all through it.
•   As you highlight, try using one colour for each key theme. E.g. All betrayal quotes in green, honesty quotes in red.
•   Use sticky notes to enable you to find key quotes with ease.

Key point: Depending on what suits you and how strong you are at English, annotating your novel may be best completed during the second reading of the novel.

Regardless, at the end of the holiday period, ensure that you have read your novels at LEAST once and annotated it extensively. Be original in the quotes that you choose. It will make life so much easier when the exam period arrives.

2. Complete comprehensive chapter summaries.
These chapter summaries should include:
o   5-6 relevant plot developments
o   Developments in characters- how did they react to certain events which they encountered? How did they transform as individuals in this particular chapter? What admirable traits did a particular character exhibit in this chapter?
o   Developments in themes. Have new themes emerged?  How do these themes relate to the overall message of the novel? Through introducing a particular theme, what is the author trying to convey to the reader? I.e. Do they place importance on a certain value or theme? Does a particular theme or event position the reader to feel differently about a character?
o   Structure. Does the structure of a particular chapter give us a greater insight into a particular character or event? Is this structure advantageous? Does the structure mean that the reader is given a filtered version of the story? E.g. First person narration can be unreliable, especially if it is a child narrator. 
o   Any important quotes relating to the themes and characters.

3. Organise your English folder
I recommend purchasing a binder book for EACH text.  This ensures that all your quotes, character and theme notes are all kept together and are easily accessible.
Buy a binder and put all your binder books inside and colour code each section for convenience. Make sure you have a good supply of loose leaf for taking notes during class. These notes can then be transferred into your binder books for each text.

4. Writing text responses
If you have read all your prescribed texts, annotated them and completed chapter summaries, attempt to write a few text responses. It would probably be more than sufficient to write a few essays on the FIRST text you will be studying. That means as soon as you arrive back at school, you can pass these practice responses onto your teacher and get them back early.
To test your understanding of the text, even try making up some of your OWN text response questions and answering them. This is the best indicator of your ability to grasp the key concepts in the texts.

5. Watch any film texts and complete concept maps
If you are studying a film text in 2008, it’s a good idea to view the film a  few times to get a good handle on it. Compile a key quotes list (about 15-20 quotes depending on the film). Complete concept maps for each of the key themes as it is often good to look at information visually (particularly art students).

Make transformation posters for each of the characters. These are particularly relevant for films, as similarly to novels, characters always undergo huge changes throughout the film. Draw the character in the middle of the page and jot down their turning points throughout the film.


6. Read the newspaper every day!!
This is imperative as you need to be up-to-date with all relevant issues in the daily news.
Try and pick out persuasive techniques and how they influence the reader.
Always read the editorial, they are the best sources of information for daily issues.
I recommend The Age newspaper as subscriptions can be purchased through your school. I think you can get The Age delivered to your school every day for only $20.

Hot tip: Pay particular attention to the daily news around April-May as this is when the English exam is written! The examiners go straight to the daily newspaper for a relevant issue to put on the exam.

I hope this thread is useful to all of you guys who are hoping to do well in English in 2008. This may seem like a fairly extensive list, and I encourage you to modify it to suit your own needs. Although having said this, doing all the tasks listed above will put you miles ahead of your 46,000 English peers- not to mention the confidence that doing this work will award you with.

Good luck guys. I will post an essay tips thread very soon. 

[humph]

to be honest, i really don't think writing text responses during the holidays would be particularly beneficial. while i certainly believe one should read the text and, if they can be bothered, write chapter summaries (i never really found these useful for me...), writing text responses would be premature. if you have discussed the text with your teacher, class, and peers in general, then your understanding of it will be very limited and highly subjective. basically, your essays would be lacking a complete feel to them. i found that the best way to gain an understanding of the text was to talk about it with high-achieving friends (pretty sure they all got 46+ in the end, lolz), or with my english teacher (well, not my actual english teacher, she was shit. but the head of english at our school was great, i used to sit in on some of his classes when i had free periods, learnt a whole lot more that way).
as for other things to do in the holidays - as with the post above; reading the newspaper daily is crucial. to be honest, although The Age is a much better paper, Herald Sun has much better articles for analysis, as the techniques used in them are so much more obvious (as the writers are crap), and the english exam is generally along the same vein.

but for most of the things mentioned in the post above, i found that much of that was covered in class, and that doing it by myself would've meant i would've missed a lot of key points. but that's just how i work - i really can't stress enough how i think that as a subject, english is best suited for group discussions.

[Eriny]

as for other things to do in the holidays - as with the post above; reading the newspaper daily is crucial. to be honest, although The Age is a much better paper, Herald Sun has much better articles for analysis, as the techniques used in them are so much more obvious (as the writers are crap), and the english exam is generally along the same vein.

lol, Andrew Bolt's column.

[Nick]

to be honest, i really don't think writing text responses during the holidays would be particularly beneficial. while i certainly believe one should read the text and, if they can be bothered, write chapter summaries (i never really found these useful for me...), writing text responses would be premature. if you have discussed the text with your teacher, class, and peers in general, then your understanding of it will be very limited and highly subjective. basically, your essays would be lacking a complete feel to them. i found that the best way to gain an understanding of the text was to talk about it with high-achieving friends (pretty sure they all got 46+ in the end, lolz), or with my english teacher (well, not my actual english teacher, she was shit. but the head of english at our school was great, i used to sit in on some of his classes when i had free periods, learnt a whole lot more that way).
as for other things to do in the holidays - as with the post above; reading the newspaper daily is crucial. to be honest, although The Age is a much better paper, Herald Sun has much better articles for analysis, as the techniques used in them are so much more obvious (as the writers are crap), and the english exam is generally along the same vein.

but for most of the things mentioned in the post above, i found that much of that was covered in class, and that doing it by myself would've meant i would've missed a lot of key points. but that's just how i work - i really can't stress enough how i think that as a subject, english is best suited for group discussions.

What you say about writing text responses is valid. It's a fantastic idea to discuss ideas with your peers- they are one of your most valuable resources, of course. But you need to be able to fly solo sometimes with English. You need to be able to establish your own ideas and use creativity and originality by yourself.

If you write a couple of text responses in the holidays (maybe 2 or 3) it gives you an indication of what you are capable of achieving by using your own original ideas and not just feeding off what others say. Class discussions are fantastic because they enable ideas to be circulated, shared and analysed, but when it comes to the exam, your peers won't be there.

I don't see any problem with giving a few essays a go in the holidays- it can only be to your advantage, not to your detriment.

Chapter summaries are fantastic to do- they enable you to have a quick reference which you can skim over when you need to review a chapter or key passage. It means that you don't have to scroll through the entire book to find out when a character said/did something. They are very handy and save a great deal of time when you have 4 other subjects to study for.

[Nick]

What you say about the Herald Sun is true. I can't stand the Herald Sun- useless, sensationalised tabloid rubbish.

If you want the news delivered to you in a reliable and accurate fashion, read The Age. The writer's actually possess credibility and actually know what the word credibility means (as opposed to the writers of the Herald Sun).

But definately check out the HS to look out for the persuasive devices which fail to persuade you due to the fact that they basically jump out and smash you in the face. 

[humph]

as for other things to do in the holidays - as with the post above; reading the newspaper daily is crucial. to be honest, although The Age is a much better paper, Herald Sun has much better articles for analysis, as the techniques used in them are so much more obvious (as the writers are crap), and the english exam is generally along the same vein.

lol, Andrew Bolt's column.

exactly. if you can't recognise his persuasive techniques, then you probably can't read.

ugh, he came and gave a speech at my school in yr12 - we had someone mildly important give one every week. terrible stuff, basically saying how he said "what was right, not what was politically correct". such bullshit. and yet half my year fell for what he was saying. tsk tsk.

[humph]

What you say about writing text responses is valid. It's a fantastic idea to discuss ideas with your peers- they are one of your most valuable resources, of course. But you need to be able to fly solo sometimes with English. You need to be able to establish your own ideas and use creativity and originality by yourself.

sure you do. but undoubtedly having the perspective of your teacher and classmates gives you a much more balanced view. if you're naturally an A+ student then this may not matter so much, but for those who aren't guaranteed 45+ it's an essential step. even many of the bright students in my english class, including myself, wrote extremely poor text responses when we were set one as an assignment at the very beginning of year 12. sure, we'd digested the book and each had a decent personal understanding of it, but the analysis itself was quite ordinary. none of us were ready to write on the text, because none of us had a good enough understanding of it, simply relying on our own subjective, unbalanced opinion.

If you write a couple of text responses in the holidays (maybe 2 or 3) it gives you an indication of what you are capable of achieving by using your own original ideas and not just feeding off what others say. Class discussions are fantastic because they enable ideas to be circulated, shared and analysed, but when it comes to the exam, your peers won't be there.

but obviously you won't need them there, as you'll already have enough information and created your own view based on the analysis of statements from several different viewpoints.  there's nothing better than being able to say "although it is easy to view such and such as being such and such, [insert crucial evidence here] shows this not to be the case." markers look for such statements that make an essay stand out. many average students just spout off things read in study guides; better students find counterrexamples and more detailed reasoning - in my case, mainly by group discussions. i certainly benefited greatly by discussing the texts i studied with the bright minds in my year level; together we came up with some great quotes and in-depth statements to prove points that lesser students would fail to raise. i was then able to incorporate them into my essays in the exam, where relevant.

I don't see any problem with giving a few essays a go in the holidays- it can only be to your advantage, not to your detriment.

i just can't see the advantage. most students, though decent essay writers, haven't mastered the art of appropriately answering a part one or a part two essay question before they start yr12, in my experience - few know how to write differently for each type of topic, so if they just continue in the same vein as before then they'll be reinforcing a negative habit.

in any case, it just seems like unnecessary work. to my knowledge, even the best of students at my school didn't bother with anything like that - most did little more than read the novel during the summer holidays.

Chapter summaries are fantastic to do- they enable you to have a quick reference which you can skim over when you need to review a chapter or key passage. It means that you don't have to scroll through the entire book to find out when a character said/did something. They are very handy and save a great deal of time when you have 4 other subjects to study for.

heh, i think i used sparknotes for that kinda thing... to be honest, it really shouldn't be too difficult to remember the plot for the novel, which is mostly what a chapter summary is good for.
i also wrote up a quote list on microsoft word, citing the chapter and page number. as i studied the text more, i'd add more quotes. you can also separate quotes into themes and characters and the like if you think it's necessary, but obviously some quotes will be repeated many a time.

[brendan]

the age?
the australian FTW!

[Nick]

in any case, it just seems like unnecessary work. to my knowledge, even the best of students

In regards to year 12 English, I don't think anything is unnecessary work. Iguess it's just a case of opinion.
I'm sure that anyone on this forum who is self motivated, indepedant and is willing to take the plunge and have a go at writing text responses without assistance will do so. Of course there will be always be room for improvement and they will be far from perfect, but I encourage you all to give it a go

[brendan]

i wouldn't write "text responses" as so much read the text, make notes, and use past essay questions as a prompt to reflect on the text, and to develop my views on the text which i would write down and substantiate with evidence from the text,

[Pencil]

Holy shit that's alot of work.
Ok i remember last summer hols, all i did was read one text (the one we were to study first) and also for homework we had to do a few journal entries about our impressions etc, and i found that more than sufficient. We only did 3 texts over the whole year, and each was read the hols before we studied it.  To be honest i think if someone did all that work they would massively burn out before the year even started! There is alot of time in the year, don't feel like you need to learn an entire course in the summer hols.
edit:of course if you're keen enough, go ahead!

[Nick]

To be honest i think if someone did all that work they would massively burn out before the year even started!

As I stated at the bottom of my post, alter my outline to suit your own needs. If you are keen enough and have the desire to do well, you'll at least do half of what I suggested. I basically completed  all that work in the summer holidays, and I believe it eased the English burden substantially over the following terms. You'll find that once you start school, you'll be contending with all your other subjects in addition to English and you won't have as much time to go over your English course in as much depth as you would like. Take advantage of the holidays and get a head start.

It's all a matter of what you are personally capable of and whether you're willing to put in the time.

Remember, you only do year 12 once, so make the most of it

[Rietie]

I would never do that much in my summer holidays. Half of it is taken up by Christmas, visiting my rellies and going somewhere on a holiday. I find it difficult just to read all my books in time.

I don't see a point in chapter summaries - I agree with humphdogg (get them off sparknotes). I also do not see any point in writing essays - how would I know what an essay question would be like for a specific text that I have just read. I tend to listen to class discussion and then begin to form my own opinion on a text. I don't think I could do that in the holidays when I'm recovering from a full-on year 11.

The holidays are a time to relax before you study hard all year - I want to take advantage of that and not waste it on doing work till 2 weeks before school starts. I personally would laugh at anyone who did that much work and I don't think anyone at my school would ever do something like that. It's almost ludicrous to me.... but maybe that's just my opinion.

[Andy]

Nick, this is comprehensive and is really good information. I think I will try and do everything you have listed here considering you have been there and done that, getting 48 as a study score .

[Eriny]

I would reccommend that you'd at least read/annotate/think about your texts. From there, the more you do, the less work you'll have to do for English down the track once school starts. At this stage of the year (i.e. before the start of it) studying should just give you a grounding in what to expect for the year, how much work that involves is up to each individual.