Essays or ideas?

[remo14]

What is the best way to prepare for English? Would purely writing essays help or should I develop my ideas more. I want a SS of 48+. I read Hamlet three times last year analyzing every minute detail and also read the other text I wrote on 2 times. I totaled around 50 essays before the exam some being two in a row for exam conditions. Now I can write 1000-1400 word in a hour and i get 9-15/10 for most essays, but, i think she is marking leniently although she is an assessor. Simply put it I don't want my work to fall into an dark abyss like last year as I do enjoy the subject.

[dilks]

You need to have good ideas before you can write good essays. Otherwise your essays will likely be trash. That said the standard for English text response is a bit lower than Lit, so you might be underestimating yourself relative to the pack.

That said, I've posted this before, so I guess there's nothing wrong with me quoting myself:

Generally you should be accumulating knowledge of the text throughout the year, and you should be writing practise essays to test and practise your ability to express that knowledge. You might find that you have learned one theme really thoroughly, like storytelling in Ransom for example, in which case it is worthwhile doing a practise essay on that, especially since it will make it easier to revise that knowledge later on, but it wouldn't make sense to do a practise essay on fate and free will in Ransom if you know absolutely nothing (operative words here) about that topic, the essay would just be a load of garbage.

It isn't so much a matter of, 'I am not going to write practise essays until I know everything there is to know about the text', as it is, 'I am not going to write practise essays on topics which are going to prove to be a waste of time because I don't even understand what the question is getting at'.

However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't look at sample prompts for direction for how you should be studying the book, and practise essays can be a good way of sorting out your thoughts about a topic where you know something about the topic, but you haven't developed a fully formed interpretation yet. I would also be aiming to write at least one practise essay on a topic I am not very well versed in prior to a SAC or the exam, with the aim of testing how well I would be able to respond to a situation where I am being asked to write on something I don't know, but I would also make sure to read up on that topic afterwards so that I understand it better too, so that I am improving on that result, especially if I wasn't happy with the essay. I would also advise students against writing loads of practise essays on the same topic, especially if you know that topic well, because you generally you won't be improving your knowledge or skills by doing that, unless it is a topic you feel you are really poor at responding to.

It is also worthwhile closer to a SAC just making plans of how you would respond to certain prompts, which is somewhat less time consuming than writing a practise essay, and would be helpful if you then ran into the topic in a SAC, because you already have a plan for how to approach it.