Time Prioritization

[TheAntiSocialist]

I know this topic is probably very general, as it is applied to all subjects in VCE, but I'm only posting it here because last year (year 11) the subject I spent the least time on was English...

I didn't know what more I could do except what was demanded of me in class (which was never much) - even the few practice essays I handed in didn't really seem to help me....

Fortunately, my tuition and ATAR Notes have given me much needed advice on what to do - but now comes the problem of making sure English has a lot of my time - especially since I've only mantained 80s in SACs, and rarely do I get in the high eighties to low nineties...and I know there is tough competition...my level pales in comparison to nearly all of the pieces I have seen on this website.... 

How much time would you guys suggest that I spend on English? I know that it can vary from person to person, but seriously, how much time do you guys spend on English, let's say, in a week? Or even daily, if you actually do it...

I've only really committed to reading newspaper articles every day - and vowing to myself that, once I have analysed, researched, and gotten the gist of my texts, that I will pump out at least one essay a week.

Cheers for reading   

Deleted the double post - Brenden

[FlorianK]

well, in practice I was always short for time. 2 days before the exam it took me like 3 hours each to write 2 TR pieces of 1.2k word length. In the exam I wrote 1.4k in an hour
In the exam and in SACs you'll write faster and for Context you have heaps of time anyways

[brenden]

I'm proud that you've been reading the newspaper every day
Excellent effort.

It's so very, very hard to quantify time spent on English but I guess you really want a number so you could just start with an hour a day and see how it feels. An hour is plenty if you're doing it every single day. Keep it variable depending on your homework tasks. (One hour not including newspaper reading) -- reading/analysing texts, writing on them (later in the year, give yourself plenty of time now), completing any chapter summaries or whatever  tasks your teacher gives. You could even try your hardest to mark other people's essays (I know it sounds daunting but who gives a fuck, you will honestly improve so much when you detect things in someone else's essay that is bad that you also do. I'll back you up if anyone wants to be like "uhm errmm derrm does he have the skillz to be giving feedback?" - any feedback is good feedback)



NB: DO NOT COMPARE YOUR ESSAYS WITH THOSE POSTED ON THIS WEBSITE. AN IS BY NO MEANS A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE AND YOU SHOULD BE KEEPING IN MIND MANY OF THE ESSAYS MAY HAVE HAD MUCH TIME AND LOVE DEVOTED TO THEM, NOT TO MENTION BE DONE AT THE END OF TWO YEARS OF VERY HARD WORK FOR MANY.

[Yacoubb]

I have a few queries that I would like to get off my mind; okay, so I am a pretty capable student at English and my marks of handing in essays/pieces are p. good. However, I always seem to run out of time in exams. I did English Enhanced in yr 10 last year and we did a 3 hour exam so we're prepared almost for VCE English, and I ran out of time to finish my language analysis (most time consuming). I know this deviates a bit from the crux of this thread, but advice would be much appreciated 

[dilks]

I did English Enhanced in yr 10 last year and we did a 3 hour exam so we're prepared almost for VCE English, and I ran out of time to finish my language analysis (most time consuming).

For the exam, always aim to spend only 1 hour on each piece. It is as simple as that. Don't expect to be able to address absolutely everything in the whole article in the time you have been given, because the examiner has purposely designed the exam so that there are lots of marks available for everyone. So you can always get a 10/10 without covering everything.

[Yacoubb]

For the exam, always aim to spend only 1 hour on each piece. It is as simple as that. Don't expect to be able to address absolutely everything in the whole article in the time you have been given, because the examiner has purposely designed the exam so that there are lots of marks available for everyone. So you can always get a 10/10 without covering everything.

Yeah true. I guess its something I'll work on in yr 11 Thank you dilks!