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English or English Language? not enjoying English

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Einstein:
is english language hard to understand and is their a lot of things to memorise?

aqple:

--- Quote from: Einstein on February 11, 2014, 10:51:16 pm ---is english language hard to understand and is their a lot of things to memorise?

--- End quote ---

It's not hard to understand at all, but YES there are a lot of things to memorise.
From what you've wrote, I think you would enjoy Englang more. I personally enjoy it a lot more than English (I'm doing both).

Einstein:
sorry for the late reply. Does anyone know if jumping straight into 3/4 without 1/2 is a good idea?

VivaTequila:
I personally recommend doing English Language. If you aren't captivated by the themes and ideas and characters in the stories/texts you're reading, you won't enjoy at least two of the three sections in English 3/4, and if you also happen to dislike Language Analysis you won't enjoy 3/4 English at all. Pick well because it will be part of your top four. I think English Language would be easier to study for, but that said, I never studied it.

shadows:

--- Quote from: BasicAcid on February 10, 2014, 05:35:05 pm ---You kinda misinterpreted what I said. What you've said is correct (it's basically impossible to get 99.95 if you don't do a subject that scales to above 50 e.g. spesh/LOTE).

What I meant was that English Language moreso reflects your time and effort put into the subject (anecdotal evidence with friends outside of my school, I have no personal experience). If you're willing to study, very, VERY hard you'll guarantee yourself a really high mark. To get a 45+ you can drop 8-9 marks throughout your essays.
Opposed to English where at the top ends it's really competitive. To get a 40+ you can only drop 6-7 marks throughout your essays, but if you want to be in the mid tiers (i.e. ~35-40) it's generally pretty easy to get 6s or 7s on your essays.


To be honest, I didn't expect a 40 on English, I was aiming for 35+ and I thought had just scraped that mark.
I didn't study as hard for English as I did for my two maths and physics. But I forced myself to understand the basics for each essay (to guarantee I fulfil the criteria and get at least 5-6/10 on each essay). My SACs were pretty average (my SAC marks exclusively would've only gotten me about a 36 or so) but I knew I had to step it up come exam time. I spent literally 3 entire days just studying English; memorizing some of the top essays I could find on the internet (of course not word for word, but their quotes, key ideas and some absolutely ridiculous vocabulary which I have not used nor encountered in my everyday life since).


You're only in year 11 lmao, I got 60% on my year 11 English exam (I nearly failed GMA and Chemistry in year 11) but as long as you put the time and effort in year 12 for all your subjects, you should be fine.

Enjoy year 11, your last year of ever bludging during class without any consequences.

--- End quote ---

Scoring top end in English requires a lot of hard work too. If you worked really really hard but is not naturally "good" at English I think it is possible to score really high (45+)
Although a lot of people say English is "subjective", on the most part it isn't. Examiners are experts and mark to a very strict marking scheme. They don't give or take points due to how they "feel" or what resonates with them.

The thing about english though is that you need really good ideas to set you apart. Even if your writing and vocab is superb, if you are writing about simplistic generic ideas... you will be marked down severely.
Scoring well in English requires the harmony of good writing and good ideas.

*Don't add in really good vocab into your piece just for the sake of it. If not put in the right context, it will backfire and make the piece look really bad.

If you were to make an effort to write essays regularly and actively improve on it, you can vastly improve in year 12. It's only early days of year 12 but compared to what I was writing at the end of last year I can clearly see a difference.

TO the OP: It just depends on what you like. Just don't think that you should do one because it is easier to score well in. (Well I haven't done English Language),but I can say that if you were to work really really hard in English, scoring high does not fall down to luck or subjectivity....

Sorry if I got a little carried away. I sometimes feel like a lot of people get this pre-conceived notion that English is some blasphemous subject that you can't score high in if you're not some English pro. That simply isn't true.

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