Approach to context

[dankfrank420]

I've received lots of advice so far regarding how to approach the context portion of the exam.

Lots of teachers/past students have told me to just use one my SACs, but I find that going in with a pre-written piece is bad because the prompt may not be suitable.

Would it be good to memorise a piece, or just write a whole bunch of expository essays and hope it comes to me in the exam room?

[BakedDwarf]

I've received lots of advice so far regarding how to approach the context portion of the exam.

Lots of teachers/past students have told me to just use one my SACs, but I find that going in with a pre-written piece is bad because the prompt may not be suitable.

Would it be good to memorise a piece, or just write a whole bunch of expository essays and hope it comes to me in the exam room?

Personally, what i've done is compile every single prompt I can find on the internet into a document. I've categorised them into the main themes of my context (identity and belonging) and wrote a 5 minute plan for each.

Basically, what you'll find is that you can respond to many topic questions using the same ideas and so you can memorise a certain amount of paragraphs, which are adjustable to suit ANY topic question.

I have found my set amount of paragraphs to memorise, which is 8 (took me 2 weeks). I can respond to basically any topic question right now.

However, I warn you that my advice is only applicable if you're aiming for an average score. I don't find myself getting a SS greater than 35, let alone 30. But this works for me, and if it interests you, go ahead and give it a shot.

EDIT: This is if you're writing in expository

[S33667]

I've received lots of advice so far regarding how to approach the context portion of the exam.

Lots of teachers/past students have told me to just use one my SACs, but I find that going in with a pre-written piece is bad because the prompt may not be suitable.

Would it be good to memorise a piece, or just write a whole bunch of expository essays and hope it comes to me in the exam room?

Go down a list of prompts and write an essay on the one you would struggle with the most right now.    You will find that the method you want to use doesn't work (or at least I did, my plan was similar to yours).   It will force you to come up with a new idea to explore.   This is a good thing though because while it hurts at the time it means you will be better prepared with ideas come exam time.   Then look down a list of prompts again and write on the next most challenging prompt (in terms of your ideas bank).    I think only when you have enough ideas to cover all possible prompts can you stop exploring ideas.   It is possible to memorise the general gist of these once you know them and then you just adapt the most relevant one to the prompt <-- this is the most important part, writing a memorised piece because it's all you have rather than the best idea for the prompt is what will lower your marks on exam day.