English Advanced Question Thread

[Arisa_90]

I was wondering what would be some good words to use instead of unconventional and conventional?

[jamonwindeyer]

I was wondering what would be some good words to use instead of unconventional and conventional?

Hey! Hmm, maybe:

- Typical/atypical
- Common/uncommon
- Usual/unusual

As a few ideas?

[feeah]

hi guys, do you have any tips for writing in-class essays on the spot? we have an assessment coming up in which we have to write an in-class essay for module A (we're doing 1984 and metropolis) and we don't get the question until the day of the assessment. i think i struggle particularly with finding quotes that i could adapt to different questions and with writing in a sophisticated and clear manner, especially because the pressure of having only 40 minutes to write an entire essay gets to me.
for our assessment, we have received a scene from the book and a picture of a scene from the movie which we're supposed to annotate and refer to in our essay (along with some additional evidence) and judging from these two scenes, i think i have a vague idea of what the question might be. do you recommend pre-planning an essay?

[jamonwindeyer]

hi guys, do you have any tips for writing in-class essays on the spot? we have an assessment coming up in which we have to write an in-class essay for module A (we're doing 1984 and metropolis) and we don't get the question until the day of the assessment. i think i struggle particularly with finding quotes that i could adapt to different questions and with writing in a sophisticated and clear manner, especially because the pressure of having only 40 minutes to write an entire essay gets to me.
for our assessment, we have received a scene from the book and a picture of a scene from the movie which we're supposed to annotate and refer to in our essay (along with some additional evidence) and judging from these two scenes, i think i have a vague idea of what the question might be. do you recommend pre-planning an essay?

Hey feeah!!

So the first thing I always say for questions like this is that writing good essays on the spot takes lots of practice. No one can just sit down and write a 20/20 essay the first time they try. Usually that doesn't even happen by the 10th try - It genuinely takes time and lots of patience to get to that point so don't worry if you aren't there right now, that's totally normal and it will improve!

With quotes, make sure you are picking quotes that:
- Have more than one technique to make your analysis easier
- Are short(ish), so you can remember more of them
- Can be tied to multiple themes, if you have a quote that can be used to talk about oppression, surveillance, ambition, power - Then that quote is far more useful than a super specific quote that can only be used to discuss oppression in one way

Writing an essay on the spot, you'll need to remember more quotes as a sort of 'insurance' policy. I probably remembered somewhere around 30 quotes for Module A (that is probably a tad excessive, but just being honest about what I did, because I wrote my essays on the spot).

Whether you should pre-prepare is a tough choice, I'm personally against it, while Elyse is all for it. It is a matter of personal preference!! But don't put too much faith in guessing the question. If you go in with a preprepared essay and the question is very different to what you expect, you need to be prepared for that

[Kle123]

Does anyone know what visceral imagery is?

[jamonwindeyer]

Does anyone know what visceral imagery is?

I don't think I've heard the term! Visceral means 'instinctual,' so it's imagery pertaining to the instincts I suppose? Maybe like, images formed in the head of the reader that aren't the result of direct description by the composer? Implied images?

Hopefully someone else can help more

[Prerna Kumar]

Hi, I was wondering if there was any way I could access the 2016 stimulus for area of study as most are still awaiting copyright.
Thanks 

[Prerna Kumar]

Hi, I was wondering if there was any way I could access the 2016 stimulus for area of study as most are still awaiting copyright.

And could you please help me understand what " Boy with a telescope" by Jan Owen is about and/or how it relates to discovery?

Thanks

Mod Edit: Merged posts

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi, I was wondering if there was any way I could access the 2016 stimulus for area of study as most are still awaiting copyright.

And could you please help me understand what " Boy with a telescope" by Jan Owen is about and/or how it relates to discovery?

Thanks

Hey hey! Unfortunately, it normally takes ages for those "Awaiting Copyright" notices to disappear your best bet is to do a Google of the texts in Section 1 and see if you can find a copy that way. As for the Creative, I just checked the NESA version and there was five stimuli -  I seem to remember from our Exam discussions last year:

- A guy with an umbrella in a big empty section of seats
- A tent in the desert
- Picture of the outback
- The one that is on BOSTES
- Something with an old boat? I feel like it was in the desert as well?

A lot of settings as stimuli from memory hopefully someone can help you with that poem!

[mjorfian]

Hi, I'm currently working on my Mod A essay (Julius Caesar and the Prince). I usually memorise/half memorise my essays and they usually sort of fit with the questions given in internal assessments since our English faculty are quite easy to guess, but I still feel as if I never fully answer the question because I sort of force it to fit, if that makes sense? And it's quite difficult for me to change paragraph structure within the time limits of 40 minutes so I don't address the question in the bodies as much as I should. Consequently, I'm always stuck in the lower A range (ie. 17/20, 13/15) and it's soooo frustrating. How do I combat this? Should I risk it and try out something new by having general idea of what I'm going to talking about for this one (worth 15% - and if so, do I memorise the thesis statements or write everything from scratch?) or should I write a general essay and practise fitting it with different questions?

Thanks!

[elysepopplewell]

Hi, I'm currently working on my Mod A essay (Julius Caesar and the Prince). I usually memorise/half memorise my essays and they usually sort of fit with the questions given in internal assessments since our English faculty are quite easy to guess, but I still feel as if I never fully answer the question because I sort of force it to fit, if that makes sense? And it's quite difficult for me to change paragraph structure within the time limits of 40 minutes so I don't address the question in the bodies as much as I should. Consequently, I'm always stuck in the lower A range (ie. 17/20, 13/15) and it's soooo frustrating. How do I combat this? Should I risk it and try out something new by having general idea of what I'm going to talking about for this one (worth 15% - and if so, do I memorise the thesis statements or write everything from scratch?) or should I write a general essay and practise fitting it with different questions?

Thanks!

Hey mjorfian! Really interesting question!
Memorising essays is not effective if you're struggling to fit into the essay question, right? But if you're in the low-A-range, you clearly aren't struggling too much, it's just about working out how to give yourself a leg up. If you were memorising essays and getting Band 4s because you were poorly restructuring them in an exam, I'd say that memorising is not for you and you should try something else. But, it is working for you, we just need to do a little extra to get you to the high Band 6 level - this is expected! Although I memorised my essays, I knew more than what I just had memorised. I knew extra techniques, analysis, ideas, so on. Maybe you should be preparing an extra paragraph or so to memorise that feature different ideas, thus giving you more to choose from in an exam situation. That's if you want to follow the memorising streak, of course. Otherwise you could just prepare arguments the way a non-memoriser would, knowing the quotes, knowing the techniques, and having an idea about the analysis so that you can mould it as is needed.

Do you think this will help solve your dilemma? Or do you think the problem is actually sitting in your introduction and the way you thread the argument together instead of the evidence you have prepared?

[mjorfian]

Hey mjorfian! Really interesting question!
Memorising essays is not effective if you're struggling to fit into the essay question, right? But if you're in the low-A-range, you clearly aren't struggling too much, it's just about working out how to give yourself a leg up. If you were memorising essays and getting Band 4s because you were poorly restructuring them in an exam, I'd say that memorising is not for you and you should try something else. But, it is working for you, we just need to do a little extra to get you to the high Band 6 level - this is expected! Although I memorised my essays, I knew more than what I just had memorised. I knew extra techniques, analysis, ideas, so on. Maybe you should be preparing an extra paragraph or so to memorise that feature different ideas, thus giving you more to choose from in an exam situation. That's if you want to follow the memorising streak, of course. Otherwise you could just prepare arguments the way a non-memoriser would, knowing the quotes, knowing the techniques, and having an idea about the analysis so that you can mould it as is needed.

Do you think this will help solve your dilemma? Or do you think the problem is actually sitting in your introduction and the way you thread the argument together instead of the evidence you have prepared?

I think that could probably work! For my discovery essay, the problem lied in the fact that I only had two Robert Frost poems prepared (so two prescribed paragraphs) that I'd picked out to fit into any question. But I didn't take into account that only one of them actually mentioned 'prior experiences' and the question was quite specific and required that haha. However I do think that the problem is also partially that - my introduction and the arguments. I think my thesises are sometimes a little too specific, or don't directly answer the question, so I sort of smush segments of the question into them as an attempt to make it seem like I totally didn't memorise it hahaha. When you memorised yours, how'd you go about fixing them? Did you take a couple of minutes to rethink it, or did you just dive straight in?

[K9810]

Hey,
Was wandering what is meant by a 'us v them' mentality?

[fr123_]

What technique is " the dark man seemed to draw such energy from it " ?

[mjorfian]

Hey,
Was wandering what is meant by a 'us v them' mentality?

It's essentially when you sort of enhance the image of yourself and the group that you're in/associate with because of the sense of pride that you feel for it, or simply because it gives you a sense of social identity and belonging to the social world. To achieve this, the person/s in the 'us' group will seek to find negative aspects of 'them' (the opposing group). ie. "England is the best country in the world!  We can also increase our self-image by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group (the group we don’t belong to). For example, the Americans, French etc. are a bunch of losers!"

 Took it from http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html