I think for Extension you should definitely be looking to write integrated paragraphs. For my trials, I did a mix:
P1 - Prescribed #1
P2 - Prescribed #2 & Prescribed #1
P3 - Related
P4 - Prescribed #2 & Related & a bit of Prescribed #1 to tie it together
That being said, if you go on the ARC website for Extension 1 and look at some exemplar responses, there are definitely some top-performing essays that have textually-specific paragraphs, but that was generally in the early years of the old syllabus so the expectations may have changed now. Might need Angelina to confirm!
I think I did well for trials, but my feedback was that I should strengthen my related text analysis and plan some of the content I cover more closely (had a bit too much analysis for Heaney because he has three poems ). Also, I need to actually flesh out my second related which I have probably not prepared adequately for lol (wasn't asked in trials).
How are you going with Literary Worlds by the way? Are you preparing any imaginative(s) that you'll memorise? Starting today, I planned on doing 1.5/2 hours of creative writing a day in the lead-up to the HSC as prerparation for both Literary Worlds and Mod C for Advanced as I'm probably stronger at critical writing, but I'm not really sure if I'm meant to do more than that? Also, if you don't mind me asking what is your elective + texts?
Good luck!
hemlock
We're doing Literary Mindscapes and our texts are Emily Dickinson poetry, Hamlet and As I Lay Dying. Although, I refuse to touch the poetry.
My head teacher recommended doing;
P1: Prescribed #1 + Prescribed #2
P2: Prescribed #1 + Related #1
P3: Prescribed #2 + Related #2
Which seems like it'd work well, especially for ext but my ext teacher hates integrated paragraphs (and we have been marked down for using them), so I did it textually in my trials and somehow got 25, so now I don't know if I should remain textually or switch to integrated.
We were also not asked for a second related in trials, which was great because I got to write loads on my prescribed texts.
Unfortunately, Literary Worlds was somehow my weakest. I lost 4 marks for not actually quoting my creative in my reflection and that bought me down like crazy, and it was such a horrible place to lose marks.
I don't plan on having imaginatives memorised, for adv or ext, but I do have some plot structures that I can bring in to make work with whatever excerpt they decide to torture us with.
For Mod C, I am more of a discursive writer and don't know what I'd do if they don't give the option...
But 1.5-2 hours a day for creative writing is loadss, don't stress!
meerae