How to study for Advanced English!

[jamonwindeyer]

I was wondering what kind of questions do you usually get during exams?
Comparative essays? Analyzing advertisements and comparing them?
I was also kind of confused about the rubic is it basically possible essay topics and ect?
I was going to start searching for quotes to use to study but i'm not sure what quotes to look for or what you mean by technique
i'm also not sure what else to do to study .... exams are next week) 
I live in WA and I've haven't heard about the rubic prior to now.
Sorry for asking so many questions 

If you apologise for asking questions again then I might just ban you  (totally kidding, but stop apologising, seriously it is what we are here for!)

I totally didn't know you live in WA. The advice we've been giving you is HSC based, so it won't apply to the WACE if that is the certification you are working towards. Unless you are doing the HSC in WA, which I didn't even know was a thing!

For the HSC, exam questions are exclusively essays based on the NSW HSC Syllabus, which is available here. Year 11 exams might do something a little bit more creative, but either way, the question must have some grounding in this document 

[anotherworld2b]

How is HSC different from WACE?
may I ask 

[literally lauren]

How is HSC different from WACE?
may I ask 

WACE is actually really similar to VCE (at least in terms of English) in that you have mainstream English (which most students do,) EAL (for those with English as a second or additional language), and Literature (kind of like an extension of English and oriented towards closely analysing texts; literally called Extension English in the HSC.)

However the way the WACE English exam is structured has much more in common with the HSC English Standard/Advanced papers in that you have to complete some short answer responses based on unseen material (e.g. a short story excerpt, a poem, or a cartoon) as well as a couple of essays. The VCE English exam is purely essay based, much to the delight of everyone in Victoria

I don't know as much about other WACE subjects, but by the looks of things, your Maths and Science subjects have more in common with their VCE counterparts too. The HSC system is kind of unique in the way it stratifies its subjects (i.e. English Standard and English Advanced; Mathematics 2U, 3U, 4U, etc.) since no other state really does that. Queensland tried, but they weren't nearly so successful; their whole curriculum is a bit of a train wreck at the moment

We technically do have a WACE board if you want to ask questions there; I think there are a couple of other WA current and past students floating around, or I can try and answer your questions if I can

[anotherworld2b]

hello
I am currently on school holidays for three weeks and wish to be productive about studying
I was wondering if I could have advice on how to approach and make use of this time given because
I don't know where to start

[jamonwindeyer]

hello
I am currently on school holidays for three weeks and wish to be productive about studying
I was wondering if I could have advice on how to approach and make use of this time given because
I don't know where to start

Hey another world!! For English, I'd be doing two things!

First, make sure you have a nice set of summary notes for your core texts. Quotes, techniques, explanations, contexts, analysis: Spend some time getting your notes really great and really succinct so you have a great resource down the line when you need it.

Second, practice some responses!! Pick some of the question types or essay style questions that you struggle with and pump out some response, either in exam style or just with your notes handy. Then, pop them in our marking forums for feedback if you like!!

The absolute best way to study for English is, in one way or another, practicing the skills you need to write a good response. And the best way to do this is to just write a whole bunch of responses 

So maybe 1 week on notes, 2 weeks on practice responses? Even doing 1 essay ever couple of days, or a short answer question every morning after breakfast, or whatever, is heaps. Any practice you can do will work wonders 

[rachelbonic]

Thanks for the great help Elyse! 

I attended the advanced english lecture you gave yesterday (which was sososo useful!!!!), and I noticed that for module B you were required to study W.B Yeats. I too have to study him and find great difficulty in doing so. I was wondering, as you did not have a prepared essay for this module, how you instead studied for your exams.

-Rachel 

[Justina Shehata]

Hey! I have a question!
is it possible to get a band 6 for English even though you have not been getting consistently good results?
Also, in terms of the rubric, do we constantly in essays have to use words from the rubric or can we just have analysis to that effect?
Thank you

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey! I have a question!
is it possible to get a band 6 for English even though you have not been getting consistently good results?
Also, in terms of the rubric, do we constantly in essays have to use words from the rubric or can we just have analysis to that effect?
Thank you

Hey Justina! Totally, always time to work and improve.

EG - I massively mucked my Extension half yearly. Dropped to rank second/third last or something similar, didn't do well at all by my standards. I worked hard to pick myself up and improve and ended up topping that subject with a strong Band 6, never too late to turn it around!! Smashing your HSC exam will be crucial to make sure that your efforts are reflected, and that all relates to the HSC Scaling process 

As to your second questions, words from the rubric are very nice, they show you know your stuff. Feel free to use them in places where you deem useful!! That said, you can still do really well without them and just do analysis that addresses their rationale/purpose definitely a matter of personal preference, but I do always recommend bringing elements of the syllabus into the response where possible 

[jamonwindeyer]

Thanks for the great help Elyse! 

I attended the advanced english lecture you gave yesterday (which was sososo useful!!!!), and I noticed that for module B you were required to study W.B Yeats. I too have to study him and find great difficulty in doing so. I was wondering, as you did not have a prepared essay for this module, how you instead studied for your exams.

-Rachel 

Hey Rachel! Welcome to the forums  Elyse is resting after her powerhouse lecture performance (5 lectures in 3 days, wot even), she'll be along to answer soon! 

My quick advice though, not based on Yeats but general experience, is doing a heap of writing practice responses and getting feedback on those responses! For these, make sure you cover all of Yeats different poems to get used to writing about all of them. I did speeches for my HSC and they specified a speech to discuss, so be prepared for that too as a possibility!  and make plenty of quote sheets and stuff summarising your key points, make it easy to remember quotes and all that sort of stuff (context information, themes, etc)  hope this helps in the meantime!!

[elysepopplewell]

Thanks for the great help Elyse! 

I attended the advanced english lecture you gave yesterday (which was sososo useful!!!!), and I noticed that for module B you were required to study W.B Yeats. I too have to study him and find great difficulty in doing so. I was wondering, as you did not have a prepared essay for this module, how you instead studied for your exams.

-Rachel 

Hi Rachel! Thanks for coming along to the lecture, what a legend! I've just uploaded my W B Yeats notes to ATAR Notes, but they usually take about 24 hours to be cleared and posted (we check them for plagiarism and spam and what not). Once they are uploaded, I will link you to them, and then I will explain how I went about studying for Yeats, with those notes in mind

[victoriad98]

Thank you so much for this! I'm rubbish at studying for English but this really helped 

[sudodds]

Hi I just have a quick question about how to study for module B.
We're doing TS Eliot's poetry at my school, however I am finding it very difficult to memorise quotes and I was wondering if you had any tips for getting them to stick in your head given the amount of poems we have to study, and the length of a lot of them as well. I can remember and phrase in a novel or line in a film, I don't know why I find poetry so tricky! Ughh. Is rephrasing/summarising okay in a poetry essay? Or will the markers not like that?

Thank you!!

[Eriennej]

Hi

With Trial Paper 2 next tuesday, I was wondering whether it is best for the Seven Judith Wright poems we must know for Module C People and Landscapes to focus on two or three, rather than all seven. Many people in my year have opted to just prepare for the two or three of their choice, so that we can have more depth in analysis per poem rather than having shallow and broad knowledge for all seven. Is this recommended? Or is this sacrificial of possible marks?

Thanks 
Erin

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi I just have a quick question about how to study for module B.
We're doing TS Eliot's poetry at my school, however I am finding it very difficult to memorise quotes and I was wondering if you had any tips for getting them to stick in your head given the amount of poems we have to study, and the length of a lot of them as well. I can remember and phrase in a novel or line in a film, I don't know why I find poetry so tricky! Ughh. Is rephrasing/summarising okay in a poetry essay? Or will the markers not like that?

Thank you!!

Hey sudodds! Definitely a tough one! 

My suggestion is to make some really concise summary sheets, or even a poster! For my AoS (poetry), I had an A3 sheet with 7 boxes, each containing my quotes for the 7 poems (with techniques and effect), then extra boxes with context, themes, and other useful stuff. Getting it all in one spot really helped! Besides that, you need to just use whatever methods will get the information into your head.

When I was feeling pretty determined, I literally stood in front of the sheet, read a quote, then turned around and repeated it aloud 3 times. Then I turned around and read 2 quotes from the poster. Then I turned around and repeated the first quote, plus the second quote three times from memory. Rinse, repeat (boring, I know) 

Besides that, explore palm cards, audio recordings, home made worksheets, anything you think will help you remember 

Oh, and retelling/summarising the poems is a no-go for any essay. Textual retell is not going to earn you marks 

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi
With Trial Paper 2 next tuesday, I was wondering whether it is best for the Seven Judith Wright poems we must know for Module C People and Landscapes to focus on two or three, rather than all seven. Many people in my year have opted to just prepare for the two or three of their choice, so that we can have more depth in analysis per poem rather than having shallow and broad knowledge for all seven. Is this recommended? Or is this sacrificial of possible marks?
Thanks 
Erin

Hey Erin!! Welcome to the forums! Be sure to let me know if you need help finding anything 

A bit of a complex issue there. Of course, you should know all your poems in depth, not just three. That is obviously the better course of action, so the question turns into (I suppose), "Is it worth knowing all seven in depth?" A risk vs reward scenario 

For starters, you don't want shallow knowledge of the poetry. If doing all seven poems means you'll not go into depth with them, then stick with 2 or 3. Depth is better than breadth in my opinion.

Module C will never specify use of a specific poem like Module B could, therefore, knowing 3 in depth may be enough. That said, if you get a nasty question and you only have 3 poems, that drastically reduces the amount of evidence you have, so it is worth knowing all 7.

My recommendation would be, if you don't have the time to analyse all 7 properly, pick three to analyse really really well. Then, do a more basic analysis of the remaining four. This is the best mix of both worlds and should prepare you more effectively for any doozy questions