English Standard Question Thread

[jamonwindeyer]

HSC ENGLISH STANDARD Q&A THREAD

To go straight to posts for the new syllabus, click here.

What is this thread for?
If you have general questions about the HSC Standard English course or how to improve in certain areas, this is the place to ask! 👌

Who can/will answer questions?
Everyone is welcome to contribute; even if you're unsure of yourself, providing different perspectives is incredibly valuable.

Please don't be dissuaded by the fact that you haven't finished Year 12, or didn't score as highly as others, or your advice contradicts something else you've seen on this thread, or whatever; none of this disqualifies you from helping others. And if you're worried you do have some sort of misconception, put it out there and someone else can clarify and modify your understanding! 

There'll be a whole bunch of other high-scoring students with their own wealths of wisdom to share with you. So you may even get multiple answers from different people offering their insights - very cool.


To ask a question or make a post, you will first need an ATAR Notes account. You probably already have one, but if you don't, it takes about four seconds to sign up - and completely free!

OTHER ENGLISH STANDARD RESOURCES

CLICK ME!

* Free English Standard notes
* HSC English Standard Question Thread
* HSC Marking and Feedback
* [Guide] How to Improve Your Vocab and Expression in HSC English
* [Guide] Surviving HSC English, Unshattered
* HSC English: The Keys You Need to Make Your Study More Successful
* Trials Checklist - English
* Cramming For English: Save Your Mark in 48 Hours
* One Week Until English
* Using Big Words; A Trickster's Guide to English
* Dealing With English (For Maths Students)
* Memorising English Essays!
* Memorising Essays Might Not Be the Best Idea
* 10 Words to Avoid in Your English Essays
* Your Essay is A Lot Like Cordial - Seriously!
* Handwriting: Improving Speed, Neatness, and Legibility
* Improving Your Vocabulary - A Beginner's Guide

Original post.

Hello everyone!

I'm a big believer in equality and all that stuff, and I was devastated that somehow, someway, there wasn't a question thread for English Standard! Treacherous! 

So, this thread is kind of like a Public Q+A. It will be monitored by successful English students, spearheaded by Elyse (our Extension 2 English Master to the Stars), as well as Jake and myself. We are all Band 6 English Advanced students, and all super eager to help you guys out with any questions you may have. Ask us anything at all, and we will get back to you with the most detailed answer we can!

We also have a free essay marking forum that provides awesome feedback. You can find that here: English Standard Essay Marking

Looking forward to hearing from everyone  Happy study!

[jkkke]

Hey just a question about the reading section in the hsc and how to prepare for it and do you figure out the techniques during reading time or after written area of study essay. Would the best study for it just lots of past reading papers. Thankyou

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey just a question about the reading section in the hsc and how to prepare for it and do you figure out the techniques during reading time or after written area of study essay. Would the best study for it just lots of past reading papers. Thankyou

Hey jkkke! Great set of questions 

I personally did my Paper 1 in the following order: Short Answer, Essay, Creative Writing. I liked doing my creative last because it was, to me, a session I could afford to lose time in if I had to, I normally aimed to write my piece in 30 minutes anyway. I also liked to have some time to let the essay question stew over in my head. For this reason, I did the Textual Analysis section first. Reading the extra texts could even give you ideas for your other sections! So, I recommend to do them first, but it is totally a personal preference 

As for techniques, I normally didn't look for them during Reading Time. Instead, I used reading time to form the conceptual focus of each piece. What was the author trying to accomplish? Why was the piece created in the first place? That is often the first thing you need to answer questions in the reading section, so I think it is a good place to start. Then, when you are allowed to pick up a pen, take time to underline key phrases. Don't spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to find techniques, the conceptual understanding and analysis of the techniques is more important than the techniques themselves. I'll also add that I found it easier to read a text, do the question on it, read the next, do the next question, etc. I preferred to get one text done before moving on to the next.

How to prepare for it? You hit the nail on the head; practice, practice, practice. There is no way to prepare for what they will give you, you just need to have done as many practice versions as possible so you are well rehearsed in time management, spotting techniques, coming up with concepts quickly, etc. Having a bank of techniques that you remember, as well as a list of potential concepts, may also help you immensely 

[jkkke]

Thanks heaps really helpful tips will be good for half yearly's as well.

[jkkke]

Hey maybe a stupid question but for the past papers did you print them of completely or do them of a screen and for the hsc because there's only one year of discovery does it matter doing belonging questions.

[elysepopplewell]

Hey maybe a stupid question but for the past papers did you print them of completely or do them of a screen and for the hsc because there's only one year of discovery does it matter doing belonging questions.

Hey! It will be quite difficult to do belonging papers for discovery. The reason being, you need to get used to the different ways that they could pick at the rubric and turn it into a question. You could, of course, familiarise yourself with the belonging rubric, but that would be wasting your time! If you have a look around the internet, you should be able to find some trial papers, half yearlies, etc, and use them as preparation! Also, ask your teachers for the internal assessment questions from 2015 if they had them.

As for the screen/printing question:
I went into the HSC with a prepared essay, and then I adapted it to the question. So in my preparation, I printed out my essay and then looked at past papers in whatever form they came in (print or online) and I would just draw onto my printed essay where I would manipulate things in order to suit the syllabus.

If you are the kind of person who benefits from studying in "exam style" situations - you should definitely print the questions and write on the paper as though you are writing your exam response! For short answer questions (now talking about other subjects, but also Paper 1 for English) I always wanted to write them. I always wanted to gain time for other questions by smashing through short answers, so studying in an exam style situation for short answers worked for me.

If you are a person who needs something tangible to work with, definitely print. If you are just doing a check of your essay/creative against the questions to see what might throw you, then save some paper

[MeaganJane]

Hi! I have my English exam in 19 days and I was just wondering what you think the best visual techniques would be to use for a "Distinctively Visual" module. There's sooooo many and I know I don't have time to memorise them all, which do you believe would be the most useful? We are doing a film for this module (Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon. Ang Lee) and the essay question will be "Discuss how the distinctively visual is used in texts to represent the composers unique ideas of individuals and communities".
Thank you so much for your help in advance!!!!

[elysepopplewell]

Hi! I have my English exam in 19 days and I was just wondering what you think the best visual techniques would be to use for a "Distinctively Visual" module. There's sooooo many and I know I don't have time to memorise them all, which do you believe would be the most useful? We are doing a film for this module (Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon. Ang Lee) and the essay question will be "Discuss how the distinctively visual is used in texts to represent the composers unique ideas of individuals and communities".
Thank you so much for your help in advance!!!!

Hey MeaganJane
You're right, there really are sooo many visual techniques! I always liked to talk about lighting. I think lighting, whether saturated, chiaroscuro, or in fact, absence of light, is a really powerful technique used in films.
However, you should work on remember the textual references that give the most to your argument, and the techniques that happen to be used. Dialogue, costuming, lighting, camera angles, non-diegetic and diegetic sounds, cross cutting, so on and so on. There are plenty to choose from. Your best bet is finding parts of the text that support what you want to argue, and then working out what techniques are at play

[hxh2011]

hey! do you know any good related text to "shoe-horn sonata". 

[elysepopplewell]

hey! do you know any good related text to "shoe-horn sonata". 

Hey there! I haven't studied this myself so I can't speak from experience. However, I have been observing the ORTs of a few students and these seem to be popular for the module: The Pianist (film), Paradise Road (film), Scenic Drive by R Cobb (cartoon) and Bowling for Columbine - Michael Moore (film).

Hopefully this helps! Most are films, so you'd need to have a look online for some reviews if you haven't seem them before.

[Emilyom]

Hey,

I was just wondering if you could help me understand this essay question?
Through the distinctively visual, composers can influence others with their own perspectives of life. How are these perspectives conveyed in your prescribed text and one other related text?
I was finding difficult to write a thesis statement for this question.

Thank you so much!

[elysepopplewell]

Hey,

I was just wondering if you could help me understand this essay question?
Through the distinctively visual, composers can influence others with their own perspectives of life. How are these perspectives conveyed in your prescribed text and one other related text?
I was finding difficult to write a thesis statement for this question.

Thank you so much!

Hey Emily! Can you tell me what you understand of it right now? My understanding of nearly all texts is that composers have the capacity to create influence their audience through their medium: their work. Often, the composer's own agenda/perspectives/thoughts will be expressed in the work. Thus, their work is a reflection of their own perspective of life, which is conveyed to readers through a text. How does this sound to you?

[JohnnyDoe]

Would any of you guys be familiar with the text called "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon? If so, I could use some help with some specific ideas that are conveyed during the 'Journey to London' episode where Christopher the protagonist ventures out. The essay (I'm writing) will be accounting on how this episode challenges our perception of society

Here's the question so you have a good insight about the essay: "Identify a key episode in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Analyse the ways in which this key episode challenges our perception of society. In your response, make detailed reference to the text.

So far the only idea I can come up with is this: 1) How society is can be hostile and unfriendly to anybody

Some ideas you can think up of would be great, 3-4 would be greatly appreciated (At this point I'm kind of brain dead so I'm getting any help I can)

[Eye]

Hey I am really desperate for answer as exams starts in like 1 day and probably should have done this earlier but..

What is a good creative writing? I absolutely have no idea and I usually get like 3 marks for it? Is there is tips? I have got a good idea sometime  but I tend to struggle to get it on to the paper😭😭

[literally lauren]

Would any of you guys be familiar with the text called "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon? If so, I could use some help with some specific ideas that are conveyed during the 'Journey to London' episode where Christopher the protagonist ventures out. The essay (I'm writing) will be accounting on how this episode challenges our perception of society

Here's the question so you have a good insight about the essay: "Identify a key episode in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Analyse the ways in which this key episode challenges our perception of society. In your response, make detailed reference to the text.

So far the only idea I can come up with is this: 1) How society is can be hostile and unfriendly to anybody

Some ideas you can think up of would be great, 3-4 would be greatly appreciated (At this point I'm kind of brain dead so I'm getting any help I can)

Just cause I was rereading this book last week, I thought I might jump in.

I'd say you could break up your one idea into a couple of smaller ones, for starters. There's lots of different kinds of hostility evident in that section of the book - from the downright aggressive people who swear at him and call him "weird" to the more implicit cruelty of people seeing this kid on his own and just ignoring him.

You could also talk about how overwhelming the world can be for people who either haven't been exposed to it, or whose minds work differently (eg. pg. 208-209 where he's trying to take in all the advertisements and signs). In some sense it shows us how the world can be so ill-suited to people with disabilities, though the vast majority never consider things from their perspective (~which is one one of the major messages in the novel).

So the notion of the world being easy/intuitive to navigate is challenged by the difficulties Christopher faces trying to get through London, and the chapter also looks at the way situations can be misinterpreted. Not only does Christopher make a couple of mistakes in his judgments about the way things work, but people also falsely assume things about him too (eg. him groaning on the train or when he tries to by an A-Z and the guy insists on getting the money first since he things Chris will run off without paying).

It all depends which societal perceptions you want to talk about