Paper 1, Section I

[sarahtorrington]

Hi, does anyone have some last-minute tips for nailing the comprehension part of paper one?
My English trial is tomorrow and I've kind of neglected to study for this section...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[conic curve]

From looking at section 1 of HSC & trial papers for the Area of Study, examiners are most interested in the following ideas about discovery and as such, they will choose texts which explore these ideas:

1. Self-discovery by way of an encounter which compels the individual to confront a repressed aspect of self - either a cultural identity, or certain wishes and needs that do not conform to society's norms and ideals.
2. Seeing other cultures from a perspective that goes beyond mere stereotyping or preconceptions informed by experiences with one or two individuals who represent that culture.
3. Reflecting on long-held convictions about an issue (revenge for instance, as we see in The Tempest), another individual, or a group, and having to revise that conviction after a spontaneous experience which challenges it.

The best way to prepare for the unseen texts section in my opinion is to think about those ideas and really figure out what they mean by looking at how they are exemplified in your prescribed/related texts. Then compile a list of visual, poetic, and narrative techniques and practice identifying them in the unseen texts of past papers (all available on the BOS website).

Go into the exam with 1. a set of ideas of discovery which cover a wide range of discoveries (such as those mentioned above), and 2. a set of visual, poetic, and narrative techniques.

Before the exam you should do at least two practice papers and apply those techniques and ideas to the unseen texts in those papers. If time permits (and it should! don't leave this to the last minute), check your answers with a teacher or tutor. If you head into the exam with a good arsenal of ideas, techniques, and have practiced applying them to different visual, poetic and fictional pieces under time constraints, you should do well.

[jamonwindeyer]

Massively agree with conic above, though you don't have much time to practice now, a brush up on some Discovery concepts and techniques would be useful!

Some other tips stolen from the wonderful Elyse:

My top suggestions are:
1. Try finish reading all of the unseen texts in the reading time
2. Remember to relate each and every response to discovery. If this means you need to make your own mini thesis statement for each one, that's cool!
3. Using an obvious technique isn't a bad thing, especially if you're pairing it with an awesome analysis.
4. In your preparation, think about what the techniques of visual and literary texts are that gel with you the most. I have friends who could spot a metaphor from a mile away, but they hadn't refreshed visual techniques in a long time and couldn't spot the most obvious vector line. So give yourself a refresher on them

And one from me: Be smart with how much time you give to each question! Don't write half a page for a 2 marker, don't write an essay for a 3 marker, don't get stuck and write 2 sentences for a 5 marker, etc etc  a few sentences for 1-2 marks, a body paragraph for 3-4, extended response (don't go too far above 2 pages) for 5-6

[sarahtorrington]

Thank you both very much!! I didn't realise how much writing was required for a 5 marker..!

[RuiAce]

Yeah. A 5-6 marker is basically a mini essay.

Seems like I wrote exactly 2 pages for mine in the final exam, with my intro, conclusion and just two small body paragraphs

1. Try finish reading all of the unseen texts in the reading time/color]

You know what's interesting.

Back in the HSC, during reading time I read my unseen texts but they would never make sense. I always did paper 1 section 1 last because once I had written my creative and my essay, that's when my brain would switch on and reading would be effective - the techniques would just be like boom

[jamonwindeyer]

Yeah. A 5-6 marker is basically a mini essay.

Seems like I wrote exactly 2 pages for mine in the final exam, with my intro, conclusion and just two small body paragraphsYou know what's interesting.

Back in the HSC, during reading time I read my unseen texts but they would never make sense. I always did paper 1 section 1 last because once I had written my creative and my essay, that's when my brain would switch on and reading would be effective - the techniques would just be like boom

I never wrote intro and conclusions for those actually! Just body paragraphs

I actually did that in my Trial, it worked well, but I ended up wanting to give less time to Creative. I liked the conceptual ideas in Section 1, so I did Section 1/Section 3/Section 2

[studybuddy7777]

My English Paper 1 is today as well...

My biggest advice (if you see this) is do the paper back to front.
This is because the markers put a common thread through and put the sections in this order!! The writers have spent a lot of time making sure it flows!!

(However, for most subjects this is not the case. In SOR it is advised to do the essay first (Sect III) before tackling the section II, or multichoice) For Sciences, leave the multichoice till last)

Sorry, Ive gone off on a tangent but hope this helps

[amina_98]

Does anybody have any tips on what to do when given a text that its underlying meaning is hard to interpret? Under timed conditions I find it hard to interpret and understand the texts.  In our half yearly I got 13/15 for essay, 14/15 for creative and 6/15 for short answers. I feel like my brain freezes.

[jamonwindeyer]

Does anybody have any tips on what to do when given a text that its underlying meaning is hard to interpret? Under timed conditions I find it hard to interpret and understand the texts.  In our half yearly I got 13/15 for essay, 14/15 for creative and 6/15 for short answers. I feel like my brain freezes.

Hey amina! I feel you, the short answer stuff can be really tricky to garner meaning from on the spot it is something that improves with practice though, so be sure to keep working hard and doing practice papers, it will be something that you improve at over time!

The first piece of advice is to use the question as the cue to what sorts of concepts you need to be looking for. The Questions in this section will usually cue you as to the sorts of areas to focus on. Usually, you can construct pretty generic statements that will work no matter what the text is saying.

An example from 2015:

Explain how the poem conveys the personal response of the father to his discoveries.

Your first sentence in responding to that might be something simple like:

Composers often portray the significant responses of individuals to unexpected discoveries.

If you then launch straight into analysis, you don't have to rely on the underlying meaning of the text to construct your answer. A generic start will get you into the question. The beauty part of this is that often, after doing a bit of analysis, you'll click with the meaning and be able to thread it through!!

Obviously this isn't as good as knowing from the start, but it's okay if you don't! You can still access the question, just talk about the ideas of the question a little more generally. Best case, the meaning comes to you and you write an awesome response! Worst case, you still get marked on a solid response, you just get asked to be a little less general. Better than not accessing the question at all

[amina_98]

Hey amina! I feel you, the short answer stuff can be really tricky to garner meaning from on the spot it is something that improves with practice though, so be sure to keep working hard and doing practice papers, it will be something that you improve at over time!

The first piece of advice is to use the question as the cue to what sorts of concepts you need to be looking for. The Questions in this section will usually cue you as to the sorts of areas to focus on. Usually, you can construct pretty generic statements that will work no matter what the text is saying.

An example from 2015:

Explain how the poem conveys the personal response of the father to his discoveries.

Your first sentence in responding to that might be something simple like:

Composers often portray the significant responses of individuals to unexpected discoveries.

If you then launch straight into analysis, you don't have to rely on the underlying meaning of the text to construct your answer. A generic start will get you into the question. The beauty part of this is that often, after doing a bit of analysis, you'll click with the meaning and be able to thread it through!!

Obviously this isn't as good as knowing from the start, but it's okay if you don't! You can still access the question, just talk about the ideas of the question a little more generally. Best case, the meaning comes to you and you write an awesome response! Worst case, you still get marked on a solid response, you just get asked to be a little less general. Better than not accessing the question at all

Thank you so much Jamon i will definitely start preparing generic responses and practice

[cherryred]

Hi Jamon,

Did you use 5 quotes from one text and 5 quotes from another text for the 5 marker synthesis aos question...? Advice please

Thank you

[ssarahj]

For AOS if I had limited time left would I spend it more on finishing off the essay or creative?

Assuming that you're pretty close to finishing both sections, and hypothetically you had 5 minutes left, I'd say you'd be better off splitting your time equally; write a conclusion for your essay first (even if its just 2 sentences) and then try to finish your creative off in a sentence or two in the best way that you can. That's the best way to maximise your marks in a tough situation. Finishing off your essay perfectly might give you a 13/15 instead of 12/15, but your creative would suffer if its left mid-sentence with no attempt at concluding it. 

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi Jamon,

Did you use 5 quotes from one text and 5 quotes from another text for the 5 marker synthesis aos question...? Advice please

Thank you

Hey CherryRed! Just pulled out my 15/15 Section 1 from my CSSA Trial, and yep! 10 quotes across two paragraphs, but I did integrate, so both texts were in both paragraphs. But yep, 10 quotes equivalent

[jamonwindeyer]

Assuming that you're pretty close to finishing both sections, and hypothetically you had 5 minutes left, I'd say you'd be better off splitting your time equally; write a conclusion for your essay first (even if its just 2 sentences) and then try to finish your creative off in a sentence or two in the best way that you can. That's the best way to maximise your marks in a tough situation. Finishing off your essay perfectly might give you a 13/15 instead of 12/15, but your creative would suffer if its left mid-sentence with no attempt at concluding it. 

I massively agree with this!! though I think that most people are better off doing their essay first, because a short creative will usually perform better than a short essay

[Lottie99]

Main tips would probably be to figure out your times beforehand. Plan out how much time you're willing to leave yourself per 2 mark or 3 mark question so that you don't take time away from other things.