1st in Advanced English 2016 - Ask Me Anything!

[joshuabonello]

Hi and I wish you a big Congratulations!!!

I have a few questions:

1) What is the best way to write English study notes (Especially for AOS)

2) How do you think of ideas for creative writing and what was your game plan for the exams (in regard to the stimuli)

3) If I am ranked around 50/180, how do you think I can push myself up into the top 20?

4) If I am doing 'Life of Pi' by Ang Lee for my set Area of Study text, what would be a good related text?

5) How do you structure a Band 6 essay and short answer

Thanks,
Josh

[miss_demeanour]

Hi Emily,
I am in complete awe of you and your talents!
I just have a couple of questions:

Do you have any tips for succeeding in History Extension?
How do you organise your time upon receiving assessment notifications?

Thank you!

[jim18]

Hi Emily! Congrats on your results and achievements, well deserved! I just want to ask you a couple of questions:
1. Can I still get a high band 6 in English adv if I get 75% in my first assessment worth 15%.
2. What marks do I need to state rank in a subject eg English, bio etc
3. How do I adapt my essay to the question thoughtfully. And are you able to read drafts of essay via email.?? If not that's fine.
P.S. I am studying Heaney and Joyce for module A and was wondering if you know or have any good resources to help me out and relate it to Irish identity, politics, culture during 20th century.
Thanks

[jamonwindeyer]

This is just a marker for Emily to use as a reference when she jumps back into answering questions! Hope everyone who has had their question answered so far has benefitted from the Emily's answer! Particularly to the many new posters, welcome!

This "ask a question get an answer from a super successful student virtually immediately" thing is NOT unique to this thread - It's just the standard here on the forums (having a queue for questions like this is rare and just shows how AMAZING Emily is, so happy to see so many people benefitting!). So everyone who has posted for the first time here, I encourage you to check out what else is around the site!! This might be the best place to start!

[bowiemily]

Hey!
I struggle with creative writing as everything i hand in turns out to be either cliché or involves concepts which the markers do not recommend which results me to lose a few marks. I had handed in a creative last term and lost 7 marks because the ending of the creative had the concept of 'suicide' so, I was wondering if you have any advice as to how i can improve this without having to change the whole creative.

Thank you! Xx

Hey there,
So there are generally a few topics I would steer clear of when writing your creative. This is mainly because it isn't the right audience nor space to write about them authentically. Suicide is one of them. Also, many people find it hard to write using their own ideas, and so fall back on typical story archs or 'cliches'. The best way to avoid this when writing your piece is to ask yourself 'have I heard this before?' or 'Is it obvious where this story is going?'. If so, then you should look at the inspiration for your story. Is it something you have experienced? Does is show insight into the dot points, or is it just repeating them without expanding. Sometimes you will have to start all over again with your creative - I did after my half yearly! It's not a bad thing, especially if it means you pick up those seven marks because of it

[bowiemily]

Hi,
I am completing my HSC this year, and I would like some help with Advanced English.
My results in my english assessments so far are as follows:
Task 1 - 10.5 / 15
Task 2 - 19/20

Last year I was achieving fluctuations in my results, varying between 10 and 12.5 out of 15. I really want to improve, but am struggling to maintain consistently great marks.

What can I do?

I would also like to know what texts you studied for your AOS, as well as each module, and your tips for successful text analysis and essay writing.


Thank you soo much, and congratulations on your results.

You need to start a consistent study regime, balancing between studying/writing practice essays and completing your assignments. This way, you're more likely to score a strong result in both, rather than getting say 19/20 for an assignment but 14/20 in an exam.

My texts were Wrack, Richard, Yeats and Art of Travel. My number one tip is stick to the rubric and always think about how the text makes you feel. In doing so, you can gauge the 'impact on the audience' part of your analysis insightfully.

[bowiemily]

Hey Emily, hope you are well.

1. What made your AOS paper stand out from the crowd? Was it your writing style or interpretation of the text? I know my content for my AOS however I feel that something is missing from my paper that is going to wow the markers.

2.  Would you be able to do online tutoring or essay marking via email? I would be really interested as my school has a one policy rule where I can't submit an essay more than once for feedback

Thank you very much for doing this!

1. My creative was set in context. That is, it was set in 1811 Europe, and so it's turn of phrase was distinctively Romantic. I think this shows the 'flair' typical of a band six, as it requires you to have a strong knowledge of the language features whilst maintaining a personal voice. As for my essay, it reached around 1100 words, so I would have been able to cover a lot more ground than others. I also challenged to concept of discovery, as displayed in the nihilism of Wrack.

2. I do offer online tutoring, but unfortunately all of my spots for this year are taken up. I may offer some extra sessions during my uni holidays (around June/July). Keep an eye on my atar notes profile for when I'm advertising 

[sudodds]

2.  Would you be able to do online tutoring or essay marking via email? I would be really interested as my school has a one policy rule where I can't submit an essay more than once for feedback

As Emily is full, you can submit you essays for marking English Advanced Essay Marking (Modules Only) and Free AOS essay Marking!! Only thing you need is 15 posts (which is super easy to accumulate) - as someone who completed the HSC last year I highly recommend this!

[bowiemily]

Hi, do you have any tips for the reading task like, three paragraphs for 3mk questions?
How many creatives did you write? if so did you prepare them to genre such as dystopia.
How did you practise for the creative?

1. Three mark questions require 1 or 2 quotes at the most, and should only be half a page. Four marks, definitely include 2, and the mini essay should be around two pages. For a concrete example, refer to my lecture slides: http://atarnotes.com/note/atar-notes-english-advanced-head-start-lecture-january-2017/

2. I wrote one creative for half yearlies, scrapped it, and wrote another that I constantly revised. It was also my extension creative, so it was written as if it were in the Romantic period. Heres how I learnt it, taken from another answer:

To memorise my creative, I learnt it like a speech. I then recorded myself saying it, listened to it at the gym and walking to work, and practiced writing it whilst adapting to different stimulus. I also would write pages and pages of paragraphs in my creative that I couldn't get my head around.

[bowiemily]

Hi! How you going?
I was wondering if you had any story plot ideas for my advanced English creative writing piece that has the stimulus of "everyone desires power. How a person uses it reveals their true character".
Cheers I would really appreciate your feedback

I would base your story around such 'character'. Then you just need to think of a way to show power through them. What power are they lacking? Was there a period before when they had attained power? Who does their lust for power affect? How important is it to them?

[carolinewang206]

Hey Emily, congrats! For extension and advanced English, is including scholar quotes a yay or a nay?

[bowiemily]

I need a bit of help I got a oral presentation/seminar that's due a bit later in the month. I got the quote of my choice which was "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind" by Gandhi and I need to find two texts that relate to the core idea of this quote and compare them. Any suggestions of texts?

So I am guessing that you'd need the texts to suit discovery as well. If you jump over to this page: Discovery Related Texts - Suggestions
You can see a whole list of related texts you may like to use!

[bowiemily]

Hii!! Great to have you

How would you recommend someone who has just began Year 11 to write notes and study? I've heard some high ATAR students use loose leaf paper and individual binders per subject, what did you do?


Thanks

So I had big binders filled with plastic sleeve for each of my subjects. Any worksheet/resource/booklet I received I would put it in there, in chronological order. I would then have a bunch of loose leaf paper that sat in the book, protected by a laminate cover. If I wrote anything about or in relation to the sheets, I would place the paper behind the sleeve. It basically functioned like a normal exercise book without having to paste all of the sheets in. In year twelve, the binders were also organised into syllabus dot points. I would have a piece of cardboard with a dot point, and then behind it, all the relevant work we had completed in class relating to it. This way I knew exactly where my study notes should be up to, and any resources I had available to make my notes. 

[bowiemily]

Hey!
Just wondering if the style of your advanced creative was different to your extension english creative.
How would you recommend starting an extension english creative? Would there be more contextual research required...ALSO i heard of some years HSC asking ext 1 students to incorporate a character/setting of a text they have studied, how would you go about this?

thanks!

My Advanced and my Extension creative were the exact same, bar two paragraphs that I added to extension to make it longer. As for starting your creative, I began with contextual research. I watched documentaries to get a sense of place in the period I was writing, I read lots of first person essays from the period to understand what they were arguing and cared about most, and I listened to popular music of the time. All of this helped to create the world my creative would be set in. My characters were archetypes of all this contextual research.

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily just general questions about studying:
1) on most days how hours do you sleep and have you ever pulled all nighters? I'm the type of person who focuses when i have my sleep 8-9 hours. But i heard people sacrificing their sleep and in the end doing really well in the hsc.
2) I dont know where to start when studying for legal. Just starting to write my notes but its so content heavy. any tips?
thank you  

1. It was rare for me not to get my eight hours. I would nap a lot as well, especially on weekends. I get really agitated when I'm tired, and this was not helpful when trying to productively study. I didn't ever pull all nighters. The latest I would have stayed up is around 11:30, and if I went to bed early I would get up early to make sure the study I wanted to do was completed before school. If I ever stayed up later than that, it would have only been to go to a concert or something (Fun fact: I went and saw Morrissey live in Wollongong in the middle of my HSC exams).

2. So I would just write the content that you've studied in class under the syllabus dot points. Because there are so many definitions in legal, its important that you have a clear understanding of the terms and how they work. I split my notes into columns. So, on one side there'd be the content, explaining how things work, definitions, legislation etc. On the other side there would be media articles, recent amendments and cases that I could use in an exam if this dot point was asked. I also had all of my cases on palm cards, naming there key features and stats they contained.