Emily - Ask a State Ranker! (Q+A Closed)

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily,

I was just wondering what your tips are for 'show not tell' in creative writing as that has always been something that I have struggled with in my creative writing. I was also wondering what tips you have for time management of each section. Also what are your tips for approaching unseen hamlet questions as my reading is:
Hamlet in his negotiation with various degrees of success for individual truth particular feels overwhelmed by the responsibility to avenge his father’s death, questioning the legitimacy of revenge and suicide. His indecision and inaction tragically leads to his death and others.
Thank you. 

Hey there!

To avoid show not tell, I would try and draw on sensory imagery. Describe things not only in terms of sight, but sound, feeling, taste and smell as well. I guess, in simple terms, 'showing' is describing or representing and idea. This is compared to 'telling' which is explaining an idea, like you would in an essay.

That's a very complex thesis, and as a result, may be hard to simplify. What's the essence of this thesis? To me, it seems to be uncertainty. Stripping your idea back usually makes it more flexible.

As for time management, I always did the paper in order, ie. Short Answer, Creative and then Essay. This is as I could complete the short answer in 20/25 mins, creative in 30. That gave me plenty of time to respond on the spot to the essay question. If I did it the other way round, I would have felt very rushed completing the short answer questions, and perhaps would have produced a weaker response because of the time pressure. So I would suggest completing your strongest section first, because that is the section where you have the greatest chance of cutting down time. The spare time you now have can be spent answering the harder parts of the paper.There’s no cutting corners in Paper 2. You should spend an equal amount of time on each question. This is why it is very important to complete past papers, under time, before hand. Once again, I completed this in the order of the paper, for no real reason other than thats the way the booklet was printed

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily,

What structure do you recommend completing paper 1 in (short answers first or last etc)

Thanks

For Paper One:

I always did the paper in order, ie. Short Answer, Creative and then Essay. This is as I could complete the short answer in 20/25 mins, creative in 30. That gave me plenty of time to respond on the spot to the essay question. If I did it the other way round, I would have felt very rushed completing the short answer questions, and perhaps would have produced a weaker response because of the time pressure. So I would suggest completing your strongest section first, because that is the section where you have the greatest chance of cutting down time. The spare time you now have can be spent answering the harder parts of the paper

For Paper Two:

There’s no cutting corners here. You should spend an equal amount of time on each question. This is why it is very important to complete past papers, under time, before hand. Once again, I completed this in the order of the paper, for no real reason other than thats the way the booklet was printed

[bowiemily]

How did you memorize your essays?

hey there! I didn't memorise my essays. Instead, I knew certain themes that could make up paragraphs if they suited the question. I then knew quotes that could link up with such themes

[kiiaaa]

Hey,

I was wondering
- how do you memorize your essays for the HSC. I'm really bad with on the spot essays so i need to memorize them but then i have the memory of a goldfish.
- how do you come up with a strong thesis on the spot for your essays and do you make each topic sentence for each paragraph answer the question and then just write your memorised essay?

thank you so much for doing this:)

[sophieanderson]

How did you go about memorising your quotes? Thank you!

[MoniqueGomez22]

Hey Emily, thanks for this Q + A!

I was doing average all year and recently I've been studying heaps to improve my English standard rank... I was just wondering, for the 4 essays, should I just memories these aspects from my best practice essays; quotes (with technique), the gist of their analysis, and my conceptual statements? I can make my thesis up based on my concept statements.

Also, for unseen comprehension q's, if I'm honestly stuck for how to answer a question, should I simply pull out a quote or two, and just try to analyse it by relating it to the rubric in some way?

Thanks ! 

[Ryxero]

Hi Emily! How did you study for English? Like isn't it extremely time consuming as I had just done my Adv Eng and it occupied me for a solid week :/ How did you schedule your time haha xD
Also do you memorize drafts or just have context/quotes techniques memorized and then do the test?

Thank you!

[bowiemily]

Hi there, my trials start tomorrow and I'm currently sitting at first in my year for advanced English with a mark of 98. Was just wondering what your top tip would be to give a discovery essay an 'edge' over the other 500 in my year? Paper 1 is tomorrow and I'm currently looking for anyway to be able to get those couple of extra marks to put me a step ahead of everyone else and not lose my rank.

Thanks for any help!
(I also want to study law at USYD next year!)

Crap! 500 is a lot of people!! I only had 15 in my Advanced class
I tried to have a paragraph at the end of my essay that talked about discovery as experienced specifically by the reader through the medium of text. It also could question the worth of discovery, then coming to the conclusion that discovery doesn't end - but is experienced through and over many lives because of texts ability to capture the lessons and morals of one discovery, and pass them onto the reader.

[shazselva123]

Hi Emily,
How did you go about analysing poems?

Thanks!

[bowiemily]

I was also wondering if you went into english exams with pre-prepared essays that you could adapt to a specific question? Thanks. (:

Hey! Didn't memorise my essays, nor have preprepared ones ready. I knew themes that I could base paragraphs around, and quotes that matched up with such themes. I would then decide which themes best fitted the question in the room

[Kle123]

Helloooo,
My Trials are approaching at this week, and I'm struggling to look for a related text to use in accompaniment to Mod C's Henry IV Part 1. I know it's kind of really late, but it was just last Friday that my teacher strongly recommended us to use another related text to the one my year used for task 3 and that we were "lazy" if we did. It'd be of immense help if you could help me out.
Thankkkkkk youuuuuu

[pokemonlv10]

Hey there,
For Module B, i was thinking how would you incorporate a sense of personal appreciation in your response without writing in first person?

[bowiemily]

Hi Congrats on such amazing marks!

Do you like studying law? What's it like? Because it's something I am very interested in
By the way do you have any tips for adv English? What do you think was the secret to your success in the subject? I find English such a difficult subject to write essays about. I always struggle with linking and topic sentences 

Thank you !!!

Hey there!

If you have hated the HSC, I would not recommend studying Law. At least at USYD, its the same competition and pressure as the HSC. Though I don't like the competitive atmosphere, I definitely do work well under pressure, and so law suits me.

I think the secret to my success is that English has always been my passion. I was genuinely very excited about writing my creative, and walked into Paper 2 determined to prove the continuing relevance of Richard III. I am a massive nerd, admittedly. Because of all this, studying for English did not feel too much like work I was forced to do. I probably put more study and effort into it because of this.

[f_mc]

Hey Emily, this is probably the only earth-related question
Just wondering if you know anywhere to find information on the types of faults, structures and igneous rocks at all the different plate boundaries? It always seems to come up in multiple choice (even though it's not a really big part of the syllabus) and because so few people do earth, we can't find good notes or even a website that explains it all. Just wondering if there was a site or a set of notes hiding somewhere that helped you?

Thanks so much for your time!

[Janey123]

How do you remember all your quotes for Paper 2?