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

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily!
I'd like to ask, How do you prepare for English during year 11/early year 12 I'm talking like analysis, essay writing, articulation etc. Also how would you prepare notes for English and how would you study for English? Thanks!

Hey there!
I prepared for Year 12 in Year 11 by being a bum and hardly studying. Because of this, I did not get the marks I wanted and was sorely disappointed. This gave me even more drive to not let myself down in Year 12. I also met my current boyfriend in Year 11 (shout out to Aidan), who was an instrumental support during my HSC year. It just goes to show that you absolutely need to surround yourself with people that genuinely care about you during Year 12, in order to be emotionally healthy and happy.

Analysis wise, my voice was still really jumbled up in Year 11. I was still trying to figure out how to use vocab correctly, and what parts of a text to narrow in on in order to form sophisticated analysis. All of this was trial and error. So fail, and fail badly in year 11! That way you have lots of mistakes to learn from for year 12

[MahmoudHassan2017]

Hi Emily,
What are your tips for Unseen text? How should I structure responses and how much detail should I provide for 2,3 and 4 markers?
Also, if you did any of the following texts do you have any tips/ advice on main themes, ideas etc.
AOS: The tempest
Mod A: Donne and W;t
Mod B: Speeches
Mod C: Brave New World

[bowiemily]

Hey Emily!

I haven't put the effort into English until a few weeks ago because I just didn't have the motivation to do well, I have my trials starting tomorrow and have worked a lot harder for them than any other assessment. Any last minute tips for tomorrow? Still covering content tbh but feeling more confident about tomorrow than any other assessment so far because I understand what I need to have in my head to answer a question (YOUR LECTURE IS A LIFE SAVER)
I'm a little stuck on how to structure my discovery essay though: I have your notes from the lecture but I'm still confused. What do you recommend?

Also, what do you reckon should be my game plan between now and the English HSC?

Hey there!
So glad you enjoyed the lecture! Last tips: Work out before you go to sleep tonight so you don't have trouble getting to sleep. Sleep for at least seven hours. Have a big breakfast. Listen to some ~ jams ~. Know that what you've done is enough, if not for everyone, but yourself.

If 'the process', like I suggested in lecture, isn't working for you, I would suggest to go with the core themes of your texts as the basis of your paragraphs. The easiest way to come up with these 'themes' is to pluck them straight from the rubric

[Jess.martinuzzo]

Hi Emily,
Could you please explain Yeats poems - Among School Children and Easter 1916 to me, because if they ask me to write an essay on it, im definitely not prepared :///
Also, what is the best way to study for Module B, Its the essay that I feel most unprepared for, I have no idea what to do and I feel as though my knowledge is not comprehensive enough and there is not much time left....
I went to the lecture in the holidays, but I couldnt find any readings that appealed to me. Is that okay?

[bowiemily]

How would you recommend studying for Paper 1 between now and 9am tomorrow? I have a creative and an essay structure but I have no idea how I am going to remember anything. Also, have you got any tips for improving ways to integrate and synthesis texts without being extensively long winded?

Thank youuu

Find at least 10 quotes, if you haven't got them already. Learn the quotes by writing them out three times, saying them aloud three times, and then writing them down again without looking. Do a dot point paper - that is, go through a past paper but only answer the questions using dot points. This includes planning your essay out. Get some sleep and have a big breakfast

In order to synthesis, I always thought 'what is the most accurate way to articulate this idea?'. Accuracy is rarely long winded. This means thinking of words, rather than phrases, that express your ideas. The best way to be able to come up with such synthesis is to practice writing your essays!

[dfab]

Hi Emily,

Any tips for memorising essays, especially when Paper One is tomorrow!

Thanks

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily!

I have my trial exam for Paper 1 tomorrow, and Paper 2 on Tuesday, and was just wondering whether you had any tips for succeeding in Paper 2? Do you have any tips for what I can do to differentiate each essay and make them stand out?

Thank you!

Module A: Your essay should focus on universal concerns, and how/why they are interpreted differently by different contexts.
 Module B: why does your text stand the test of time? Why is it just as important now as it was the day it was written? In other words, why does it have textual integrity
Module C: How is the composer representing the relationship between people and politics/people and landscapes? What do we learn from such a representation?

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily,

Could you please read my creative if you have time and give me some feedback, its very short I know i want to add something at the end and its very well shit hahah so any advice you have would be appreciated. Thank you!!!

Hey there!
Im not marking any responses on this AMA, as I wouldn't be able to get around to everyone's responses before 6pm if I did. Feel free to post it on the forums once you have 25 posts though

[britt.jayne]

Hi Emily...

My trials start tomorrow and I was wondering what your thoughts are on bringing prepared essays into the exam?

Thanks very much!! 

[heathersnowy]

Hi Emily,

I have another question for you. I heard that they could ask for a feature article format for the creative writing section and was wondering what tips you have for approaching this. Thank you. (:

[f_tan]

Hi Emily!
Trials start tomorrow for me and I've got a few questions I was wondering you could clarify for me

1. Just with Mod B and C, I'm still not too sure what I should be targeting in my essays? If mod A mostly focuses on how context shapes values, is mod B how the composer's language and form contributes to its enduring value, and for mod C how representations affect the composer's agenda?
2. For Mod C, I need to be analysing more on the text's form but the only thing I can think of is the form of my texts, which is a historical memoir and opinion piece. Are there any other techniques under form I can analyse? I'm also a bit confused with the structure of my paragraphs - should I base the first two on how people are represented and the last two paras on how politics are represented?
3. I get a lot of feedback from my teacher to "push analysis further" but I'm not sure what that means. For example, the comment was given to this part of my essay - As Prospero gradually learns about the suffering he has caused others, it is Ariel's use of emotive language in "brim full of sorrow" and empathy depicted in "mine would sir, were I human" that is the ultimate catalyst for Prospero's discovery of Mercy as Ariel's capability to convey human emotions despite being a spirit challenges Prospero to rethink his moral values." - I'm not sure what else I could add to this or how I could rephrase.
4. Do you have any tips on how to be concise in your essays? I always find that there's so many things to address, like analysing the technique, then saying what it conveys, then linking it to the composer's purpose, then linking it back to the question - i just feel like there's too many things to talk about that I spend too long trying to unpack all my evidence, yet if I dont do that, I'll get feedback that says I need to analyse my evidence more. Is there a structure that you follow - e.g. Is it enough to just link back to the Q at the end of each para?

Thanks so much!!

[bowiemily]

hey emily,

firstly, what does one do if they find themselves going blank in an exam?

also, what do find is the best way to engage with the question in a sophisticated way?

thankyou!

1. I would move on to another question. I'm quite sure I did this in my trials, actually. I forgot what I wanted to say in the first line in my creative, so went and started to write my essay until i could remember. Hahahah, not the best time to have a brain fart, but it worked nonetheless.
2. I would always ask myself 'Does this question encompass every part of my text? Is the question my text in a nutshell?'. If not, in the second sentence of your thesis, you should tell the marker what the question overlooks. For example, if it asks about 'unexpected discovery', i would interpret this as not only discoveries that have not been planned, but discoveries that are contrary to what the protagonist set out to achieve.

[bowiemily]

Hi Emily!
I just want some thoughts about how to study for english. I find that this subject, for me, is quite difficult to prepare for. In the past I have always memorised my essays but now that trials are coming up, I could only manage to memorise quotes and key ideas.  So far I feel most nervous trying this method of studying especially if I'm going for it the first time in trials! (yes im crazy but I have done some past papers So I just like your thoughts on the best way to prepare English?
Did you focus a lot on english compared to all your other subjects?
How did you study or whats your routine for english leading up to HSC? -like did you set a specific goal to write this many essays in one week?
Thank you!

Firstly, loud and clear, I did NOT MEMORISE MY ESSAYS!!! I thought memorising essays would ultimately produce the opposite of what the markers want to see - a limited understanding of the text. The whole point of them asking an unseen question is to make sure you understand a text in its entirety, or at least, are accepting on other perspectives and understandings of a text. I’m sure people have done very, very well with memorised essays. But I reiterate, I did not aim to come first in the state. Rather, as a student who has always loved learning, I wanted my HSC to represent what I had worked towards for the past six years. And that definitely was not a rote learned, stagnant and stubborn, singular essay. In choosing that though, I knew that I had to get better at responding on the spot. That meant lots and lots of practice papers, reading the ideas of others and arguing my opinion with other students (fyi, thats what the forums on ATARNotes are for! You’ll have the required post count for an essay mark in no time if you think of it this way ). I had around 5 themes for each text, each with quotes, that I knew could form paragraphs if I needed them to. I would then pick themes/paragraphs to suit the question asked. However, these weren’t ever paragraphs that I had written up on Word or marked by a teacher. They were fluid, and changed from essay to essay. This meant that whenever I was answering an essay question, my response was geared entirely towards the question.

After trial, I had most of my notes done. So, I did every practice paper under the sun. I had a bit of a game going with myself, in that if one teacher handed me a marked essay back, I would hand them two more. I kept this up for legal, modern and advanced.

Once I had graduated, I spent about six hours per day studying. This was spent just doing practice papers.

I think it’s fair to say that the most strenuous part of the HSC is behind you now, you won’t ever have to balance assignments with study again. So my best advice: get your hands on any past paper you can!!

[Rainbowhippocampus]

Hi Emily,
Just wondering with the modules in particular,
With module A, how do you effectively compare the 2? Is there a specific structure to use when doing this?
Module B how would I structure this one, as I am doing poetry and am not sure how to?
And lastly with module c, what are good related texts to use with a political film like 'Wag the dog' in an essay?
Thanks heaps

[exdee]

Hello, I'm doing Hamlet for Mod B and have no idea how to effectively study for it because of the wide range of questions. My trial is on thursday, how would you recommend i structure my essay and remember quotes?