CSSA Paper One Discussion Thread!

[elysepopplewell]

It's only two years into discovery, but we really haven't seen this angle on an essay question for AOS in it's recent history. I do think that when you stripped it away, you had a lot of freedom to follow through with the essays you've practiced or planned, you just had to adjust the wording to bring the aspects of the composer's intentions and the text's reception to the forefront. I can definitely see how that would throw people in an exam, it's not a typical essay question pattern. But, what it was actually asking was not unreasonable.

As for the creative - I can imagine that some people would have really struggled to work with this, I know with my creative I would have had to take a quite unique approach to answering what it wanted. But nonetheless, I think this is a good exercise for adjusting the agility of your stories in prep for HSC!

I haven't yet seen the unseen texts - but the consensus seems to be it was tricky!
If you're done with Paper One: Grab something nice and greasy wholesome for lunch, and get back on the horse for tomorrow. Paper One is done - if you bombed out, you can resurrect your English mark tomorrow. Proactivity is key to exams in succession. 

I'll be here to keep talking about the exam, so vent all you like!

[lucyjayne]

That was sooo badddd. Wasted so much time panicking and didn't get to do it well at all. Why do they want us to suffer?

[Annie657]

I panicked a lot at the beginning so I had trouble with section one  and when I looked at the essay I was like what? Hahah but when I got to it it was actually ok and I'm glad I finished the paper not sure if I twisted my creative enough but fingers crossed it was enough! 

Was really tough though!

[JD99]

Elyse, would you be able to give me some last minute tips on studying for the close study module? (we're doing Merchant of Venice)
They can pretty much ask about any aspect of the play, and I'm just wondering how i'm supposed to come up with a thesis, and how to structure the essay...?

Thank you and thanks for this chat, so cool to hear how others went, esp coming from a very small school

[ca052267]

Has anyone done Judith Wright for MOd C?

I'm stressing out trying to find a good related text.

Does anyone know any good pictures to use as RTs?

Oh and that PAPER 1 was so full of bs

[ellipse]

Yes omg the text 3 for section 1 was Soo confusing in my first go (gotta admit I wasn't even 100% sure what they meant when reading it for the 2nd time...)

The creative was also very specific imo, had to introduce a completely different story at the end of my creative to fit the stimulus in

The essay question was also unique, had trouble adapting the essay and I don't think I made it concise either, so it seems like I just threw in random words from the question

[beatroot]

I personally thought that the stimulus for the creative was a bit odd. It was a bit hard to manipulate my creative to that stimulus. And the unseen texts were a bit hard to analyse, especially text three. I didn't like the essay question at all. Don't think I answered the question properly

good luck everyone for paper two though!!!

[Daniyahasan]

idek if my school bought the paper or not but the unseen was pretty shit
the creative however was amazing
Elyse do u remember reading my creative, it was about the journalist whos out to find a story but ends up findign her dead brother
so the stimulus perfectly fitted my piece im so happy ahahha

seeing all your posts i dont think my school bought the cssa paper actually

[eternalconflux]

Unseen was not too bad. But the questions for the Discovery essay, especially the Creative question tripped me hard and I wasn't able to finish. I guess memorising essays was a bad idea... lol
oh well :PPP

btw, Elyse, if you wanted a general idea on the unseen texts used in the trials, i am happy to pm!

[elysepopplewell]

Unseen was not too bad. But the questions for the Discovery essay, especially the Creative question tripped me hard and I wasn't able to finish. I guess memorising essays was a bad idea... lol
oh well :PPP

btw, Elyse, if you wanted a general idea on the unseen texts used in the trials, i am happy to pm!

If you have the time to PM me, would love to hear about it!!

[tloos1999]

Short Answer gave me nightmares, Creative proper mugged me off (I mean where tf were the options for different stimuli) although I was most confident with the essay. But once again, this exam re-affirmed the hatred I hold toward CSSA exams......now Wishing upon that Notre Dame Early Entry Thooooooooo hahahahaha

[bronwoolbank]

My time constraints worked out amazingly, i went in seemingly optimisitc trying to get 50 minutes for my AOS essay, the unseen texts although not amazing, were doable in 40 minutes easily. (Although i had a bit of a laught to myself that i thought one of the main persona's was a dolphin in one of the unseen texts before he just turned out to be a ..... regular human. I completely went in with a creative that was easily molded, but set for either a map , tree , globe , or sprout picture as they come up quite frequently. I did not even put thought into the fact that it couldve been a specific sentence stimulus (Not to directly highlight what it was, but i had to re write my creative from a different perspective, which wasn't a deal breaker however it wasn't ideal either). Smashed out a creative in 30 minutes which i was more than happy with to spare a bit of extra time to perfect my AoS Essay !!!

[lucyjayne]

If we don't do well in the trials at all but have done really well in other assessments is there still a likelihood of getting a good atar? Like i'm pretty sure I was ranked first in Standard until today and I need an 80 Atar to get into the course I want to do... averaging 88ish% in most of my assessments for english but really stuffed up the exam...

[jamonwindeyer]

I understand all that. I just really don't the culmination of my high schooling to end because I got nervous and anxious and didn't do as well in this examination block.

Thanks for the words of advice.

You've got another 2.5 months until the culmination of your high schooling - This is a practice run. A trial run, if you will - Seriously not worth stressing about these things at all because everyone goes better in the HSC

[elysepopplewell]

(Although i had a bit of a laught to myself that i thought one of the main persona's was a dolphin in one of the unseen texts before he just turned out to be a ..... regular human.

I laughed out loud when I read this hahahaha, the best thing ever.