Dying from paper 2 trials

[povopotato]

So I sat for my Adv. English Paper 2 exam today and everything literally just crashed and burned.

Module A and Module C I didn't end up writing conclusions for because I just didn't have time and Module B... Oh dear. I only got up to my second paragraph before time was up and now I kind of want to throw myself off a cliff. This is it guys, RIP my rankings- my HSC is actually over.

Honestly, I'm just so annoyed at the fact that we're expected to vomit out 3 intricate essays within the 2 hours- one of which we basically have to wing because their questions are so freaking narrow. But more than anything- I'm just so scared as to what's supposed to happen now? I know I'm going to have to face paper 2 again in about 2 months and I think I'll throw myself off a figurative bridge before that happens. What am I meant to do? How was I supposed to prepare for Mod. B? How did you guys manage to whip up all of your essays and finish on time? How did you guys manage with Mod. B? Because i certainly couldn't...

[jamonwindeyer]

Hello!

1. Bummer that it didn't go to plan, but don't stress out! Trust me, it isn't worth it.
2. What are you meant to do? Fix the issues! Two months is a long time. Plenty of time to figure out what happened and fix it. You've got some time management issues to work out here - Maybe your essays need to be trimmed, maybe you need to work on getting your ideas down a bit quicker and worrying less about perfection/fluency, etc. This is what you need to figure out!
3. How were you supposed to prepare for Module B? The same as the other modules, learn your techniques and your quotes, and then practice! I guess you need to figure out what about Mod B made it hardest - Just because it was last? Learning multiple poems/speeches? Again, Trials needs to be treated as a learning experience.
4. How do people get done on time? Lot's don't! Plenty of people skipping conclusions and still doing well - Emily (100/100 in HSC English in 2016) wrote one sentence conclusions in her HSC.

Things aren't as bad as they seem. Figure out what happened, implement a plan to fix it!

[Lumenoria]

Omg dude, I had my trial for paper 2 last Friday and had an extremely similar experience. Although I did end up somewhat finishing all my essays (besides one that had no conclusion), I really had to discipline myself to cull good quotes for shorter ones in the duration of the exam. My issue is that my performance in the exam is a tradeoff with the legibility of my handwriting, which I'm expecting to drag my mark down because it's legit atrocious. I don't know how other people do the whole paper without having such horrible writing.

In your context tho, I find it so much easier to just memorise quotes, rather than a whole essay, because you don't have 2 things on your mind at once in the exam. You just need to do enough practice to the point where answering the question without the obligation of adapting, doesn't feel like "winging". I'm not really expecting to do that well, as I'm pretty my rank will drop from 2nd to potentially double digits as a result of paper 2, but I think it's also a matter of forcing yourself to move on once the allocated time is up. I kept letting myself go over 40 minutes and justifying it, but it did me from behind in the end. It sucks a lot, I know, but you'll get there! Xx