how do you study for english?

[hard]

what are you going to do in the week remaining till exams? what have past students done?

[shinny]

Sorry but it's going to be the answer you don't want; write essays. Lots of them.

[TrueTears]

Spam essays.

Spam more.

and more

[khalil]

Sorry but it's going to be the answer you don't want; write essays. Lots of them.

What's the point in writing so many essays, especially for context. You'll be using the same ideas in a different form over and over again. The only real way to improve is to read other people's essays.

[shinny]

Sorry but it's going to be the answer you don't want; write essays. Lots of them.

What's the point in writing so many essays, especially for context. You'll be using the same ideas in a different form over and over again. The only real way to improve is to read other people's essays.

Then get more ideas, and re-write those yourself. What I did was just write generic paragraphs for every idea I had for themes in the book, as opposed to writing on specific essay topics. By the end, I just had sheets of paper with paragraphs that I could copy-paste to form a good essay. Same thing works for context.

[kendraaaaa]

For AMFAS I'm going through quotes and their significance. Finishing that off today, think I've done a good job (on 1,400 words!). Then I'm going to start 'spamming' essays from tomorrow.

For context, I need to get some more ideas down pat. I'm good with writing and expressing them I just need more things to talk about.

Finally for language analysis I've been analysing pictures by themselves for the past couple of days and from tomorrow going to be doing complete pieces.

The exam is so close, holy ****.

[NE2000]

how many essays a day would u recommend? would doing a practice exam for english everyday be sufficient?

That's what I'm doing (3 a day). Is that enough?

[kurrymuncher]

What's another way to study for a text other than writing essays. What about just writing about the general themes, and analysing  quotes (like Kendra is doing)?

Would that suffice?

[ninwa]

What's another way to study for a text other than writing essays. What about just writing about the general themes, and analysing  quotes (like Kendra is doing)?

Would that suffice?

essay plans

[NE2000]

What's another way to study for a text other than writing essays. What about just writing about the general themes, and analysing  quotes (like Kendra is doing)?

Would that suffice?

Not sure about whether they suffice but they are all good ideas and decent substitutions for writing an actual essay.

[Craxe]

Do mindmaps. Draw connections between themes, between characters.

Writing essays is only useful when you have fully developed your ideas, and your attempting to frame them as succintly and coherently as possible. In a way, English is similiar to other subjects, in that you have to develop the base, the foundation, and the knowledge before you can attempt to throw it all together. 'Spamming' essays only gets you so far...

Take key quotes - jot down some thoughts relating to them. Grab an essay topic. Dissect it. Uncover the layers of it, and work out the links between the associated themes and characters. Once you have done that... writing the actual essay becomes kind of superfluous. Obviously, you need some practise developing a clear prose. But, again, there is only so many times you can do that.   

Really, I have to discourage throwing down generic paragraphs. Understand the text, and you won't have to. Generic paragraphs will never fit neatly in with the topic - and you will be penalised accordingly.

[NE2000]

^^ agree for the most part. The only thing is the other aspect of the English exam that is the fact that you will be writing three essays in three hours. That requires a certain type of endurance that can only be developed by actually trying it. That's really the reason why I think it's important to write a lot of essays. Otherwise if you think you are all good with the time and endurance I really would recommend planning rather than writing, as planning tends to involve a lot deeper thinking.

[sachinmachin]

totally agree with NE2000. i mean, how many of you find it difficult to sit your ass down and actually write essays in an hour. personally i cannot do it, as no ideas come to my head and im under no pressure whatsoever. we've had 3 english trial exams at school which have been good practice and ive been able to write decent essays. that is why personally, i need that adrenaline rush to actually write an essay within a limited amount of time. i find planning and memorising your material from back to front, a far more beneficial way of studying for english; especially with less than a week to go. but as NE2000 said, if you find it difficult writing 3 essays in 3 hours then writing essays would be a more feasible option.

good luck to you all.

[teacher28]

what are you going to do in the week remaining till exams? what have past students done?

Re read your texts.

If you have an intimate knowledge of your text you can answer any question thrown at you... brainstorm topics if you wish but focus on reading your selected texts.

I have taught Macbeth for example for 10 years and even now I find something new each time we read it again.

Good luck!

[username]

^^ agree for the most part. The only thing is the other aspect of the English exam that is the fact that you will be writing three essays in three hours. That requires a certain type of endurance that can only be developed by actually trying it. That's really the reason why I think it's important to write a lot of essays. Otherwise if you think you are all good with the time and endurance I really would recommend planning rather than writing, as planning tends to involve a lot deeper thinking.

This. I didn't realize how fast 3 hours went by until I was sitting in my prac exams last year and had to stop regularly because my hands would hurt so damn much.

The more prompts you tackle, the broader your understanding will be. Even if you can't be bothered writing out a whole essay, do mind maps or plans. Every bit counts, right?