How to study for English? Is English based purely on talent?

[NE2000]

You can't really make a generalization as it depends on your personality. In general, however, if you keep rethinking your exam you will find mistakes and problems. The emphasis you give to your problems in your own mind will likely be far more than that given by the examiners.

[Ilovemathsmeth]

LOL well I walked out of the Methods exam thinking I'd lost about 8 marks...haha it definitely depends on your self esteem as well - like how you judge your performance. I'm really bad at that, though I was pretty much spot on for English - I always knew it'd be my lowest raw score.

I think you can determine performance by correlating your SACs with how you think you went on the exam. Your SACs will show you where you stand at the end of the day. Then again, it isn't always the case. At my school, the person who got rank 1 on Methods didn't get the highest raw score. Neither did I for Chem.

[kyzoo]

^ This year has taught me that SAC rankings mean absolutely nothing. There were at least 3 people in my Methods class with a higher SAC total than me, and still ended up with a slightly lower score.

[brightsky]

I think SACs count for a relatively lower proportion than exams, so that the real indicator of your end-of-year SS would be your exams.

[kenhung123]

^ This year has taught me that SAC rankings mean absolutely nothing. There were at least 3 people in my Methods class with a higher SAC total than me, and still ended up with a slightly lower score.

Do you know how much you bet them in the exams? i.e. how many marks did you lose compared to them?

[kyzoo]

No, but it wouldn't have been much more than me, maybe 1-3 marks difference at the most. I haven't got my statement of marks yet, but I'm guessing I lost 3 marks in exam 2.

[Ilovemathsmeth]

That sounds probable. I lost 2.5 marks to get 49, but I was told people lost 2 to get 50. The difficulty of this year's exam should be considered too.

[NE2000]

LOL well I walked out of the Methods exam thinking I'd lost about 8 marks...haha it definitely depends on your self esteem as well - like how you judge your performance. I'm really bad at that, though I was pretty much spot on for English - I always knew it'd be my lowest raw score.

Haha yeah I struggle with that as well. I always seem to invent mistakes out of nowhere when rethinking my exam...but I've gotten used to it and have become a bit more "let's just wait and see" in my attitude.

[Ilovemathsmeth]

That's the better attitude. Everyone tells me to "wait and see, it may not be as bad as you think". It doesn't stress you out as much, as I learned with Chem. After Chem midyears, I thought I'd lost 14 marks and was panicking because I thought it wouldn't give me an A+. Turns out all the stress was pointless, as I only lost half as many marks. That's why you can't always predict your performance after writing an exam.

[kyzoo]

^ maybe they were soft with Chem marking, but they were harsh with Methods marking this year - many people in my class did worse than they expected.

[kriptik]

my 2 texts are

the catcher in the rye

and

1984

ive read both of them, i also read the paper everyday.
my english is below the class average. so i wanted to study for it. i saw that i had to write essays.
but about what?

[Greggler]

just at the start of the year, ask your teacher to give you heaps of essay topics and tell him/her that you plan to write as many essays in your spare time as you can in order to improve and refine your technique.

i'm sure they'd be happy to help.

And about SAC's. Lol its so true they dont mean much i think. Both my subjects i achieved the highest score in my school. Both subjects i wasnt even in the top 5 for SAC's. However maybe if my SAC's were better i might have got a better mark? Who knows lol.

[Ilovemathsmeth]

LOL my English teacher was disappointing.

I go up to him, tell him I'm going to write him heaps of essays and what does he do? Sends the essay back 2-3 weeks after I've handed it in. Sometimes, even loses the essay we've given to him. It's appalling. Really wish I'd received more frequent feedback from him. It's crucial for English.

[*ryan777*]

LOL my English teacher was disappointing.

I go up to him, tell him I'm going to write him heaps of essays and what does he do? Sends the essay back 2-3 weeks after I've handed it in. Sometimes, even loses the essay we've given to him. It's appalling. Really wish I'd received more frequent feedback from him. It's crucial for English.

lol an english teacher at my school actually lost my friends sac so he just had to guess a sac score for him  
and yeah my teacher took AGES to give back essays and many of them were only half corrected

is it just me or do english teachers seem to be less "professional" than math/science teachers? (i know its not always true but at my school this was VERY much the case)

[kenhung123]

No its not just you. I agree, most english teachers seems quite lousy. I guess its somewhat 'easy' to teach considering you just need to know the text and read english (as in a minimal requirement and effort). While in maths/science you gotta know your stuff back to front to answer students questions etc.