How to prepare?

[appianway]

After the essay that I wrote in yesterday's English Language exam, I'm concerned about relying on the subject for my English prerequisite. I'm studying English next year, and I'd like to do really well. I'm not quite sure how to prepare though - I've gotten by in English for years by just 'winging' it, but I doubt that's going to be feasible for Uints 3/4. I was just wondering, how exactly would you suggest to prepare? I'm not in a position to spend hours a day in the holidays toiling over essays (I'm going to be away for all bar one week in January!), and I find that writing on the same topic numerous times ultimately diminishes my ability to present a fresh piece. Are there any other writing/reading tasks that could set me up well for English next year?

[xXNovaxX]

After the essay that I wrote in yesterday's English Language exam, I'm concerned about relying on the subject for my English prerequisite. I'm studying English next year, and I'd like to do really well. I'm not quite sure how to prepare though - I've gotten by in English for years by just 'winging' it, but I doubt that's going to be feasible for Uints 3/4. I was just wondering, how exactly would you suggest to prepare? I'm not in a position to spend hours a day in the holidays toiling over essays (I'm going to be away for all bar one week in January!), and I find that writing on the same topic numerous times ultimately diminishes my ability to present a fresh piece. Are there any other writing/reading tasks that could set me up well for English next year?

This is very similar to a thread posted a few days ago http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,19087.0.html

Please read my response to that (1st page), and maybe some other people's because tbh I put quiet an effort into that response LMAO.

But in summary; yeah you're right, I only wrote a lot of essays in term 4, and it was lame...

Um, read your TEXTS!!! More you read the easier they come back to you in time for exams! I recommend reading them
1= during holidays in Jan
2= THEN before your SAC on the text
3=Mid way between SAC and exams
4= if you REALLY want, 1-2 weeks before English exam, preferably 3 weeks?

With context it's important you get a head start, so do the bulk of your research BEFORE your school is up to AOS 2 (i think it is).

Goodluck!

btw 1000th POST !!!!!! I am part of the furniture! I bags the table.

[NE2000]

Read your texts. At your school you probably have texts that are fairly deep in their content. After reading them research them. If you want to use study guides, use them in January, because using them later runs the risk of study guide ideas appearing in your essays where you should be looking for your essay to stick out through your own individual ideas. You're probably good enough alreaady at writing essays and if you don't have time I wouldn't bother just yet. I pretty much cemented my knowledge of the text before I began writing essays. I read the text once for 'fun', and I started that almost immediately after my unit 1/2s were finished. And then at the end of the summer holidays I read it a second time as part of answering some 'study questions' we received, which was helpful.

For language analysis, whenever you read the paper start looking at it very cynically, start spotting language devices everywhere and trying to find how the author is looking to position you, the reader. The emphasis is on the specific audience.

For context at this early stage I'd suggest you just have fun with it. Whatever context you do it's fairly interesting so just spend some time browsing through the internet. You'll be surprised how many of the random ideas you can read up end up in your pieces.

Most people get by English prior to year 12 by winging it but you're right that you can't do that in year 12. It's a good first step to recognize that you need to work a lot more in year 12 English. But don't worry about it too much, I personally found my summer holiday English work to be sort of insignificant in the long run compared to the more focussed essay work you do later in the year with the guidance of your teacher.

[EvangelionZeta]

@Appianway, you'll be fine.  Just familiarise yourself with the essays types (which you probably have already) and read the texts at some stage before you actually study them in class.  MacRob will prepare you will, even with minimal work.

[/0]

I remember hearing my Unit 1 English teacher saying that in 3/4 students would read their texts heaps of times over, some students would read them like 10 times

[EvangelionZeta]

Haha, I woudn't be surprised.  I think I've read my Classics texts at least half a dozen times this year.

[hard]

ive only real the crucible 1-2 times and the secret river like twice. For context if you know what the book is about have some quotes and all that should suffice. Reading it 10 times for context won't make a difference since you're only generating ideas from it anyway. For text response that's a different story. i had a movie so

[lynt.br]

I remember hearing my Unit 1 English teacher saying that in 3/4 students would read their texts heaps of times over, some students would read them like 10 times

I read mine once and felt I had substantial knowledge on it (given, I had read over key passages and sections numerous times, but only 1 complete read through).

Gathered I did screw up the exam so I'm probably not a good example to follow. Read your texts before school starts and jot down some notes, plot summaries and maybe some key quotes you find. It helps to start quote bank early in the year. Also try reading over the VCAA sample essays to get an idea of the main ideas in your text.

My suggestion is to get a head start on the context study. This is usually the part most people struggle with. It is also conveniently the AOS where you don't actually need a teacher or classroom to teach you anything. A lot of this will be your own research done outside school hours, so find out what context you are studying, flip through some study guides to get a brief idea of the context ideas then start hitting the books/internet/wikipedia and collating notes.

I would also recommend deciding early on what context 'style' (expository, persuasive, creative) you will focus on and then practising that style from as early as possible. This is especially true for creative where you need as much practice as possible.

I'll also probably be putting up a Language Analysis guide in this section over the holidays (The section I felt I had the best idea of what examiners want) so I don't feel like I've wasted all my effort on this subject =P

Good luck with English and remember to keep writing essays throughout the year. Don't be afraid about repeating ideas throughout essays. You need to refine specialised arguments so that they become burned into the back of your mind and you can pull them out without even breaking a sweat in a SAC or exam. Remember that examiners only see your essay once so even if you wrote the same thing 100 times throughout the year, it's still 'fresh' to the examiner.

Good luck next year.

[mystikal]

-Read the texts during the holidays in depth (meaning making summary notes on each chapter, quote taking etc.)
-Pick the book you enjoy most and attempt to write essays on that book.
-Read the newspaper (not the comics obviously, but who can so no to garfield  )
-Get associated with the context topic, and attempt to write one essay of each of the three ways persuasive,imaginative and expository and see which one you reckon you do best at.
-You can probably start doing language analysis right away and get associated with the common techniques but becareful to not get into the habit of naming them. I suggest you to read good essays on language analysis and see how people avoid the 'listing' habit as they word there sentences cleverly.

[Trent]

ive only real the crucible 1-2 times and the secret river like twice. For context if you know what the book is about have some quotes and all that should suffice. Reading it 10 times for context won't make a difference since you're only generating ideas from it anyway. For text response that's a different story. i had a movie so

I only read The Crucible when we did it in class and I did not even bother reading The Secret River.

My suggestion is to get a head start on the context study. This is usually the part most people struggle with. It is also conveniently the AOS where you don't actually need a teacher or classroom to teach you anything. A lot of this will be your own research done outside school hours, so find out what context you are studying, flip through some study guides to get a brief idea of the context ideas then start hitting the books/internet/wikipedia and collating notes.

Or you could look at spark notes the night before the SAC and find the themes are right a story about them lol

[THem]

Read my text twice, context once :S

Reading it multiple times and knowing it "back to front" is really helpful. I memorised like 10 quotes that weren't very useful in the exam but when I was thinking of examples to use in my essay and a few quotes just popped up in my head