MERGED: What order should you do the sections in the exam

[Chavi]

During reading time, I identify the tone and contention of the language analysis, I then go on to brainstorm ideas for context and text-response. When I finished those two, I reread lang analysis and identify the persuasive techniques.

[Chavi]

yeah the pieces i memorised got like 10/10 and 9/10 in the exam (context and text respectively), language analysis was my weak part.

I memorised ALOT of essays so the prompt i got was very very similar to one of the ones i memorised, so i just rewrote it. Started memorising at the start of the year and had literally memorised like 50 different topics by the end of the year

So wasted no time in brainstorming - you just went straight into writing your pre-planned piece?

[shinny]

i did the ones i memorised first, ie, context and then text response, after i regurgitated my essay i moved onto language analysis.

Yeah, that's what I reckon too Besides, I think one would spend more time on those two than lannguage analysis

I feel the time issue is more of a reason to do LA first. At the end of the day, you're going to lose more marks for having an unfinished piece than anything. Doing LA first lets you gauge how much time you can allocate to the other two, rather than thinking you'll probably be able to knock out LA in 40 mins and actually then spending 2 hours 20 on the other two, and then realising you're going to take a bit longer than you expected.

[TrueTears]

yeah the pieces i memorised got like 10/10 and 9/10 in the exam (context and text respectively), language analysis was my weak part.

I memorised ALOT of essays so the prompt i got was very very similar to one of the ones i memorised, so i just rewrote it. Started memorising at the start of the year and had literally memorised like 50 different topics by the end of the year

So wasted no time in brainstorming - you just went straight into writing your pre-planned piece?

yup i didnt even think what i need to write, just straight into it, i needed to think about language analysis though

[littlebecc]

I memorised ALOT of essays so the prompt i got was very very similar to one of the ones i memorised, so i just rewrote it. Started memorising at the start of the year and had literally memorised like 50 different topics by the end of the year

Holy shit :|
Is that the right way to go though? I mean, it seems kind of....wrong. LOL

[TrueTears]

yeh im bad at english lol, i can only memorise so yeah... i didnt give a shit about getting better @ english or anything coz i wasn't interested in the subject, i went about maximising my score rather pursuing the subject

[Chavi]

I memorised ALOT of essays so the prompt i got was very very similar to one of the ones i memorised, so i just rewrote it. Started memorising at the start of the year and had literally memorised like 50 different topics by the end of the year

Holy shit :|
Is that the right way to go though? I mean, it seems kind of....wrong. LOL

No, it's different for everyone. Personally I would advise against memorizing full essays, because the purpose of the English exam is to test your ability to  write an original piece - although some people are able to memorize heaps of essays and then tailor the correct one to the prompt.

Personally I'm not memorizing, and I think it's too late to start. You should definitely memorize ideas and concepts that will help you towards writing the piece, just not the piece itself.

[TrueTears]

memorising would rely on luck if you start to memorise late...

if you memorise early, you will most likely pwn the exam

[littlebecc]

TT, if you don't mind me asking, how'd you go in lang analysis seeing as you couldn't exactly memorise that one?

[EvangelionZeta]

I would also endorse Shinny's suggestion (as does my school's entire English faculty...): realistically, examiners expect your language analysis to be shorter anyway, and why not save having to reread the article by having it fresh from reading time when you start?  I would also heavily advise against TrueTears' approach, unless you're like him and have the willpower required to start memorising essays very early on...  

[happyhappyland]

Im doing text response and context first, I seem to work how Truetears did. Ive memorise "key ideas" and chucks of paragraphs/evidence/metalanguage and plan to spam it all out at the start when my hand isnt cramped up.

Basically in my reading time I
1. Think of three - four key ideas for text response and context each
2. Read article and begin to divide which techniques go together to form a specific tone and thus each paragraph. I also try to find contention audience and etc.
3. If I have time I then jumped back to my text response and context ideas

When writing time starts:
1. I take 5mins to write down the 3-4 main points of each text response and context.
2. I write text response first since theres more to regurgitate. Then I work on context
3. After that I give my hand a rest and then I slowly reread and annotate the language analysis. THen I write it. Usually I can get 50mins or so for my language analysis.
4. I try to reread and prove read each essay atleast twice.

I think this way is better, since I regurgitate fast with a fresh uncramped hand and I also give my hand a break when I come back to the language anaylsis.

[Chavi]

I would also endorse Shinny's suggestion (as does my school's entire English faculty...): realistically, examiners expect your language analysis to be shorter anyway, and why not save having to reread the article by having it fresh from reading time when you start?  I would also heavily advise against TrueTears' approach, unless you're like him and have the willpower required to start memorising essays very early on... 

Since when do examiners expect the language analysis to be shorter?
We could be given 2 articles and a visual for a comparative analysis - and then it may end up being the longest section on the exam.

[happyhappyland]

I would also endorse Shinny's suggestion (as does my school's entire English faculty...): realistically, examiners expect your language analysis to be shorter anyway, and why not save having to reread the article by having it fresh from reading time when you start?  I would also heavily advise against TrueTears' approach, unless you're like him and have the willpower required to start memorising essays very early on... 

Theyve emphasised that more time should be allocated to contexts somewhere in those examiners reports. And since text response cant be too short otherwise all sufficient information cannot be put in then it is assumed language analysis can be shorter. If we are given 2 articles I would still write only around 800-900 words on it
Since when do examiners expect the language analysis to be shorter?
We could be given 2 articles and a visual for a comparative analysis - and then it may end up being the longest section on the exam.

[shinny]

I would also endorse Shinny's suggestion (as does my school's entire English faculty...): realistically, examiners expect your language analysis to be shorter anyway, and why not save having to reread the article by having it fresh from reading time when you start?  I would also heavily advise against TrueTears' approach, unless you're like him and have the willpower required to start memorising essays very early on... 

Since when do examiners expect the language analysis to be shorter?
We could be given 2 articles and a visual for a comparative analysis - and then it may end up being the longest section on the exam.

Theyve emphasised that more time should be allocated to contexts somewhere in those examiners reports. And since text response cant be too short otherwise all sufficient information cannot be put in then it is assumed language analysis can be shorter. If we are given 2 articles I would still write only around 800-900 words on it

Language analysis is marked more on whether or not you have the ability to analyse. This is a skill which you can prove you have in analysing just a few techniques. In fact, by prioritising and only choosing the most important techniques, your analysis is going to be of a higher quality overall, leading to a better mark. Picking off every little rhetorical question is probably going to even be detrimental to it. Even if you get two articles, you're obviously just going to analyse less on each. On the other hand, context and text response both are marked on the depth of the response, so words will be needed.

[happyhappyland]

I would also endorse Shinny's suggestion (as does my school's entire English faculty...): realistically, examiners expect your language analysis to be shorter anyway, and why not save having to reread the article by having it fresh from reading time when you start?  I would also heavily advise against TrueTears' approach, unless you're like him and have the willpower required to start memorising essays very early on... 

Since when do examiners expect the language analysis to be shorter?
We could be given 2 articles and a visual for a comparative analysis - and then it may end up being the longest section on the exam.

Theyve emphasised that more time should be allocated to contexts somewhere in those examiners reports. And since text response cant be too short otherwise all sufficient information cannot be put in then it is assumed language analysis can be shorter. If we are given 2 articles I would still write only around 800-900 words on it

Language analysis is marked more on whether or not you have the ability to analyse. This is a skill which you can prove you have in analysing just a few techniques. In fact, by prioritising and only choosing the most important techniques, your analysis is going to be of a higher quality overall, leading to a better mark. Picking off every little rhetorical question is probably going to even be detrimental to it. Even if you get two articles, you're obviously just going to analyse less on each. On the other hand, context and text response both are marked on the depth of the response, so words will be needed.

So if my analyse was based strongly on a few examples, like lynt.br's guide used a few lines to analyse a short sentence, would I still produce a strong high quality work?