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Messed up half yearlies (1 Viewer)

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dazen21

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Got my mark for half yearlies back, was around 65%. My term 4 assessment was also quite poor at 70%. 50% of my internals are now poor and my ranking is in the middle. How screwed am I and what possibilities are there for me to comeback?
 
Want90Atar

Want90Atar

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dazen21 said:
Got my mark for half yearlies back, was around 65%. My term 4 assessment was also quite poor at 70%. 50% of my internals are now poor and my ranking is in the middle. How screwed am I and what possibilities are there for me to comeback?
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70% percent for your term 4 assessment is pretty good, you can still improve
 
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YonOra

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Change now. I guarantee you can still achieve a ridiculous ATAR if you pull yourself up now - to the top. Absolutely gun trials and ur other assessment, and smash HSC and you're looking sweet.

The problem with being at the middle now, is it just puts more pressure on you to really be that much closer to the top of all your subjects, if not the top. But it's still achievable!

Best of luck, go get em.
 
Want90Atar

Want90Atar

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YonOra said:
Change now. I guarantee you can still achieve a ridiculous ATAR if you pull yourself up now - to the top. Absolutely gun trials and ur other assessment, and smash HSC and you're looking sweet.

The problem with being at the middle now, is it just puts more pressure on you to really be that much closer to the top of all your subjects, if not the top. But it's still achievable!

Best of luck, go get em.
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My rank is 1 currently for 2 subjects, 3 for another subject, 35 out of 85 for English. 6 out of 20 for my other subject can I still get a high atar?
 
Directrix

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Want90Atar said:
My rank is 1 currently for 2 subjects, 3 for another subject, 35 out of 85 for English. 6 out of 20 for my other subject can I still get a high atar?
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most certainly, maintain the rank 1s and bring the other ones to at least top 10 should be decent
 
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YonOra

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Want90Atar said:
My rank is 1 currently for 2 subjects, 3 for another subject, 35 out of 85 for English. 6 out of 20 for my other subject can I still get a high atar?
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Was more referring to the person who actually made the thread.
 
laterz laterz

laterz laterz

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Want90Atar said:
My rank is 1 currently for 2 subjects, 3 for another subject, 35 out of 85 for English. 6 out of 20 for my other subject can I still get a high atar?
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depends on the school you go to. how does your school rank?
 
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YonOra

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Want90Atar said:
i know but I still want advice
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Ok, so what stands out to me is English. An ordeal on it's own. This is a subject that requires such meticulous skill. When people say work smart not hard, they're referring to English, or at least they should be.

Mastering english is pre hard, but this is what I did to creep that bit closer to that consistent 18,19,20 mark range.

- If you're drafting cluelessly, you're doing nothing special. 60% of the state is doing this, and out of the 60%, 90% produce shitty quality essays, and some to no fault of theirs, receive feedback from the equivalent of a Year 2 teacher.
I'm going to assume you go to a decent school. USE YOUR TEACHERS. USE THEM. If you're not drafting every week, for all different mods, picking through the feedback they give and consistently improving, then you're not setting yourself up for success.

Keep in mind, you have to do something really damn special to succeed in this subject. Some kids didn't hear Mary Had A Little Lamb as their lullaby, they heard essay structures, diary entries, vocab lists and persuasive language for legal recommendations.

- READ, READ, READ. This is where i changed myself. If you think it's too late to critique your essay structure and move it around, you're kidding yourself. I didn't know what an essay was until Year 8, and couldn't write a succinct one (getting out of the C range) until Year 10/11. Reading top marked, state-rankers essays is a godsend for your academics. I learnt everything from other kids prowess in this subject. This may apply for you, but my teachers teach to the lowest denominator, and not only this - teacher will never teach you how to write a 20/20 essay, thats for you to figure out. So, if you take anything from this, it's to read a shit load of exemplar essays.

- Get feedback from peers. Now, this is a tricky one. I don't go to a selective school, and although my school is ranked fairly highly and there are some very academic kids in my year, theres a difference between being smart, and being able to meaningfully critique someones else's work. Out of my entire year, I go to 2 people for peer feedback and we critique each-others work because we share the skill of being able to give insightful (ish) feedback. Moral of the story, get as many (useful) eyes on your paper, the more, the better!

- Part of working smart and not hard is to strategically nit pick what you do with your time in this subject. The kids who analyse every word, on every page are most likely wasting their time. I know state rankers who briefly read a synopsis from a couple websites, and just took the sexiest parts out of the texts to analyse and strengthened their arguments, whilst still having a holistic idea about the text.

- A quick tip. Critical theory is a great way to gain really really nuanced arguments. Scurry sites like Jstor and Google Scholar for some really cool arguments made for your text. These people dedicate weeks/months/years to writing these things, you really think nothing decent is going to come out of them?

- Goals. Self explanitory. And contrary to what a lot of people say, yes - be hard on yourself if you don't get what you set for yourself (ofc don't be unrealistic and say i want 20/20 for every assessment i do onwards). But the difference is, you can't dwell on it, you have to understand why you got the mark and read through the feedback. Yes, this is cliché, and guess what i don't care because it's true! 100% of compitent teachers will say this to their students, even the top ones, yet only 10% of them will really absorb it moving forward because they're too mark orientated for the past, and not on their progression!

- After every mod, write out a comprehensive list of what you need to do better, and submit it to your teacher. More likely than not, they'd be willing to mark it, add to it, cut it etc.

- Work hard :)

- Keep your eye on the ball :)

Best of luck!! And remember you've got plenty of time!
 
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dazen21 said:
Got my mark for half yearlies back, was around 65%. My term 4 assessment was also quite poor at 70%. 50% of my internals are now poor and my ranking is in the middle. How screwed am I and what possibilities are there for me to comeback?
Click to expand...
What are internal rankings? lmao
 
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