I know for a fact that I will not be able to get good marks on my essays, because I am just horrible at writing them. People have told me to just write essays for each module and memorise them, but even then I still have not been and will not be able to write an essay that is good enough to memorise. I've only got 4 weeks till the HSC, and have no idea what to do. Does anyone have any tips? Is there anyone who's gone through this same problem during their HSC in previous years and what have you done?
HSC English Advanced Essays (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter nas3
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Personally I already have my essays written from trials... and I'm gonna memorise those.
Maybe you can take what you wrote for trials and really try rewrite them based on marker's feedback??? Basically improve any existing work to the point where you have a baseline.
Of course, if you're planning to freestyle on the day, maybe your best bet is to start preparing quote tables and really understanding in depth the different quotes and themes of each text...
English sucks
it’s worked a lot better for me than just memorising quotes
obviously I know that it’s possible to do better without memorising but I think unless you have an actually passion for english (I’ve tried, I don’t) it’s a lot easier to just memorise and adapt to the question - I’m sure I could’ve gained the skills to write a flawless essay on the spot if I started earlier but it’s a bit late for that now with only a few weeks until the hsc
its_ace21
/æɪs/
yea lol i started memorising, went from 8 to 17works fine for me, might not work for everyone but i get high B's to A's now
Masaken
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i'm ngl i have a passion for english and as much as i love english i would always go the memorising route. this whole hsc year from term 4 to trials, i memorised every essay i had to do and i ended up never dipping below a mark of 18/20. if you already have a really good essay, all you need to do is to just practise adapting the q (which is a much easier and quicker skill to refine than making a flawless essay on the spot). ik someone who did 4u + 3u + 2u english and got a mark of 97+ and even state ranked one of the english courses, and all they did was memorise all their essays for the exam
like yes writing a great essay on the spot is how some people write out their essays - my friend just decided to wing the trials and instead of memorising an essay cos she hated english that much she memorised a bunch of quotes to bring in and ended up doing and ranking decently well. but for a lot of people memorising is just better and easier
yeah writing essays on the spot just feels like a random number generator
its_ace21
/æɪs/
it takes me 10 minutes to think of an intro
nsw..wollongong
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no thanks
nsw..wollongong
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nvm that what abt thinking of a thesis on the spot...it takes me 10 minutes to think of an intro
its_ace21
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Masaken
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sometimes ur just put off with the weirdest most horrid idea ever and u just have to twist it around hoping that it makes sense
nsw..wollongong
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i hate that it sets the tone for the essay tho like by the end of the essay i kinda know what I'm talking abt... and it doesn't match my thesis at all but oh well
nsw..wollongong
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my handwriting gets so ass by the end its humbling
its_ace21
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my legal teacher called my handwriting bipolar coz it goes neat and messy in one sentence
eeeeeeeeeeeqwe
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do memorise essays
MJRey
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I always used to go in my exams having memorised just quotes and analysis and I never dipped below 18. I understand some people may not be able to write original essays on the spot, but it's so stressful having memorised an essay and finding that your essay doesn't match the question at all. So no, I'm sorry but I have to disagree. All the people who memorised essays in my grade got below band 5 and consistently performed poorly in their assessment tasks.
Masaken
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i agree that it can be stressful to memorise an essay and finding it doesn't match the q at all (this was the case for a few people in my school). but from what i've seen with myself and my peers the ability to adapt is a much easier one to develop and refine in a short amount of time than it is to memorise quotes and practise writing a perfect essay. like for my english practice every few days i'll bring up a random trial/hsc q and practise adapting it (eg. a few days ago i was working on this one q that was really annoying and stressful at first but i ended up writing an essay that fit the q and was fine under 40 min). i also find it a lot harder to just have quotes + analysis because while i have them memorised, i have to spend extra time thinking about where to put them and how to organise it (when i do that in writing my memorised essay), but ofc to each their own.
another factor is feedback - there's no use memorising an essay without getting extensive feedback from a teacher, tutor, etc. when i was writing my essays to memorise for the exams, the essays i ended up using were the result of 5+ drafts because every single time i gave it to someone to mark it was always hammered on and shredded which made me do it again and again until it was something that was actually decent. with both of those factors, people who memorise and end up getting trash is mostly because they don't practise adapting (they only memorise and show up to the exam hoping it turns out all well), and don't get feedback continuously and don't try to continuously improve their responses before the exam
it's no hate towards ur preferred method (i myself did it until y12), but personally (and in the opinion of others) memorising just ends up being better. as long as ur careful though, ofc - you need to put in the effort to make sure you have a good response in the hsc
I suppose it depends on the school, at my school other than rank 1 pretty much all of the top kids and none of the bottom kids memorise, and last year afaik all of my schools band 6s memorised (even for mod c). personally I find it much less stressful writing memorised essays since adapting to the q is pretty easy when u boil it down and realistically you’d get stuck in the same predicament when memorising quotes since they have to have some sort of direction (I don’t get too stressed in exams in general though) but I completely understand that it’s personal preference and both methods absolutely have merit.