Advanced English vs. Standard English (1 Viewer)

[¬_¬]

HOWEVER, there are some SELECTIVE schools that ONLY offer English Advanced. Some examples include, Sydney Technical High School, North Sydney Boys High School, Sydney Boys High School, Sydney Girls High School, James Ruse Agricultural High School and Fort Street High School. I personally do not know why, since there are some selective students in these schools that are horrific at English and should be doing Standard, but are doing Advanced English because their school only offers that course. None should assume that all selective students are better than all non-selective students.

If anyone has any comments on these I would like to see them...

This is a direct quote from the Baulkham Hills High School website in regards to the 2004 HSC.

56% of all examinations in English courses resulted in a result of over 90%, while 51% of all examinations in Mathematics had a similar result.

So, I don't see anything wrong with selective highs encouraging students to do Advanced English by force.

 

[A l]

So, I don't see anything wrong with selective highs encouraging students to do Advanced English by force.

Please note that I said:
"there are SOME selective students in these schools that are horrific at English and should be doing Standard, but are doing Advanced English because their school only offers that course. None should assume that all selective students are better than all non-selective students."
Obviously, in the case of high performing selective schools the majority would do well and are perhaps well suited in English (Advanced). My comment was that SOME (in this case it is a minority) could have done better had they been given the choice to do English (Standard). Such selective schools should give their students this opportunity.
Also, some high-performing selective schools offer English (Standard) as well. For example, the students of St George Girls High School have done very well recently, yet they still offer students to have the option of taking English (Standard) and General Mathematics.

 

[¬_¬]

Please note that I said:
"there are SOME selective students in these schools that are horrific at English and should be doing Standard, but are doing Advanced English because their school only offers that course. None should assume that all selective students are better than all non-selective students."
Obviously, in the case of high performing selective schools the majority would do well and are perhaps well suited in English (Advanced). My comment was that SOME (in this case it is a minority) could have done better had they been given the choice to do English (Standard). Such selective schools should give their students this opportunity.

Selective schools typically take in a candidature of the top 25 percentile of students so I would think it's safe to assume that those students are capable of English Advanced... but then in recent years, some selective highs have not ranked as well as one would expect.

Also, some high-performing selective schools offer English (Standard) as well. For example, the students of Hornsby Girls High School and St George Girls High School have done very well recently, yet they still offer students to have the option of taking English (Standard) and General Mathematics.

I am yet to meet anyone from HGHS who studies Standard English- but I'll take your word for it. I'm guessing it's a very small minority?

 

[the.chosen.one]

Lol no, I'm currently a Year 11 student studying the Preliminary course. Don't be surprised.

*shock* ....i'm very surprised.....completely gobsmacked.

 

[Lady Mara]

I was told that the only difference between Advanced English and Standard Enlish is that the former includes study of Shakespeare's plays.

I wonder if its true?

 

[A l]

I was told that the only difference between Advanced English and Standard Enlish is that the former includes study of Shakespeare's plays.

I wonder if its true?

It's one of the differences. Students doing English (Advanced) must study at least one Shakespearean play, while for students doing English (Standard) it is optional.

 

[black_kat_meow]

I hope the Shakespeare play we study is better than Macbeth. God, that was awful [shudders].

 

[KimmorleyKiller]

No no no no no - Midsummer nights dream is the worst one

Im doing 10 things i hate about you, its alright cause of the movie

 

[Azagolas]

As a note of encouragement, please think about things this way.

I'd assume that, to some people, your psychological make up will term "Shakespeare" with "Pain" "Boredom" "Suffering", and what have you. Try to think about it more positively, and you'll find that it will ease the monotony and the difficulty of understanding the true nature of Shakespeare.

In which, very few of us will ever come close to achieving such a feat.

Having said that, Shakespeare will be more enjoyable this year, mainly because we have all (or hopefully, most of us) grown up and matured over the holidays, and now, we can appreciate Shakespeare more than Junior school.

 

[adel_saleh]

:wave:Hey everyone. I'm currently in yr. 11 and i actually chose english standard. i do really enjoy reading and i am a competitive student but i just dont always get great marks... so thats why i chose standard. i was very close in choosing advanced but i really had to think about it. i just hope it doesnt affect my hsc mark (scaling wise)...

 

[seremify007]

No no no no no - Midsummer nights dream is the worst one

Agreed. That was by far the most boring of the plays. Macbeth and Othello were quite decent, but I still liked Merchant of Venice the best.

 

[kyldawg]

when i was choosing it, it got put to us that adv goes more in depth than std and they aren't expected to get through work as quickly etc. I'm trying out adv anyway

 

[SoulSearcher]

well thats good, and if you can't cope with advanced, you can always drop down to standard.

you dont see people go from standard to advanced though

 

[pLuvia]

Because you are not allowed to do that unless you really prove yourself to be worthy of it.

 

[Deltan]

If standard and advance scale typically the same, then why don't the smart ppl (not doing eng ext) do standard instead if they know that it will be easier for them because standard is aimed at practically weaker students isn't it? And why is it that standard and Advance have to both scale the same, it should be like maths???!!!!

 

[hopeles5ly]

If standard and advance scale typically the same, then why don't the smart ppl (not doing eng ext) do standard instead if they know that it will be easier for them because standard is aimed at practically weaker students isn't it? And why is it that standard and Advance have to both scale the same, it should be like maths???!!!!

think of it like this. if you loved maths a lot and wanted to increase your ability and excel in it, would you do extension 2 or general?

if i could go back in time and choose my subjects again for year 11 and 12, i would definitely pick advanced & extenstion 1 english over standard. i was actually thinking of going up to advanced after my prelims but i didn't think i would have the confidence and enough time to fix up all the flaws in my writing and interrupting skills.

 

[Deltan]

think of it like this. if you loved maths a lot and wanted to increase your ability and excel in it, would you do extension 2 or general?

if i could go back in time and choose my subjects again for year 11 and 12, i would definitely pick advanced & extenstion 1 english over standard. i was actually thinking of going up to advanced after my prelims but i didn't think i would have the confidence and enough time to fix up all the flaws in my writing and interrupting skills.

Actually what i'm talking about is not including extensions. only people wanting to do 2unit english only. For instance, i probably know that i will never select english ext but will be doing ext 2 maths. In future, I either have to choose standard or advance. If i'm reasonably good at english, would it be fair to say that it is safer to choose standard over advance just to gain a couple of marks more? Obviously there's got to be a reason why standard may be unpopular with many students and selective schools.

 

[SoulSearcher]

Not really, because in the end, the standard students are ranked against the advanced students, and since the quality of the advanced students is usually higher, they would be the ones more likely to get the higher marks. Remember, both standard and advanced do a common exam that counts for 40% of their total HSC exam mark, which is quite a lot.

 

[A l]

If standard and advance scale typically the same, then why don't the smart ppl (not doing eng ext) do standard instead if they know that it will be easier for them because standard is aimed at practically weaker students isn't it? And why is it that standard and Advance have to both scale the same, it should be like maths???!!!!

Do not make that assumption. Not all 'smart' people select English (Advanced). The two courses were designed to have a selection into studying different aspects of English. One focuses on how meaning is shaped through language effectiveness, audience, purpose and context, while the other focuses on how meaning to shaped differently in certain historical, cultural, social and political contexts.
To keep things simple and without any need to elaborate on the details of the process, the method in which students taking English (Advanced) and English (Standard) are kept equal is by the Area of Study paper. In the Modules paper, the distribution of marks in English (Standard) and English (Advanced) is made equal to the distribution of marks in Paper 1 thus eliminating differences in difficulty. This allows students in both courses compete against each other. Hence, no student is advantaged nor disadvantaged in doing both English (Standard) and English (Advanced).
It all comes down to interest and strengths. You should base your selections mainly on the texts and electives studied at your school which suit you the most. This will ensure that you enjoy and get good marks in the course that you are suited to. Take my mini-questionaire at the original post to have a rough guideline.

Obviously there's got to be a reason why standard may be unpopular with many students and selective schools.

This is the topic of discussion for this thread. Many students in selective schools do not have the choice of taking either English (Standard) and English (Advanced). They should be given that opportunity to choose. Unfortunately many selective schools are probably making wrong assumptions of their cohorts and/or in the scaling process. There are some selective schools such as St George Girls High School and Sydney Technical High School, who force students to take Preliminary English (Advanced) and are given the option to either continue English (Advanced) or take English (Standard) in Year 12 for the HSC course. There are others that offer both courses at the Preliminary and HSC level as well.

 

[Jameswilmot2000]

From what I understand there is actually quite an important distinction between Standard and Advanced - my English teacher informs me that it is very hard, nearly impossible to get a band 6 in Standard English.

Also some courses at uni have Advanced English as a prerequisite ... thats why I did Advanced.