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How Can I Improve My Standard English Marks? (1 Viewer)

Lemiixem

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2011
Messages
44
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Hello Guys,
Currently in Standard English I' not doing to well and was wondering what can I do extra to improve my marks.
My preliminary Results are as follows:
Overall Course Mark: 53/100 (Grade Average: 49/100)
Ranking: 49/109

My first assessment task for Year 12 Standard English starts when school commences and I want to know what I can do to improve my marks.
 

inJust

Member
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
697
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Read more. Get more intimate with your text. That's what my teacher says.
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2011
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2013
Read the newspaper. However boring this may sound - whenever you hear a word which you don't know the meaning too, pop it into your personal vocabulary dictionary. This is essential for unlocking your literature abilities and developing a keener appreciation for English.
 

inJust

Member
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Messages
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HSC
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Read the newspaper. However boring this may sound - whenever you hear a word which you don't know the meaning too, pop it into your personal vocabulary dictionary. This is essential for unlocking your literature abilities and developing a keener appreciation for English.
Sure big words MAY impress the marker, but I would disagree if you would make that the focus. To do well in english, it's all about flow and form. You have to show the marker that you have a firm understanding of your text. You can use a few words here and there, but that's not what they're looking for. In school cert, they did, but not in hsc.
Remember, in the HSC, a marker only has around 15 minutes to mark your work. If they don't get half the words in them, they're gonna mark you on what they can read. Contrary to popular belief, they're not gonna dictionary every 2nd word you write so you have to be succinct and clear on your idea.
 

Examine

same
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
Messages
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I like to read books/textbooks and if there is a word which perks my interest, I look it up. Get a private tutor if you have the money.
 

pokka

d'ohnuts
Joined
Nov 4, 2011
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312
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Female
HSC
2011
My advice is to analyse your texts (analyse techniques and how they show certain ideas of belonging or whatever module you are doing now) and type this down into your notes instead of just flipping back at your text to find the appropriate quote and wasting your time.

But most importantly keep practising on essay writing! Give yourself various essay questions in the module you are doing. It is good to continually write practise essays and give it to your teacher to mark so he/she can give feedback. Always ask him/her questions about the module or "how can i improve?" From my experience, this sort of practice has helped me improve immensely.

It is also good to be ahead of school, read the prescribed texts yourself and research what the modules are about so you can try to understand the texts yourself and think about the techniques and how it is related to the module. (You should also do this for related texts as well.) So when you get up to it at school, you'll gain a greater understanding of the text.

That is all I can think of so....good luck with HSC! ;)
 

Riproot

Addiction Psychiatrist
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Nov 10, 2009
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I don’t see how that’s any of your business…
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Uni Grad
2017
Read more. Get more intimate with your text. That's what my teacher says.
Stupid advice at this stage.
I got 86 in the standard exam in 2011 (35/45 for paper 1 and 51/60 for paper 2) and I say you route learn essay structure, write practice essays and get them marked, get your quotes and techniques memorised, and know your fucking shit.

Sure big words MAY impress the marker, but I would disagree if you would make that the focus. To do well in english, it's all about flow and form. You have to show the marker that you have a firm understanding of your text. You can use a few words here and there, but that's not what they're looking for. In school cert, they did, but not in hsc.
Remember, in the HSC, a marker only has around 15 minutes to mark your work. If they don't get half the words in them, they're gonna mark you on what they can read. Contrary to popular belief, they're not gonna dictionary every 2nd word you write so you have to be succinct and clear on your idea.
The language you use in an answer is VERY important and can bump you from 14/20 to 17/20 in standard and from 17-18/20 to 20/20.
If they are an English marker they should know all the words you use, as long as the words are relevant.
 

CCMc

New Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Messages
29
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
As one of the 9% in the state who got a band 5 in Standard English my advice is to find related texts that you enjoy. There is nothing worse than trying to understand a text you hate, so try and find a text that you think you will enjoy and is related to the prescribed text. I did this and it helped enormously.
 

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