How to Actually Study for English? (1 Viewer)

[Maxwell]

Hey,

Currently I have actually been wondering if my methods of studying for English are 'correct' or 'productive'. But in all honesty, I don't really understand how to study for English. I hear everybody is writing creatives but I don't quite understand the point. Can somebody please explain why? And please do tell me how I can actually study for English and prepare for exams. What worked for you? What do you recommend? Thanks. C:

 

[lilcutetricker]

I don't know about anyone else but before an exam I like to write up a practice essay, memorise it and write it out under exam conditions. Normally the question is altered a slight bit but what I do is I type up an essay answering the most general questions about a topic.

 

[strawberrye]

Everyone will have a slightly different method of studying for English, to evaluate whether your study methods currently are 'productive' or 'correct'-just see what your results are-whether you see an improvement in results in using your study method over a prolonged period of time and whether you feel it has increased your understanding in your English study. Don't be panicked by what everyone else is doing-do what you think is right and what works for you-by your study of belonging, you should know that blind conformity is not essentially the best thing Anyways, below are my top tips for maximising your English potential over the HSC year:

1)write practice essays(but make sure you get a very harsh marker-whether it is your teacher, your tutor, or someone else)-try to write one each week-there is no need to write excessively as quality exceed quantity in English and sometimes you need time to think over your ideas-to refine/extend them-so you don't waste so much time procrastinating when you write your essays

2) never write a second essay without getting comments for your first one, and I don't advise you to prepare a generic essay because unless you know the essay question before hand, generic essay will often leave you restricted in your options and even if it will get you marks in your assessment task, it will definitely not get you far in your trials and HSC...

3)never ever give up, use your holidays effectively to prepare-ask the teacher what text you will be studying in the coming year-and use the holidays to read over these text-to reduce your stress during the year, for any modules requiring a related text, try to find it in the holidays, and try not to use a very popular text-it is much harder to stand out

4)learn to listen in class-whether it is other people's opinions or your teacher's insights, it will help you formulate your own unique understanding-don't rely on study guides too much-because everyone will be doing the same thing-but check with your teacher that your understanding is not super obscure

5) probably the most important is to use all resources available, your teacher, your tutor(if you have one), the internet, library, etc-and develop a personal passion and understanding into the subject-but don't excessively seek other people's opinion on your work-because you might develop a low self-esteem and start to doubt yourself-so always reflect on each piece of advice whether it is valid or not and keep faith-believe in yourself that you have the capacity to develop independent thinking-and just because it is different from other people-does not necessarily mean it is wrong-just be prepared to back it up with textual evidence

6)read all your text 3 times minimum-no skimming over-you really need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the whole text-not just deconstruct a few scenes and forget about the rest of the book 11)make sure you rest well, eat well, stay healthy during these stressful two years(if you are not healthy, you may underperform in exams-and all your efforts gone).

7)For writing excellent creative, such as for the area of belonging-you should decide what areas you want to explore, construct a 'perfect' story after various edit process, than try to adopt that story to as many creative writing question as possible-i.e. write plans and get someone to mark it for you, like your teacher, and when you come across questions that your story is difficult to mould to, then write another one to cover the rest of the questions, but to write good creative stories, you will need to practice and get feedback-and that also involves looking at exemplary short stories-either through purchasing or finding it online. If your short story has two possible endings, one exploring not belonging and the other exploring belonging-you again expand the possibilities of having a few stories-and being able to adapt it very well to every single creative question imaginable

8)Regularly practice answering English essay/comprehension/creative questions under EXAM CONDTIONS, without notes, and get a teacher/experienced English personnel to mark it for you-and learn from the comments.

Basically, to do well in English, it is just practice, feedback, practice, feedback-unfortunately there is no short cuts at all... this, coupled with perseverance, persistent optimism and consistent performance are the key ingredients to succeeding in EnglishDon't worry about what other's are doing, just focus on finding out what works for you. Perhaps you might also like to record your notes on audio device and listen over it if you are an audio learner. This upcoming summer holidays will be the perfect opportunity to experiment with other study methods and to study ahead. I wish you all the best for your HSC year and I hope my advice helped

 

[rumbleroar]

This is a really good question that has bugged me for the past year.

TBH, you need to find a method of "study" that works for you and exam preparation. I found that I work best by remembering strong pieces of evidence and ideas from text and moulding them into an essay on the day of the exam. I find practicing writing plans for essays really helpful, provided I know exactly what I'm going to say. (Honestly, its like memorising an essay, but without a rigid structure, which makes it more flexible for examinations)

You can also remember whole essays, but make sure you tweak or reword it. Otherwise you can get severely marked down.

Another aspect of English you should watch out for is the short answer comprehension questions: practice, practice, practice. This section of Paper 1 is the area you probably need to practice nailing because it's essentially how well you can BS. You will find with lots of practice, great improvement! I suggest looking at the rubric and coming up with general belonging theses, as well as a vocabulary table (the word 'belonging' is over-exhausted, give it and your markers a break) with belonging and alienation synonyms, before tackling the short answer questions.

I would definitely look at the rubric and break it down into its most essentially components and tackle those.

Creatives - extremely subjective, but I think the most important part of creative writing is creating a piece that is extremely evocative and real, because that gets the attention of the markers (don't forget insightful). Generally, it is really ideal to get your belonging creative done over the holidays, so you don't need to touch it (hopefully) before trials and HSC. To practice, just write about your personal experiences you think have potential to be developed into a good story.

IMO, English is the extrapolation of ideas from texts and using them as evidence to answer a general question (it is literally literature studies posed as an ATAR killer). Don't overhype it, otherwise it will be too overwhelming.

What are your current methods of studying? There is no "right" method, as long as it works for you, it is "right". People work differently, so you need to take all the advice on this thread cautiously.