This is so stupid. I'm in a class where everyone doing short-stories is using post-modern techniques because they thought it would get them marks too. And I think it's a whole lot of bullshit, which is really one of the reasons that I'm doing a script. No extra marks for re-aligning your margin to the right or changing font size in a script.
With that said, I can only imagine that there are a large number of 48-49 that do not use post-modern techniques. It's just that the Showcase needs to have the most flashy and the most publishable short stories and poetry suites around, as it is going to be an exhibition of work, not simply a compilation.
Plus, might I add that every examiner's report for English Extension 2 for the past three years (there isn't one available for 2001) has stated that
many candidates used post-modern techniques without even attempting to justify them. This is what I mean - kids are being driven insane because they see 50/50 major works using post-modernism and feel they have to emulate it.
If anyone dropped EE2 for fear of having to use post-modernism, then I think they should never have been doing the course in the first place. I took the second-easiest option and avoided it completely, because I'm in that stupidly naive group who thinks they might just get a 50/50
But what it comes down to is that only the top 1% of candidates will get into that damn stupid book with that mark - not everyone should be aiming for it, especially if they're utilising wanky, pretentious bullshit for the sake of it.
/rant