I always saw english advanced as a weird subject to revise for as i'm not always sure or certain where to start my revision off with like do i first break down the text i'm studying before doing practice exams or do i do prac exams and studying the text at the same pace?
Tips and advice for revising for english advanced (HSC Level) (1 Viewer)
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Jos:)
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Assuming you have learnt the text, then revision would mean not learning the text? I think to revise, you should make practice paragraphs for each theme, idea, character, etc (what ever is best for your texts). develop a mastery of the base level techniques, and begin to work your way up into more sophisticated examples to allow for a better conceptual understanding of the textual form/purpose.
MJRey
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Top 5 tips from a Band 6 student in English Advanced...
FOR ESSAYS
1. Read your texts.
2. Pick out effective techniques/quotes you can use in any essay context (relevant to the module and what is expected of course).
3. Memorise those quotes.
4. Start writing practice essays (don't churn out too many at once... really take the time to think about your ideas first, then as you improve your writing style and/or receive appropriate feedback on your work, start doing essays under a time limit)
5. Create practice essay plans and get good at doing this in about 2-3 minutes (it's impossible to write practice essays for every single question in a past paper, so you can compensate for this by creating essay plans instead) --> do this for questions you understand relatively well, but write the essay if it's a question you're stuck on
The above advice can also be applied to creatives etc, but for short answer, do numerous past papers so you can get better at dealing with unseen questions. Underline key quotes that will support your paragraphs, and remember to create a strong thesis about human experiences!
FOR ESSAYS
1. Read your texts.
2. Pick out effective techniques/quotes you can use in any essay context (relevant to the module and what is expected of course).
3. Memorise those quotes.
4. Start writing practice essays (don't churn out too many at once... really take the time to think about your ideas first, then as you improve your writing style and/or receive appropriate feedback on your work, start doing essays under a time limit)
5. Create practice essay plans and get good at doing this in about 2-3 minutes (it's impossible to write practice essays for every single question in a past paper, so you can compensate for this by creating essay plans instead) --> do this for questions you understand relatively well, but write the essay if it's a question you're stuck on
The above advice can also be applied to creatives etc, but for short answer, do numerous past papers so you can get better at dealing with unseen questions. Underline key quotes that will support your paragraphs, and remember to create a strong thesis about human experiences!
chaevely_park
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As a 96/100 English Adv scorer, I would also like to add:
For essays:
- Read and UNDERSTAND your texts - author's aim, messages, context, form and features, etc. THIS is what is going to get you good quality, A-range pieces of work.
- Understand bigger techniques than just smaller ones in quotes - these are called "macrofeatures". For example, genre, characterisation, narrative voice, narrative structure, etc. You NEED to discuss at least one of these macrofeatures per paragraph to show that you have a thorough understanding of the text, even more so if the essay question focuses on forms and features.
- Before you start writing practice essays, learn how to deconstruct and answer key words from the essay question. Write a focused but broad enough thesis that allows you to explore several tangential ideas (1 idea/paragraph) throughout the essay, so that by the end, you would have proven the quote.
- Have a clear structure that you follow throughout your body paragraphs. I HIGHLY recommend you to make your topic sentences "cause and effect", because then all you have to do is 1) prove the cause, then 2) prove the effect through your pieces of analysis.
- Understand the syllabus and make links to the syllabus throughout your essay when relevant and natural
For short ans:
- Start off untimed; take your time to understand WHAT the question is asking for, finding pieces of evidence in the text, then structuring your response to go "full circle" for each piece of analysis. It's super important to have a strong short ans structure from the beginning - a LOT of students lose marks because they don't clearly expand on each piece of analysis and therefore did not prove their mini thesis.
- Build your pace and then get into timed practice
- NO ONE talks about this, but listening to MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES on short answer responses are incredibly helpful. I practised short answers with my friends under timed conditions, then we would go around saying our own responses and our THOUGHT PROCESSES - what we thought the question was asking, how we found pieces of evidence, what made us interpret it in this way, etc. By doing this, you'll slowly understand how to think outside of your own perspective - this EXPANDS the ideas, interpretations, etc. you can generate under timed conditions during the actual exam. And also, peer marking is AMAZING - you may not realise that your writing is unclear, or you're not explaining the analysis properly because you understand it so well in your head. Constructive feedback is key for English, especially because there is no set answer.
Hope this helps! Good luck
For essays:
- Read and UNDERSTAND your texts - author's aim, messages, context, form and features, etc. THIS is what is going to get you good quality, A-range pieces of work.
- Understand bigger techniques than just smaller ones in quotes - these are called "macrofeatures". For example, genre, characterisation, narrative voice, narrative structure, etc. You NEED to discuss at least one of these macrofeatures per paragraph to show that you have a thorough understanding of the text, even more so if the essay question focuses on forms and features.
- Before you start writing practice essays, learn how to deconstruct and answer key words from the essay question. Write a focused but broad enough thesis that allows you to explore several tangential ideas (1 idea/paragraph) throughout the essay, so that by the end, you would have proven the quote.
- Have a clear structure that you follow throughout your body paragraphs. I HIGHLY recommend you to make your topic sentences "cause and effect", because then all you have to do is 1) prove the cause, then 2) prove the effect through your pieces of analysis.
- Understand the syllabus and make links to the syllabus throughout your essay when relevant and natural
For short ans:
- Start off untimed; take your time to understand WHAT the question is asking for, finding pieces of evidence in the text, then structuring your response to go "full circle" for each piece of analysis. It's super important to have a strong short ans structure from the beginning - a LOT of students lose marks because they don't clearly expand on each piece of analysis and therefore did not prove their mini thesis.
- Build your pace and then get into timed practice
- NO ONE talks about this, but listening to MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES on short answer responses are incredibly helpful. I practised short answers with my friends under timed conditions, then we would go around saying our own responses and our THOUGHT PROCESSES - what we thought the question was asking, how we found pieces of evidence, what made us interpret it in this way, etc. By doing this, you'll slowly understand how to think outside of your own perspective - this EXPANDS the ideas, interpretations, etc. you can generate under timed conditions during the actual exam. And also, peer marking is AMAZING - you may not realise that your writing is unclear, or you're not explaining the analysis properly because you understand it so well in your head. Constructive feedback is key for English, especially because there is no set answer.
Hope this helps! Good luck