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Will I be able to get a high enough mark in English? (1 Viewer)

DanS

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How well do you have to perform to get a HSC mark of 80% or above in Standard English? What sort of assessment task marks do you need to get? I know this is a bit of a vague question, but I have been calculating the marks I would need to get in each subject in order to reach my ATAR goal, and based on what I have found, I should be able to achieve it if I get a HSC mark of 80 or higher for English.

I have recently changed from disliking English to LOVING it instead, but as I have stuffed around in the past and only recently got my act together, my marks do not yet reflect my passion for it. Nevertheless, they are improving - should be almost perfect by the time we get to the HSC examinations!

I have talked to a few other older students about this, who have finished school. One recons that he got a HSC mark of 78% for English - and he detested it, it was his worst subject. Does that mean that there's hope for me? Please comment!
 
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tutorhunt

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You've only done one exam right? If this is true, it probably isnt weighted that much in the whole scheme of things. Losing a few marks here and there in your first assessment would maybe only make a few percentage difference if that. Study hard, keep loving the subject, and im sure youll grab a decent mark.
 

DanS

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Yeah, just did the first one last week - worth 15% of internal marks, therefore 7.5% overall. Don't know how I went yet, but you're right, it probably doesn't mean too much missing a few marks at this stage...
 

madharris

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Yeah, just did the first one last week - worth 15% of internal marks, therefore 7.5% overall. Don't know how I went yet, but you're right, it probably doesn't mean too much missing a few marks at this stage...
Don't think about it as 7.5% of your overall

Remember, that the most important thing is your rank.
So even if your rank is 200/200 with a mark of 10%, if you constantly do well in your other assessments, then your rank will drastically improve
 

sirable1

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You have to have a good rank in order to sustain a Band 5.

I remember I performed really poorly in Year 11 (coming 93/108 as in ranks) and my mark was 34/100 (mind you no scaling is involved here) and in Year 12, it was the complete opposite (7/129) and my raw mark was about 79/100.

I've almost spent a fortune on resources and tutoring which costed me around $1200 just for one subject in Year 12!


I finally got a HSC mark of 85/100 which only few people (20ish) got a B5 in my school considering it was in the top 100.


Your performance in school in terms of ranks and performance in the HSC exam are extremely important factors in considering the majority of the final HSC mark.
 

DanS

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Wow, that's and awesome improvement in ranks & marks! Well done! I think I should be able to do it... hopefully without having to spend $1200, though! Tutoring sounds like a pretty good way to go, even if it is expensive. Did you get extra tuition all the way through your HSC year, or more towards the end before the finals?
 

tutorhunt

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English has a wealth of resources on the net. Read exemplary essays, read up on essay guides on blog sites etc, sneaky plug: http://tutormap.com.au/achieving-band-6-hsc-english/ and youtube videos. You have the summer holidays to practise essay writing/creative writing, so don't fret. tutoring can be useful though, i suggest a private tutor for english though.
 

sirable1

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I've stopped tutoring a week before my trial exams because she was just gonna go over past papers anyways and I don't want to pay $68 per lesson 1-on-1 just for that. From the start of Year 12 in every English class I had, I always handed my teacher a response, you should as well to get feedback.

Over the long Dec-Jan holiday, during my free time, I would highly regarded read and watch films:

Books include:
- Catch 22, Lolita, Dune, Animal Farm, Jane Eyre

Films include:
- Rear Window, Psycho, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, 2001 A Space Odyssey


Those were also the factors that improved my wellbeings in English in Creative writing of Sect II.


So yeah, just remember to give in responses to your teacher for feedback, it really helps!

Wow, that's and awesome improvement in ranks & marks! Well done! I think I should be able to do it... hopefully without having to spend $1200, though! Tutoring sounds like a pretty good way to go, even if it is expensive. Did you get extra tuition all the way through your HSC year, or more towards the end before the finals?
 

strawberrye

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How well do you have to perform to get a HSC mark of 80% or above in Standard English? What sort of assessment task marks do you need to get? I know this is a bit of a vague question, but I have been calculating the marks I would need to get in each subject in order to reach my ATAR goal, and based on what I have found, I should be able to achieve it if I get a HSC mark of 80 or higher for English.

I have recently changed from disliking English to LOVING it instead, but as I have stuffed around in the past and only recently got my act together, my marks do not yet reflect my passion for it. Nevertheless, they are improving - should be almost perfect by the time we get to the HSC examinations!

I have talked to a few other older students about this, who have finished school. One recons that he got a HSC mark of 78% for English - and he detested it, it was his worst subject. Does that mean that there's hope for me? Please comment!
Of course there is hope for you, but you need to remember English, and indeed any HSC subjects, will only reward people who have put in consistent effort throughout the entire HSC year, and that includes all your holidays as well, so although it is very good that you are now passionate about English, it is also about the method by which you approach your study-i.e. you can't write 20 essays without getting a teacher/tutor or someone else to check it over for you and give you constructive comments on where you went wrong, what is unique about English is that it is a subject requiring reciprocation, i.e. your effort as well as someone else's feedback-it is very hard to improve dramatically by your own-you can only get so far... so don't be surprised if your effort may not be evident in your results for your first assessment task, a lot of people finds out that it may be when they do their trials or actual HSC exams that their dramatic improvement is seen-because of the gradual, accumulative, consistent effort they have put into this subject

I would highly recommend you to read your texts as early as possible, to engage with them as deeply as possible-i.e. listening to the teacher and other students and formulating a unique viewpoint, and to try your best in every assessment task as often as possible-so before actual task, do a lot of practice replicating EXAM CONDITIONS, when you repeat this consistently over the entire year, with very high degree of self-discipline and taking responsibility for your own learning-i.e. don't blame it on the teacher's lack of teaching when you get a poor result, and trying to avoid asking questions such as 'will I' rather redirect the question to 'How can I' and 'I will get there', because when you have a very confident and focused psychological mindset instead of an uncertain one-you are already half way there- all the best of luck for this year-remember to work hard:)
 

DanS

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Thanks! Turns out that teachers really do love it when you start bombarding them with questions, gets them enthusiastic as well!

I have started reading my texts early - finished 'Great Expectations' for next year - so I can questions on that over the holidays. The hard work can kill at the time but ALWAYS pays off in the long run!
 

sirable1

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I would highly recommend you to read your texts as early as possible, to engage with them as deeply as possible-i.e. listening to the teacher and other students and formulating a unique viewpoint, and to try your best in every assessment task as often as possible-so before actual task, do a lot of practice replicating EXAM CONDITIONS, when you repeat this consistently over the entire year, with very high degree of self-discipline and taking responsibility for your own learning-i.e. don't blame it on the teacher's lack of teaching when you get a poor result, and trying to avoid asking questions such as 'will I' rather redirect the question to 'How can I' and 'I will get there', because when you have a very confident and focused psychological mindset instead of an uncertain one-you are already half way there- all the best of luck for this year-remember to work hard:)

Very true, read your texts very early. I've read all AOS/Module texts as well as possible related text which was included above in my post during the Dec-Jan holiday. It will give you a head start as opposed to the other classmates in the room/cohort.
 

DanS

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Our first English task was a 60 min exam on Distinctive Voices. We received a short story - 'Cloud Busting' - the afternoon before, and then took it home to analyse and take apart. We came back the next morning and got a new copy (couldn't take our own in!) and did the exam, which was made up of 1-5 mark questions.

BTW, what does OP stand for? Excuse my ignorance... I'm kinda new here...
 

panda15

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BTW, what does OP stand for? Excuse my ignorance... I'm kinda new here...
Original Poster.
But for your question, if you get a band 5 it shouldn't hurt your ATAR, and it isn't that hard to achieve. I didn't even read some of my texts and I'm still expecting a high band 4. I did do a lot of practice essays though, which is the key to good results in English.
 

DanS

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Thanks!

Yes, I just need to get a band five in English, and get better results fro the rest of my subjects in order to get my ATAR goal... obviously if I can get higher 80s than this will give me some lee-way for the rest of my subjects.
 

TheGreatWinston

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How well do you have to perform to get a HSC mark of 80% or above in Standard English? What sort of assessment task marks do you need to get? I know this is a bit of a vague question, but I have been calculating the marks I would need to get in each subject in order to reach my ATAR goal, and based on what I have found, I should be able to achieve it if I get a HSC mark of 80 or higher for English.

I have recently changed from disliking English to LOVING it instead, but as I have stuffed around in the past and only recently got my act together, my marks do not yet reflect my passion for it. Nevertheless, they are improving - should be almost perfect by the time we get to the HSC examinations!

I have talked to a few other older students about this, who have finished school. One recons that he got a HSC mark of 78% for English - and he detested it, it was his worst subject. Does that mean that there's hope for me? Please comment!
wow! good on you..... what was your English rank in prelim?
 

Squar3root

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don't worry about scaling and all that other stuff. If you have a decent rank through out your subjects you can definately get that 94.5+
 

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