I studies Yeats for my Mod B texts and did decent in HSC Advanced English, this is the advice I would offer you to do well.
1. It is essential you understand your text throughly not only in terms of the poems or speeches various meanings but why the writer choose these particular examples or ideas. As it is when you try place yourself in the writers shoes can you truly try to understand what the poet is trying to convey and hence develop a stronger response.
2. Get analysing, get a copy of the text on a A3 page of paper and make sure the text is in the centre and then, slowly with a lot of resources analyse each part of the text until you have a large annotated copy, adding to your understanding.
3. Organise your texts into themes i.e. for yeats I had love, time, ageing and etc. This I believe is done most effectively by creating a page with 8 boxes( or however many themes you have) and in each box place the poems that you can relate WELL to the theme. Then place this chart where you can see it day in and day out until the HSC.
4. Once you have analysed all your texts, I recommend putting them into their own paragraphs, these will be what you aim to perfect constantly till you are happy with what you have written.
5. Make sure you engage with the poem, as that is what markers are looking for this means you attempt to put forth your own understanding of what you believe the poems mean, this can be done in many ways but the most effective for me was challenging the critic's understanding. An example; As said by X in his publication Y [quote from critic about what your studying]. However this can also translate to [your own understanding of the poem].
6. Make sure you not only analyse the meaning behind the text but its structure and context as well and how the structure contributes to the meaning of the texts hence adding to your understand and improving your analysis.
7. When writing an essay it is essential in the reading time you decide the poems which best fit and then from the short paragraphs you created before you adapt them to the question that is there.
8. Don't just chuck critics quotes in there or any quote for that matter make sure the quote flows with the response, it should be seamlessly integrated so that when the marker reads it they don't have to stop their train of though because the quote was just chucked in and doesn't flow.
9. It is essential you know every poem or speech backward, forward, diagonal and upside down because the BOSTES (NESA) has the right examine any part of the poem as they have done in the past. In terms of memorising I only memorised my poem short paragraphs and the opening lines of my intro and conclusion the rest I adapted to the question.
10. It is also crucial you know how to write a solid introduction and conclusion, that goes for any essay.
Thats all I have through my experience, thanks for reading and good luck with your HSC.
