Band 6 essays. No tuition. Taking questions now. (1 Viewer)

[Mdyeow]

Some of you may have already seen me on BoS over the past few months (including for this AMA. In 2008, I ended up with a UAI of100.00 against all odds. I attribute this to a fair bit of luck and a lot of smart revision - particularly in my English studies, where I went from an Advanced ranking of 30th at half-year to 5th by trials. You can't drop English and it influences the scaling of all your other subjects, hence a win in English is essential for a win at HSC (life).

A lot of people think English scores are a lottery where you win or you die based on your marker's subjective criteria. Even more think that you need a tutor to improve your English results - often, sadly, by writing the very responses which are meant to be your own. Both are wrong.

How did I game the HSC English syllabus so I was clocking 17's, 18's and 19's in every single essay I wrote? I focused on things which other people didn't, and treated English like a sporting competition instead of an academic subject. And recently I turned my successful strategy into a ten-point plan called The 5-Minute Essay, which you can buy for digital download or on Amazon for half the price of an average tuition lesson.

This thread is for you to ask me any questions about how to improve your English "game", and make your essay responses more cohesive, consistent and kick-ass (yes, I ran out of useful adjectives starting with C). I greatly urge you to check out The 5-Minute Essay (I would, wouldn't I?) but will do my best to give you some tips and pointers based on your posts here.

Look forward to fielding your questions.

 

[strawberrye]

BUMP

 

[Mdyeow]

@strawberrye I've gone out of fashion

 

[Mdyeow]

Anyway, I'll be the first to ask. As my English exam is nearing, I've been preparing by making paragraphs (not intro and conclusion) for my prescribed and related text based on themes/idea according to my AOS (it's changing perspectives). The reason I believe this is works for me is because I know that no matter how many practice essays I do with only quotes and techniques, I always do average - simply because I cannot construct flowing sentences unlike those who have an innate talent for English. In addition, on the other end of the spectrum, I know that memorising essays is risky in itself because I know how inflexible it can be and therefore I fail to hit the question.

I think you have a mediocre strategy, but you are using it well.

I never memorised anything apart from quotes and techniques, but I found that after innumerable practice questions I tended to be using the same points, same examples on quite a regular basis. This wasn't an issue, more that after a while you find what applies across different commonalities in the questions and subject matter.

The result of this seems quite similar to your approach: same general points across most essays, just within different frameworks.

What I would advise, though, is to not memorise the paragraphs verbatim. Instead, try using the same ideas and techniques but writing them "anew" each time you do a practice question. That way, you should find that your writing fluency (said in the literal sense, not meaning you're not fluent in English) will start to build up over time. And you'll also be better prepared to come up with new modes of expression on the fly, in an exam - which can be the difference between success and failure if you get an unusual question.

Concise version: you've tailored your strategy to compensate your weaknesses, which is smart. But if you tweak it a little you can also simultaneously remedy them.

(For what it's worth, I don't believe in "innate talent" - mainly because I was always told I had it but the complacency that bred nearly cost me significantly. You can get Band 6's with pretty basic expression - I've seen it many times before)

 

[justem]

Hi! I've got an English assessment but I'm not quite sure how to adequately prepare myself for it. The task is an in class essay in response to a question given on the day (in relation to identity). The response needs to engage with prescribed texts that will be specified on the day and one related text. Any help would be much appreciated

 

[x1]

what does othello tell the reader about change

 

[Mdyeow]

Hi! I've got an English assessment but I'm not quite sure how to adequately prepare myself for it. The task is an in class essay in response to a question given on the day (in relation to identity). The response needs to engage with prescribed texts that will be specified on the day and one related text. Any help would be much appreciated

I would suggest that you take a few past questions and practise writing essays for them under the same timed conditions. The first one you do will probably be absolutely shit. But that will highlight best to you where your issues are. For example, you may be doing really well with your points, but you might not remember enough quotes/techniques to support them - or you might take too long to decide which ones are best. If that were the case, you can then go off, work on memorising more quotes, and then return to another question to test yourself again. Or perhaps you may struggle with coming up with a strong thesis. In that case, you might try thinking about common threads between prescribed and related texts, then come back to another question to see how well you do.

In all cases, make sure you simulate the assessment/exam conditions as closely as possible when practising. I don't believe in writing out notes or memorising "themes" and "ideas" because all that is bullshit. Don't study, practise. The more you practise, the more easily it'll come to you. This is the framework I set out in more detail in my book.

Also make sure you know your related text as well as your prescribed ones - in terms of quotes, analysis, cool insights that you can apply to questions of identity, et c.