Can they specify a poem for T.S Eliot in the new syllabus? (1 Viewer)

[Bball1]

So yea....

 

[iwanttodogoodinschool]

yes they can. i think it would usually be hollow men or journey of the magi since these are more different.

 

[jimmysmith560]

They can definitely specify a poem in the HSC exam and (for future reference) trial exams. The poems that have been specified in the past are Journey of the Magi and The Hollow Men because it seems as though a low number of students choose to explore them in their essays. The other three poems are fairly popular, meaning that the likelihood of them being specified would be rather low.

Although this may at first seem unfair for T.S Eliot students, there are a couple of reasons for this occurrence:

1. The first reason is that this is used as a way to equalise the "playing field" for everyone else. Module B is a critical study, which implies that students are required to engage deeply with a whole text that is representative of a composer's œuvre. For the students who study a full-length novel like Emma or a Shakespeare text such as King Henry IV Part 1, they are expected to know the entirety of the text in case they are asked anything from an essay question that discusses the broader purpose of the text, to something specific like a scene, theme, form feature or character. Therefore, to ensure that those students are not disadvantaged for having to work with a lengthy text, NESA has chosen poems that, together as a whole, are representative of T.S Eliot and David Malouf and can, therefore, be specified to present an equivalent challenge for students studying them.
2. The second reason this has happened in the past is to throw off students from utilising pre-prepared essays and to instead challenge them to respond to the question in a more direct manner. Module B is considered the most unpredictable of the modules because it is a critical study. This is why it is important that you have analysis and examples prepared for all of the poems in the event where they ask for one. It is so that you know what to use and how to respond to them.

I hope this helps!

 

[Bball1]

Haha well I hope that's the case cause they're both my main poems and thank you.

 

[Life'sHard]

The poems that have been specified in the past are Journey of the Magi and The Hollow Men because it seems as though a low number of students choose to explore them in their essays. The other three poems are fairly popular, meaning that the likelihood of them being specified would be rather low.

This has got to be cap. I swear Hollow Men, Magi and Prufrock are the mainstream ones. Rhapsody and preludes are just filler poems that are pretty useless on their own.

 

[xilbur]

I don't think they'd specify a poem, but the current direction of the HSC is that they'll make the stimulus lean towards a particular poem. For example, last year's HSC had an excerpt for the Hollow Men, but it didn't explicitly state that you had to talk about the Hollow Men. However, as this was the excerpt, it makes sense that you'd analyse this poem.