Sitting a languages HSC this year, no motivation. Advice? (1 Viewer)

[souli]

Hey everyone,

This year I'm sitting Modern Greek continuers (accelerated). Greek is my second language, we speak it at home often. Hence, I used to get upper 80s but now midish 90s (3rd in my class) are my norm in the subject. I usually sleep in class and want to hurry up and sit the HSC as the content feels like it's nothing new and is just dragging on.

I find myself not wanting to read the vocabulary or write responses because it just seems boring. I find that I just can't bring myself to study for the subject. I have two of my year 12 exams tomorrow and the day after and idk what's happened to me. Does anyone who did languages have any advice on how to stay on track? Any general tips on motivation? Thank you!

 

[jimmysmith560]

I think that you should remain patient as you get closer to your HSC exam. This is especially the case of subjects where favourable performance is more likely to happen and easier to attain than other subjects where you do not have the same type of inherent advantage that you have when you take a language subject that matches your linguistic background. This means that you should do your utmost to ensure that you maintain a positive attitude towards Modern Greek Continuers so that you can mirror your current performance in your HSC exam for this subject, which not only would eventually make a great contribution to your ATAR, but would also mean that you would not have to worry about potentially needing to take this subject again in an attempt to achieve a better result.

Based on this, if you are not an immigrant or have spent a considerable amount of time in Greece (which I assume is the case given that you consider Greek to be your second language), then I would recommend that you still treat the course content (including vocabulary and writing) seriously just to be safe. Students taking a Continuers language or higher (this was my case) course to whom the target language is their first/native language generally find no difficulty throughout year 11 and year 12 and may therefore wish to allocate more study time towards their other subjects. However, your case appears to be slightly different, hence my recommendation.

The Modern Greek Continuers HSC exam follows the same structure as most other Continuers language courses (for example, French Continuers, Arabic Continuers, Japanese Continuers etc.). Because of this, it is important to focus on all four aspects of the Greek language (speaking, listening, reading and writing) as relevant to the Modern Greek Continuers, which would entail allocating a certain amount of time to your preparations, whether it be your ability to converse, to understand and effectively translate audio passages in Greek, reading, translating and interpreting/analysing written material in Greek, and lastly, your ability to write in Greek.

I hope this helps!