Hey
I did 3 units of English for the HSC and it can be a bit daunting but here are some of my tips:
For both English Advanced and Extension
- Read all your prescribed texts before you learn them in class. That way, you know what's going on and you can develop more insight, find new evidence, etc.
- Find related texts during the summer holidays. It saves the stress of needing to study one a week or two before the assessments are due.
- Re-read your texts again after you've learnt them, just to look for extra ideas/evidence. I found this extremely useful when I had to rewrite most of my essays post-trails because I found new information and evidence that really elevated my essays in preparation for the HSC.
- Do reading beyond the sheets given in class, this will give you an unfair advantage over your peers when you've got more developed and interesting insights into the modules and texts studied. Usually a quick Google will suffice. (I think this is especially important for Romanticism and Module A, where a lot of the context has been repeated so its often more refreshing and to your advantage when you have something unique in there)
- Practice writing essays and creatives when you feel as though your ideas are sophisticated enough. I wouldn't suggest writing 1 essay a week (you have no time for that) and I wouldn't write anything too early into the course because you haven't done enough of it to write a good essay, so why waste time writing a poor quality essay when you can spend time refining a good one?
- Keep your notes organised and preferably in one place. I had notes on my laptop and my folder and it was just a gigantic mess haha
- Use evidence you like and try and go for something unusual
- I really recommend taking time out to brainstorm concepts and insights related to what you're studying because it can really develop your ideas and give your essay a strong thesis
- Try not to stress too much about English, like yes it counts, but don't forget you have at least 6 other units to focus on and letting yourself get stressed about 4 is not really worth it. I think I spent a lot of time on English, but it was because I didn't really need to do so for my other subjects to get the same results.
- I find that if you have a really good idea, that will definitely hint to the marker your essay is of an A-range. After that its just a matter of how clearly you express yourself and how you discuss your evidence.
- Always get feedback for whatever you write. Improving in English is a continued process, and you need to keep practicing (unfortunately)
English Advanced
- Go through the module rubrics extremely thoroughly and see if you can add things to it that aren't explicitly stated.
- There's also a stronger emphasis on techniques/evidence here, so make sure your body paragraphs contain at least 3-4 well explained pieces of evidence. (some of my friends had 6 but I feel 3-4 is often adequate, just as long as you can explain things very well)
- For AoS especially, go through the rubric and try and come up with topic sentences/ideas for each point you come across so you know if you're prepared to write an essay on identity, for example.
- Module A: body paragraphs best follow the structure of: idea, context, evidence, link back to thesis (this is often a very challenging essay to write because you need to include so much)
- Module A: don't forget to include somewhere about why its important we study two texts in time (e.g. for Frankenblade it was a didactic warning etc)
- Module B: I wouldn't suggest writing prepared essays for this module when you're going to do exams on it. Instead, just know each of your speeches/poems/scenes/themes really well and make essay plans and theses. I had friends memorising 3-5 essays for it and watching them get stressed was not worth it
- Module C: Pick a related text you really like, because it will make writing your essay for it a less stressful experience haha
- For AoS and Module C, be wary they COULD ask for two relateds, and so you definitely want to be ready for that. My tip is to swap relateds with a friend, but make sure you guys edit your swapped information heavily to avoid plagiarism.
English Extension
I did Navigating the Global so I don't know too much about Romanticism, but:
- Make sure your creative is centred heavily in a historical period. My teacher told me that markers who don't teach the topic will mark your creative and if it isn't obvious that it's set in the Romantic period, then that defeats the whole purpose of your creative being about the ways of thinking of X era.
- Ideas are definitely more important than textual evidence here, so make sure your ideas are extremely sophisticated. This doesn't mean to neglect having textual evidence, you must still substantiate everything.
- Essay length: 1500-1800 words, creative length: 1300-1400 words (you have 1 hour to write each in the exam, so make sure both compositions are very thorough and well-constructed so you don't waste words)
- Do your readings. This is so important, this module is all about context and if you lack context in essay/creative, then gg
- I know my friends who did Romanticism did extra reading just to get a better feel of how they write for the creative.
English Extension 2
I did a major work for my HSC so I can give you some times on how to manage your time well enough
- Try and get as much as your idea fleshed out as possible. It's going to change inevitably, but make sure you know the crux of it and don't be afraid to make any dramatic changes suggested by your teacher.
- Spend appropriate amounts of time on it. Maybe 1-2 hours a week on it? It will obviously be a lot more intense prior to assessment tasks, but if you work consistently throughout the year, it won't be as bad as a last-minute rush.
- Document your research. You have no idea how many nights I stayed up to 1-2 am madly pasting things into my book because I was too lazy throughout the year to do it. You are going to thank yourself if you do it maybe once every two weeks.
I hope this alleviates your stress about doing 4 units of English. Just keep a level head and take each assessment task one at a time, don't freak out too much because it can severely impact your performance.
Best of luck!
