Stressing Out! (1 Viewer)

[Nerd Bird]

Well hello, I'm Danica, and I'm new to these threads.

Anyway, I'm sort of in a pickle here. I did (quite frankly) awful in my half-yearly Advanced English and General Maths exams. This is dampening my confidence greatly, and I would like to dramatically increase my adeptness at these subjects.

So, what should I do? Should I get a tutor? Do practise essays? Do past tests? What has worked for people?

P.S. Sorry for rambling.

 

[nerdasdasd]

Well hello, I'm Danica, and I'm new to these threads.

Anyway, I'm sort of in a pickle here. I did (quite frankly) awful in my half-yearly Advanced English and General Maths exams. This is dampening my confidence greatly, and I would like to dramatically increase my adeptness at these subjects.

So, what should I do? Should I get a tutor? Do practise essays? Do past tests? What has worked for people?

P.S. Sorry for rambling.

For English , do more practice essays. For maths, review the concepts and do practice papers.

 

[Nerd Bird]

Okay. I need to pick up on my writing speed, I'm in the top TOP English class in my school.

Girls around me are writing 9-10 pages for essays, and I can only write 2.5 at most.

It's very confidence-destroying, and I am considering getting a writer or extra time.

 

[Hypem]

Okay. I need to pick up on my writing speed, I'm in the top TOP English class in my school.

Girls around me are writing 9-10 pages for essays, and I can only write 2.5 at most.

It's very confidence-destroying, and I am considering getting a writer or extra time.

That's impossible. Assuming regular pages, that's about 2000 words for an essay, which is far too long anyway...

 

[Nerd Bird]

No, seriously. But then again, they may have large handwriting.

My hands get really sore. It is physically impossible for me to write that quick.

My teacher told me that the amount you write is critical and that my speed will be my "downfall". What about "quality over quantity"? :/

 

[Spiritual Being]

No, seriously. But then again, they may have large handwriting.

My hands get really sore. It is physically impossible for me to write that quick.

My teacher told me that the amount you write is critical and that my speed will be my "downfall". What about "quality over quantity"? :/

I think quantity creates quality. I cannot write two or three paragraphs altogether at Shakespearean standard and 'hope' that I will get a band 6.

Please calm down.

The next two assessment tasks are critical. You NEED to do well, not slack off. You will see certain individuals 'wake up' at this time of the year as well. In spite of this, many individuals will drop off come trial time as they 'creep up', unexpectedly.

I am sure you can do it, you just need to focus and stop procrastinating.

GL.

 

[juicystar07]

In my opinion, you need to balance quality and quantity. You can't assume writing 2 pages will get you high marks and at the same time, assume writing 10 pages will get you high marks. The main thing you have to do is answer the question and provide evidence. Further, your writing should be concise but sophisticated.

For me, I was able to write about 1500 words in 40 minutes. That would take up about 3-4 pages.
No person should ever be writing 9-10 pages because that just shows you don't have the ability to write concisely and have all your thoughts scattered in the essay.
My friend had very big handwriting, was able to write about 1300 words in 40 minutes and would only take up about 5-6 pages.

My point is that how much people are writing beside you should not make you less confident. You should know what you want to write, know what your strengths and weaknesses are (i.e. for me, my weakness was my handwriting legibility and my strength was the amount I can write in 40 minutes) and practice, practice, PRACTICE!!

 

[Nerd Bird]

Thanks Juicy and Spiritual. I'll definitely keep practising in mind. c:

 

[juicystar07]

Thanks Juicy and Spiritual. I'll definitely keep practising in mind. c:

Good luck and stay positive!

 

[Spiritual Being]

Thanks Juicy and Spiritual. I'll definitely keep practising in mind. c:

Have a positive mindset as juicystar07 mentioned and you will go very far, beyond what you think.

I can assure you nearly a quarter of the state is in the position you are in now, and they have given up.

Do not be one of them.

 

[madharris]

Okay. I need to pick up on my writing speed, I'm in the top TOP English class in my school.

Girls around me are writing 9-10 pages for essays, and I can only write 2.5 at most.

It's very confidence-destroying, and I am considering getting a writer or extra time.

I have extremely small writing and got about 1100 words into 2.5 pages
Many people have larger writing than me and end up writing 10 pages, however it is still the same number of words so don't worry about the number of pages!

If you want to increase your writing speed, what I did was 1 month before the HSC, i put 3 AA batteries on the end of my pen and used it for absolutely everything.
During each exam, I would take the batteries off and I would find that I could write a lot faster, and my hand wouldn't hurt at all!

 

[Nerd Bird]

Ah, I've heard of that. I'll try it. Thanks Mad!

 

[louielouiee]

Okay. I need to pick up on my writing speed, I'm in the top TOP English class in my school.

Girls around me are writing 9-10 pages for essays, and I can only write 2.5 at most.

It's very confidence-destroying, and I am considering getting a writer or extra time.

Don't worry about them. I knew a guy who would boast about writing 12 page essays, whereas I would write about 4-6 pages.

Upon reading them this guys essays, he would only write 2-3 words per line, whilst I'd write about 6.

Point is don't worry about them. An essay of about 850 words is more than sufficient, provided it has sophistication and is appropriate to the question.

Quality not quantity.

 

[madharris]

Ah, I've heard of that. I'll try it. Thanks Mad!

No problem!
mind you in the first week, it is extremely uncomfortable and it will be difficult to write, but after you get used to it, you'll be fine!

 

[Hazballs]

No person should ever be writing 9-10 pages because that just shows you don't have the ability to write concisely and have all your thoughts scattered in the essay.

I wrote around 1200 words in 40 minutes for my belonging essay which ended up being around 9.5 pages long and received 14/15.. So yeah, i don't think thats entirely true, but saying that, my friend wrote 1300 words in 40 minutes for the same assessment and his was 3 pages long and also got 14/15. So i think it pretty much comes down to hand writing size..

 

[Hazballs]

Oh and for english i would just keep doing essay after essay and submitting them to your teacher for marking. Once she's marked them keep going back over to work on what she said was wrong and submit them again.. General maths just keep doing past papers and correcting your errors before starting another test, when you've corrected your areas and get 100% in the question you screwed up go on and do more

 

[Frostbitten]

Ah, I've heard of that. I'll try it. Thanks Mad!

Get special provisions, extra 5 minutes for every half an hour of your exam. That is across all your subjects as well.