Year 11 Tips (1 Viewer)

[lightthefuze]

Hi all, I'm taking these subjects next year:

• Advanced English
• SOR II
• Ancient History
• Legal Studies
• Business Studies
• CAFS

Are there any tips that'd be beneficial for me (in terms of compiling notes and essay writing etc) for any of these subjects?

Links to past prelim papers and tips on organisation/stationary/opinions on loose leaf papers v. exercise books would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys

 

[HSC2014]

You seem eager to perform but take year 11 easy and do not stress too much; burnout. As for studying rituals and organisation, experiment! I predict after this comment will follow a vast array of tips, sometimes in contradiction to other members' inputs. If anything, extract from this that different methods work for different people, including you

 

[enoilgam]

As HSC2014 said, develop good study habits/methods - but dont stress out too much about your results because it's only Year 11.

 

[creamcheese]

Two words-----

Don't bludge.

 

[Capo]

Two words-----

Don't bludge.

+1.

Biggest mistake I've made all year round. Don't bludge no matter how much of a loose bloke your teacher is.

 

[Ally2014]

Here's what I wish I knew in year 11 and will definitely be doing next term for HSC.

In terms of organisation,

:: get a large binder for each subject (different colour for each subject) which you leave at home
:: get either one large binder or a small binder for each subject which is what you will take to school.
:: get a 96 page exercise book for EACH SECTION WITHIN EACH SUBJECT. Look at the syllabus to see how it is broken up. Prelim legal for example, has 3 Parts, Business has planning, management etc, break up English into each module etc.
:: in the binder/s you take to school have the book for the section you are doing as well as plastic sleeves for handouts.
: when you move on to another section, take it out and out in into you big folder for the subject you have at home and get a new exercise book and sleeves.
:: at the end of the year you have a large subject binder divided into each section of the syllabus and it will be so much easier to study and look back on.


Do syllabus summaries! Work on them weekly, one subject per day maybe? To ensure you don't get behind. Download copies of the syllabus from board of studies website and make notes (summaries, not everything) under each dot point / dash point. Electronically is easier because you can copy and paste syllabus and insert stuff underneath as well as add other stuff later. Keep on top of it and you will have a great study tool come half yearlies and yearlies.

This is harder with English so my advice would be to keep all the practise essays and responses you do, as they are great to look back on, don't just chuck them in your bag. They are important even if you don't think so at the time.

Organisation is key. As is consistency.

I'm doing three of the subjects you've mentioned business, legal, adv. English.
So let me know if you need any help.

Ally.

 

[Ally2014]

Don't stress too much - year 11 is your year to play around with your subjects, get to know a study routine and get a feeling for year 12. I over thought this before year 11, but coming out of it now i can say at the end it feels like you had just completed any other year. You will have a steep learning curve initially (unless you have applied yourself extremely well years 7 through 10) but after about term 1 you will be find. To be honest I didn't even really stay on top of my workload this year out of sheer laziness.

Now, I will talk about english because the only essay related subject i do is English Advanced:

For your essays i will say practice makes perfect (cliché i know, btw i only do 1 subject in which i produce essays so try and bear with my advice). By the way, if you haven't ever done this, i would recommend trying to get a hold of essays from the previous year in your subjects to see how they tackle them. Try and morph these techniques and ideas into your essays. If your school wont supply you with the previous years essays for whatever reason (even a sample) then you should maybe ask one of your friends who is performing quite well academically (some people are pretty touchy about showing their essays even after it has been assessed). If that fails, look for some online/BOS.

Teachers will want to see a step up in your essays. Now, in english (speaking from experience) you want to know your texts early if you want to ramp up your essays. I have gotten 16/20 in essays this year without so much as reading one page of the text, but i read sparknotes, read online resources and obviously extrapolated quotes here and there. Basically knowing your texts very, very well makes you an absolute boss at essay writing. Look at marking criteria before an examination, do practice essays before exams (heck! i didn't even do one practice essay before my first english examination in term 1).

One thing you will find is the 'brain dump' simply just doesn't cut it in year 11. You need to concisely answer essay questions, making clear reference to the question throughout! You can no longer hide from the question. But don't be alarmed, as long as you have a fairly good thesis (this is not really very hard to develop, after all your arguing your point in an essay and thus you can never really be wrong) answering the question properly should not be too difficult.

BOS is always here to give you help & guidance on any essay questions!

Good luck.

This is just so, so true. You have to ANSWER the question. Very relevant in legal and business. you cant just see a key word and write about what you know. Get to know the verbs on board of studies e.g explain, analyze, describe etc because they tell you what you need to do.

Know your texts! Have quote sheets with quotes, techniques and analysis for each of your texts so you have stuff to draw on in exams.