Can English Standard dramatically drag your ATAR down? (1 Viewer)

[jeremydang]

I am an international student who was forced to do English Standard back then when I came during year 11 while I would have aced ESL My English is way better than those who are doing that course lol
I was ranked 20/120 for my first assessment, 2/120 (88%) for my finals and 14/120 in the whole prelim course among the locals in my high school. I am the only international stud in my grade so there is no such thing called ESL

I have done Module B Close study of texts essay for my first HSC English exam and rank 5/120 ( even though I only got 65%, 13/20) :alone:

My other subjects are
Mathematics 2 unit (92%) (sucks at 5/106), I'm going to drop it very soon
Mathematics Ext 1 (98%) ( 2/47)
Mathematics ext 2 ( no test but it's gonna be pretty good next term)
Chemistry (96%) (1/20)
Information Processes and Tech (97%) (1/40)
Vietnamese (96%) (2/40) (There is only 150 studs around NSW and my centre is one of the best, scales high towards the end actually and I can manage to top the state with this subject)

I'm from a high school with pretty average rank (200-300) and there are not a lot of kids trying hard for their HSC even though our year cohort is one of the best. Personally, the exam that I took was pretty easy comparing other schools's past papers that I am doing (James Ruse and selective sh*t) (??). I'm aiming 88 for my ATAR to do Petroleum Engineering UNSW and I have been terribly suffered from worrying the crap out of my HSC. Is there anything I could do to improve my ATAR, specifically English Standard?

I am normally awarded these marks for English: Short answer (14 to 15/15), essays (13 to 16/20) and creative writing (9-/15 or worse).Unfortunately, my vodcast in year 11 was given poor marks (8 or 9/20) due to unclear pronunciation when I'm speaking too fast. Still I'm surprised with how rude and brutal teachers can be when they marked it without considering my difficulties of not having an English background. Not bad result for an import, yet I highly appreciate anyone who give me tips, advice or help to improve my ATAR. The tuition fee as international stud is very high (15k a year) and I don't have a second chance to redo my HSC!!!

 

[enigma_1]

Yeah kinda

So you can't move to advanced? :O

 

[jeremydang]

Sadly I can't go up. And I won't do well in Advanced English either I guess

 

[faisalabdul16]

Not really. I did standard and got 89 as my overall hsc mark. My atar was 98.20

Had I done advanced and received the same mark for advanced, my atar would have been 98.25 or 98.30 (according to matrix)

However it is advisable to do advanced because standard aligns horribly. My 89 HSC mark was probably 88-93 raw/105. If you get that raw mark in advanced then your overall hsc mark would be well over 90. And that's when it becomes a "game changer"

The only way your atar would be lower than what it could be, is if you had potential to receive a raw mark the same as a hypothetical raw mark in standard. Because then your mark would be significantly higher if you did advanced as opposed to standard.

If you're a weak English student, doing advanced or standard will have a small difference in atar

 

[Queenroot]

Come first

 

[jeremydang]

Sorry I couldn't resist...





hahahahahahah!


EDIT: OP, if you are unable to rank first in English at your school, then that's ok... I think you'd still perform very well for your HSC (and enter UNSW petroleum engo)... good luck!

Thanks for such great responses. Now I'm going to keep up the good work in other subjects and ace English Standard.

To be honest, being the only international stud doesn't affect me achieving these marks except for a bit lack of vocabulary and a quirky style of writing that helps for creative writing. Believe it or not, people in my school unconditionally sucks and most students are either extremely lazy or just simply bad at their first language ( doesn't know how to structure an essay while they have been taught about the freaking same thing for over 6 years??).

Two years learning from usual greetings "hello. how are you?" to a complicated essay structure has immensely improved my control over the language that I thought I could never understand in such a short period of time. Mastering English however, requires sufficient amount of effort and time which I haven't really put in during the prelim year.

Getting first in my school is not too difficult, but I'm pretty impressed by how sh*t typical/average Aussie kids are going with their first language (like Ebola has migrated to their brains somehow). A BIG CONCERN FOR AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY IN TERMS OF ILLITERACY IN FACT. Is that the case for most other non-selective Australian high schools? If not then getting top rank in my school doesn't even matter since I am competing with about ten other students, the rest do not even stand a chance against an import lol

 

[jeremydang]

Not really. I did standard and got 89 as my overall hsc mark. My atar was 98.20

Had I done advanced and received the same mark for advanced, my atar would have been 98.25 or 98.30 (according to matrix)

However it is advisable to do advanced because standard aligns horribly. My 89 HSC mark was probably 88-93 raw/105. If you get that raw mark in advanced then your overall hsc mark would be well over 90. And that's when it becomes a "game changer"

The only way your atar would be lower than what it could be, is if you had potential to receive a raw mark the same as a hypothetical raw mark in standard. Because then your mark would be significantly higher if you did advanced as opposed to standard.

If you're a weak English student, doing advanced or standard will have a small difference in atar

Thanks a lot . I appreciate your help. I shall not let English drag the whole ATAR down while smashing other subjects

 

[rembo]

Bear in mind that while you *might* have been able to get a better mark for the compulsory 2-units of English for your ATAR if you had been able to do ESL rather than standard English, it probably won't affect your ATAR so much that you can't get the ATAR required to do Petroleum Engineering. BUT, if you did ESL just do get a slightly better ATAR you would probably not learn as much about English as you will doing standard English. So in the long run (eg. your results in Petroleum Engineering and in your career) you will probably be better off not having done ESL for the HSC.

For example, the poor mark and feedback for your vodcast will probably do more for your English skills than getting a good mark in an ESL assignment would have. And once you finish HSC English you won't get that much opportunity to improve English while studying Petroleum Engineering -- if you write a crap essay assignment you'd just get a poor mark and not much feedback on how to improve it (most Engineers in my experience were better at advanced math than writing a decent essay!)

 

[jeremydang]

ESL wasn't given to me as a choice, however, I did very well and achieved an ATAR of 97.65 English Standard can go screw itself

 

[studygirl118]

Thanks for such great responses. Now I'm going to keep up the good work in other subjects and ace English Standard.

To be honest, being the only international stud doesn't affect me achieving these marks except for a bit lack of vocabulary and a quirky style of writing that helps for creative writing. Believe it or not, people in my school unconditionally sucks and most students are either extremely lazy or just simply bad at their first language ( doesn't know how to structure an essay while they have been taught about the freaking same thing for over 6 years??).

Two years learning from usual greetings "hello. how are you?" to a complicated essay structure has immensely improved my control over the language that I thought I could never understand in such a short period of time. Mastering English however, requires sufficient amount of effort and time which I haven't really put in during the prelim year.

Getting first in my school is not too difficult, but I'm pretty impressed by how sh*t typical/average Aussie kids are going with their first language (like Ebola has migrated to their brains somehow). A BIG CONCERN FOR AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY IN TERMS OF ILLITERACY IN FACT. Is that the case for most other non-selective Australian high schools? If not then getting top rank in my school doesn't even matter since I am competing with about ten other students, the rest do not even stand a chance against an import lol

Hahahahahahha truth


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JacktheChristian]

No. It won't. Get band 5 standard English and you'll easily get 95+. Your other subjects are insanely good.

 

[GuaranteedHDs]

No. It won't. Get band 5 standard English and you'll easily get 95+. Your other subjects are insanely good.

the OP posted in 2015...bruuuuh he long gone bro

 

[Nikolerak]

Not really. I did standard and got 89 as my overall hsc mark. My atar was 98.20

Had I done advanced and received the same mark for advanced, my atar would have been 98.25 or 98.30 (according to matrix)

However it is advisable to do advanced because standard aligns horribly. My 89 HSC mark was probably 88-93 raw/105. If you get that raw mark in advanced then your overall hsc mark would be well over 90. And that's when it becomes a "game changer"

The only way your atar would be lower than what it could be, is if you had potential to receive a raw mark the same as a hypothetical raw mark in standard. Because then your mark would be significantly higher if you did advanced as opposed to standard.

If you're a weak English student, doing advanced or standard will have a small difference in atar

Do you remember what was your school rank for Standard and out of how many students?