dunnoyeah
Member
1. Read your prescribed texts ahead of time: English texts will take time to understand deeply, so give yourself that opportunity by reading them ahead of time. The holidays after Year 11 to read Common Mod, the summer holidays to (ideally) read Mod A and B. Even if you're just passively reading, maybe highlighting quotes that stand out to you, you're already getting your brain to think about the text's main concerns/ themes/ qualities.
2. Quote table: Maintain a quote table, ideally by concern/ theme. This will make writing essays a lot easier.
3. Write practice essays as soon as you can: As soon as you feel like you're getting the 'hang' of a text, start writing practice essays on practice questions. They won't be good in the beginning (or at least not as good as your later ones), but if you get those brain-farts out of the way the genius will follow.
4. Pester your teacher/ tutor(s) for feedback: Practice essays are good. But you know what's better? Feedback on them. Ideally, for every practice paragraph/ essay you write, you're also getting some feedback on them. This will help you narrow down points to improve in future
5. Pool your resources together: Admittedly this is not something that I've done throughout Year 11/12. I've always wanted to 'gatekeep' my best resources. But in the long run, this isn't a good mindset. When it comes time to do your external HSC, the whole cohort's performance matters. So, try to share at least some of your practices, quote tables. You may even find that while reading others' materials you get new inspiration to improve your own essays
6. Know your essay memorisation strategy: This isn't something that I've seen discussed elsewhere, but can really appreciate it in hindsight. Some people will have no trouble memorising their essays word for word. Others will be able to write amazing essays having memorised only quotes and analysis. For me, I use a 'middle-ground' approach: writing out complete essays as practice, but breaking them up into quotes and analysis, and smaller chunks which I memorise with flashcards.
NB: Whichever strategy you end up using, know that the most important thing is answering the question. You can have the most eloquent pre-prepared essay, but if it dodges the question you may be limiting your marks to 16 or 17/20. So, if you use the verbatim-memorisation technique, be prepared to adapt it to suit the exam question.
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