its_ace21
/æɪs/
the course i wanna do says its "recommended" that uve done eng adv, but yea ive never seen a prerequisitethat's completely false
there is not a singular course I've seen that required adv eng
the course i wanna do says its "recommended" that uve done eng adv, but yea ive never seen a prerequisitethat's completely false
there is not a singular course I've seen that required adv eng
Heyy,Honestly im ass at english, but here's what took me from bottoming year 10 to rank 2/150 in y11:
Know the rubric- like WORD FOR WORD!
If you can't be fucked to actually do english, like I am most of the time, the bare minimum is to memorise the rubric- you can and need to reuse phrasing and sentences from the rubric holistically throughout any essay that you write.
Find other good essays and copy them lol.
Dont copy them, but deadass ask like any ppl who've graduated a couple years before you for their essays. I'm fortunate that I have a couple state rank essays that i managed to find. THe point is to not copy them, it's to imitate their style of analysis. Usually what sets the plebs like me apart from the big gun eadv state rankers is how they analyse and contextualise each quote that they use- try to imitate this style. yOU said you had trouble with not waffling- this is how you fix that- look at how these nerdy ass mfs write, and just imitate that style- use big words, but big words that decrease your overall word count if that makes sense.
I think someone else said this already, but read scholarly papers- it helps you form the ideas that you can expand on in your body paragraphs. Use sci hub if you cant find the pdfs online.
Don't read the text, you don't need to. It always helps to some degree, but the time invested in reading it is not worth the possible outcomes.
also this is my trump card: most school teachers can mark an essay- what i mean by that is that they are trained to teach english on a low level- they just dont have the scholarly knowledge or acumen to analyse texts by themselves to the degree that, if you use, will get you good marks. I'm talking about the english teachers i've seen, there are obviously some exceptions. The solution: just go above them, and ask university lecturers for ideas/to read your essays. deadass just cold email theml lol. sometimes you'll get responses like this
View attachment 41612
which makes sense because they are really busy, but sometimes, if you email the right one, they'll actually give crazy feedback on your essay.
It's important to remember that university level english is different from high school- it's way more conceptual and based much more heavily on the creator's context. That being said, these high level ideas that you can get from university level work, if you(chatgpt) can condense it down to something that is not rocket science, you get the marks.
i would recommend not dropping to standard unless you genuinely think you can't handle advanced, but especially if you're aiming to maximise your atar - because the cohort in standard is 'less' academically capable as a whole compared to advanced (because most of the 'good' and 'capable' english students tend to do advanced anyways), standard aligns lower. in most cases it's better to stay in advanced. most of the time the workload is the same in both standard and advanced anyway, so the notion of freeing up time by picking standard isn't really true.
i get it, it sucks so much to get continually shredded again and again for english; throughout the whole year i had teachers and tutors pick apart my work - i had someone once even called my draft essay 'a waste of space' because of all the convolution, the redundant sentences and the waffly expressions that needed to be reworded (stuff you are getting too). but i will also say that if you continuously and consistently put in effort to act on that feedback and genuinely put in care to avoid what you got shredded for before then you'll definitely be able to improve in writing essays, by that, i mean putting in a bunch of effort, say probably dedicating 30 min-40 min to english a day (in the period that isn't leading up to assessments) analysing, practising paragraphs, drafting essays to prep for future exams, etc. try to analyse your texts and write down draft essays outside of class, adapting to various practice hsc and trial questions so you have a better grasp of what you are doing and how much you understand the text. try to supplement that with exemplars from state rankers/high ranking students/hsc nesa workbook, annotate them and see what they're doing and try to emulate that in your own essays.
and most importantly - keep on writing drafts, keep on getting that feedback. yes, it can be disheartening to write an essay only for it to continually be shredded, but it is in my opinion the only effective way that gets you to write a better essay, and even then it's dependent on whether you actually act on improving it. before my assessments i wrote 4-5 drafts for each module's generic essay, one per week leading up to the assessments (of course, that was overboard; 2-3 should suffice but if you want to do more based on the feedback you get then that's up to you), and every week they would get shredded, and i would end up having to polish it and fix it over the next week before it got submitted again for feedback again and again until i got something that the people who gave me feedback were happy with. all of that did pay off - i would go into exams and never get an essay mark below 18/20. get your teachers and your friends to continually give you good feedback, if this isn't possible, maybe hire a private tutor. i genuinely think if you're willing to put in the effort, you can definitely pull your rank up. a friend of mine improved drastically and went from a rank close to 100 to top 40 as her final rank when she started putting way more effort into english after term 4, i'm 100% certain you can, too
Heyy,I'm by no means good in english myself, but please don't give up! For english just never give up! Don't ever let the 'emotional' side really affect you because it can be structural! What I recommend is to go get some state ranking/ exemplars essays and study them (preferably on the text you are studying ofc), note down juicy phrases to use in your own essays and also how they make they argument succinct, language concise etc.
Could you please elaborate on what aspects of structure you are unsure about? Like for example is it about the overall coherency of your essay, content, context, form or just language that you are lacking in your assessment paper?Heyy,
When I take a few hours to write an essay with the quotes in front of me, I get a 18/20, but in exams, I seem to always get a mark below 15/20 . Usually, for me, my analysis is good but it's my structure that messes me up badly, and I can't seem to find any good essays with a good structure related to the texts I'm studying (The Crucible - Arthur Miller, King Richard III - William Shakespeare, Emma - Jane Austen, and The Awakening - Kate Chopin).
Is there any website other than AceHSC and BoS that I can find exemplar essays from??
Thank you so much.
I was doing pretty badly memorising essays because I wasn't answering the question enough (in the feedback I got), so I started just memorising quotes and making the essay up in the exam and ended up making a comeback and getting a 91 in english.I'm not an English person. I'm more of STEM, not one who reads, analyses, etc etc. I picked English advanced for the purpose of it scaling higher but at this point I do not really care as much.
The entire subject just... its not for me. I feel its useless. I'm hesitant to drop it but I do want to keep it. My year 11 ranking was 11th out of 22nd, with preliminary ranking being 8th.
Embarassing thing is that I've never recieved an A in english in my entire life. It's as if no matter what I write, I won't get anything past a mid B.
I write a paragraph and then ask a classmate to review it and they just annihilate the entire thing with "delete this", "redundant sentence", "reword this".
Its just from my previous experiences that I feel so helpless and unmotivated to do any English work. I want to drop down to standard to let the weight off my shoulders. This might also help me focus on my science subjects more. Anyone else like this or just me?
I'd appreciate any advice regarding moving down to standard, how to write better etc.
That's pretty much how I started getting 20/20 in english essays. Basically I'd go to jstor and ctrl c + ctrl vTo get university-level analysis on english, you don't necessarily have to contact uni academics. Just read up some academic articles and journals, it basically contains the same content.
By structure, I mean that my teacher would reply with "explain", "elaborate", so I guess it isn't coherent enough and my reflections need working on. I believe I use a middle-range of vocab when it comes to my essays, so it's not basic but it's not a WOW either. In regards to my feedback on context and content, my analysis is usually never the problem, but the way I word my sentences needs improving.Could you please elaborate on what aspects of structure you are unsure about? Like for example is it about the overall coherency of your essay, content, context, form or just language that you are lacking in your assessment paper?
Regarding where to find more exemplar essays, maybe you could try asking your teacher for some? Personally I find free BoS stuff + paid BoS stuff + teacher exemplars more than enough for my structural analysis (like although it would definitely be more helpful for the essays to be on your text, but I unsure of other places to get exemplars sorry).
That's pretty much how I started getting 20/20 in english essays. Basically I'd go to jstor and ctrl c + ctrl v
(don't wanna jinx myself this year tho)
To get university-level analysis on english, you don't necessarily have to contact uni academics. Just read up some academic articles and journals, it basically contains the same content.
With Jstor, it requires me to log in from a school or library? Does that show up for you too? But yeah, I'm sure I'll find something online.to find exemplar essays either on the resources tab on BOS or acehsc. Just search up on google and a bunch of resources should pop up.
Jstor usually doesnt have any comparative essays but I find it as a good resource to get good bits of analysis that is usually not covered in class.
Middle-range vocab is fine.By structure, I mean that my teacher would reply with "explain", "elaborate", so I guess it isn't coherent enough and my reflections need working on. I believe I use a middle-range of vocab when it comes to my essays, so it's not basic but it's not a WOW either. In regards to my feedback on context and content, my analysis is usually never the problem, but the way I word my sentences needs improving.
For the essay exemplars, do you just use any? Like even if it isn't related to what you're studying??
Thankss sm
Im very lucky that my school covers jstor for meWith Jstor, it requires me to log in from a school or library? Does that show up for you too? But yeah, I'm sure I'll find something online.
All the best!
Ohh... To my understanding, when I get 'explain' or 'elaborate' as feedback, its usually either because my analysis didn't link to my topic sentence clear enough, or my link was too vague/ unable to be inferred from my analysis (loll happens more common if I'm going from technique -> idea and not idea -> technique). Language wise, its always better to be clear + concise > just throw fancy words. It helps to write your first draft with language as basic as possible, before transitioning to more sophisticated phrasing + vocabulary when editing and refining.By structure, I mean that my teacher would reply with "explain", "elaborate", so I guess it isn't coherent enough and my reflections need working on. I believe I use a middle-range of vocab when it comes to my essays, so it's not basic but it's not a WOW either. In regards to my feedback on context and content, my analysis is usually never the problem, but the way I word my sentences needs improving.
For the essay exemplars, do you just use any? Like even if it isn't related to what you're studying??
Thankss sm
Must be funIm very lucky that my school covers jstor for me
Yeahh I find that integrating your techniques and quotes are very important, and figuring out which one is the best to be used. My link is always rubbish and needs a lot of working on because I just rewrite the question majority of the time, especially when I'm in a rush.Ohh... To my understanding, when I get 'explain' or 'elaborate' as feedback, its usually either because my analysis didn't link to my topic sentence clear enough, or my link was too vague/ unable to be inferred from my analysis (loll happens more common if I'm going from technique -> idea and not idea -> technique). Language wise, its always better to be clear + concise > just throw fancy words. It helps to write your first draft with language as basic as possible, before transitioning to more sophisticated phrasing + vocabulary when editing and refining.
I sometimes find a few exemplars on my prescribed text if I get lucky, but most of the time, I just read a bunch of the 19/20~ 20/20 essays out there and search around a bit for some critical readings to read on websites like jstor.
Glad that the feedback has been somewhat helpful!Yeahh I find that integrating your techniques and quotes are very important, and figuring out which one is the best to be used. My link is always rubbish and needs a lot of working on because I just rewrite the question majority of the time, especially when I'm in a rush.
Would you say now is a good time to start writing a base essay for Common Mod??
Does your school cover jstor for you too ?
Thanks for the feedback!!
Get a library card from the State Library of NSW, that will let you access JSTOR under their institutionMust be fun
Absolutely agree with this. Luckily for me, my teacher, who I had for Advanced and both extensions, was actually an English lecturer at UNSW and a professional writer. They always gave me the most comprehensive feedback and their insights into all the texts I studied were so sophisticated. They were the kind of person who would also give my class extra critical readings on our texts, going above and beyond your typical english teachers who just rely on sparknotes or litnotes to teach texts they don't fully understand themselves.also this is my trump card: most school teachers can mark an essay- what i mean by that is that they are trained to teach english on a low level- they just dont have the scholarly knowledge or acumen to analyse texts by themselves to the degree that, if you use, will get you good marks. I'm talking about the english teachers i've seen, there are obviously some exceptions.