learn/study for english advanced by myself (1 Viewer)

[r1033]

i was gonna post this on the english advanced forum but its also a question on self learning

Ok so my teacher is pretty much useless. Like all he does is give us worksheets and booklets which does not help me WHATSOEVER. some people may find that type of learning helpful but me for it does not work

so, how do i learn the content and everything myself?

any videos, resources i should use? How do i start?

any help is appreciated thank you

 

[carrotsss]

That’s pretty rough, a good teacher makes a big difference for English. However, it’s still definitely possible to do well:

• It’s quite easy to study the texts by yourself, just read it/sparknotes it and you should be fine. Tbh there isn’t much content in English, it’s more about your skills
• Jeddle on YouTube has tons of really helpful guides and information on how to do well
• Read high mark responses and try to model your answers based on them
• If your teacher is willing to give feedback, then imo that’s the most important part of a teacher and you should take advantage of it. Submit lots of draft essays to him and act on any feedback he gives you
• If your teacher isn’t giving good/much feedback, then unfortunately you may want to look into a tutor. It’s certainly possible to improve without feedback but having access to good feedback makes a big difference, so make sure the tutor is willing to give lots of feedback.

 

[Masaken]

above is pretty solid advice, i'll add a bit more:

• read the texts first to understand what's going on, then read them again with the intention to analyse
• sparknotes is kind of mid - it doesn't give too much info, and there's nothing super insightful to get from it in my opinion if it's not one of the super super super super popular texts like 1984, etc. i don't know if you're doing module b or ts eliot this term, but if you are, litcharts is the bible for anyone doing poetry. i didn't do ts eliot but i did poems last term, and litcharts was my lifesaver - it had everything, from actual deep analysis and provided poetry techniques. i also have the litcharts for my other texts from the other modules and it's been really helpful. and yes i know it's behind a paywall, but try to see if your teachers have a litcharts account - otherwise dm me i might be able to help bc i did not pay for the litcharts lmao. poemanalysis is a good resource too for poems
• critical readings have the best stuff (especially for module b) because they explore certain ideas and topics with different perspectives and opinions in contrast to litcharts and all that. if you have access to jstor (and your school most likely does) - use it, download the readings. i like to print out the ones that i think are the most helpful to me and highlight all the ideas that i could potentially use in my own essays. don't be afraid to steal analysis and even phrases because original ideas and analysis impresses your marker and you can get higher marks from those. sydney studies in english journals also have really insightful stuff, and the best thing is that they're on the internet free (my two favourite critical readings for module a come from sydney studies)
• try and extend yourself for stronger ideas --> critical readings already do that but you can do that through looking at things like author interviews (to add personal context and intention to your essay - for example, my mod b text has an article written by the author in the guardian about his personal life and the political attitudes at the time when he was writing the book)
• draft essays --> feedback from teacher or tutor, carrots said it above
• for hsc-specific resources i found the dymocks english notes (i borrowed the merchant of venice one off my friend for a while) to be good as they related back to the module directly and provided exemplar responses. i didn't use the analysis from the book apart from a quote here or there but there were so much other stuff that was really good, especially if you're doing all the common texts (my friend is doing that and she said the books were really good and provided her with much more concepts and vocabulary)
• try and gauge what the english faculty want from their students in terms of ideas and essays to maximise your mark - whether that be from asking your teachers or friends in other classes, because some teachers may be stricter and expect certain structures or for the students not to write super generic ideas. for example, i remember my teacher telling my class to steer away from the topic of love in module a (where love is a huge theme), or to at least connect it with a stronger concept because love itself is generic and a topic many other schools

 

[r1033]

above is pretty solid advice, i'll add a bit more:

• read the texts first to understand what's going on, then read them again with the intention to analyse
• sparknotes is kind of mid - it doesn't give too much info, and there's nothing super insightful to get from it in my opinion if it's not one of the super super super super popular texts like 1984, etc. i don't know if you're doing module b or ts eliot this term, but if you are, litcharts is the bible for anyone doing poetry. i didn't do ts eliot but i did poems last term, and litcharts was my lifesaver - it had everything, from actual deep analysis and provided poetry techniques. i also have the litcharts for my other texts from the other modules and it's been really helpful. and yes i know it's behind a paywall, but try to see if your teachers have a litcharts account - otherwise dm me i might be able to help bc i did not pay for the litcharts lmao. poemanalysis is a good resource too for poems
• critical readings have the best stuff (especially for module b) because they explore certain ideas and topics with different perspectives and opinions in contrast to litcharts and all that. if you have access to jstor (and your school most likely does) - use it, download the readings. i like to print out the ones that i think are the most helpful to me and highlight all the ideas that i could potentially use in my own essays. don't be afraid to steal analysis and even phrases because original ideas and analysis impresses your marker and you can get higher marks from those. sydney studies in english journals also have really insightful stuff, and the best thing is that they're on the internet free (my two favourite critical readings for module a come from sydney studies)
• try and extend yourself for stronger ideas --> critical readings already do that but you can do that through looking at things like author interviews (to add personal context and intention to your essay - for example, my mod b text has an article written by the author in the guardian about his personal life and the political attitudes at the time when he was writing the book)
• draft essays --> feedback from teacher or tutor, carrots said it above
• for hsc-specific resources i found the dymocks english notes (i borrowed the merchant of venice one off my friend for a while) to be good as they related back to the module directly and provided exemplar responses. i didn't use the analysis from the book apart from a quote here or there but there were so much other stuff that was really good, especially if you're doing all the common texts (my friend is doing that and she said the books were really good and provided her with much more concepts and vocabulary)
• try and gauge what the english faculty want from their students in terms of ideas and essays to maximise your mark - whether that be from asking your teachers or friends in other classes, because some teachers may be stricter and expect certain structures or for the students not to write super generic ideas. for example, i remember my teacher telling my class to steer away from the topic of love in module a (where love is a huge theme), or to at least connect it with a stronger concept because love itself is generic and a topic many other schools

Thank you so much to you and carrots! Definently helped

Just wondering, what happens in a typical lesson for you guys?

 

[Masaken]

Thank you so much to you and carrots! Definently helped

Just wondering, what happens in a typical lesson for you guys?

depends but from last term we would analyse a chunk of the text first, then my teacher would go through the analysis with her notes, then she would post a bunch of other resources and make my class do a bunch of classwork and homework due like 2-3 days later to help us with analysis and then practice paragraphs which she would give feedback (she gives time in class to do this). she goes through the resources as well, esp if they're critical readings

 

[carrotsss]

Thank you so much to you and carrots! Definently helped

Just wondering, what happens in a typical lesson for you guys?

We usually have to do group work where we write paragraphs/essays/discursives or we go through certain analysis as a class. Tbh it kinda feels like a waste of time but idk what else we could do, and usually I just get practice by experimenting with different writing styles in the group work. I feel like for English the actual class time doesn’t make a big difference, it’s more the work you do out of school